Chicken Liver (Giblet) Stuffing

The traditional East Indian stuffing for Christmas meals consist of a chicken liver and bread pudding that’s stuffed into the chickens’ cavity before roasting. Here’s how to make this delicious homemade liver stuffing that’s sometimes called a giblet stuffing.

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My favorite dish ever is the chicken liver pudding. It’s also called a chicken liver stuffing, or a giblet stuffing, or a liver pudding, or a giblet stuffing, or a Christmas pudding.

What is liver pudding? Or what is liver stuffing?

It’s a simple dish made of leftover bread, chicken liver, other giblets, and veggies that is used to stuff the cavity of a chicken or any other bird or animal for big dinners. When it’s made without the bread, it’s called liver pudding, and when it’s made with the bread, it’s called liver stuffing. But the names are quite often used interchangeably.

We use liver pudding to stuff chickens or ducks for Christmas dinner, or weddings, big birthdays and anniversaries, and other times of the year. It’s also the perfect dish to have for any important family function! As important as foogias (balloon bread) and varias (donut-shaped bread).

How do you use the liver stuffing? The liver stuffing is filled into the open cavity of the chicken or other birds, the chickens’ legs are then either tied together or stitched to close it, and the chicken is roasted in the oven.

Liver pudding or pig stuffing is not that difficult to make, but tastes amazing! A dish we’ve loved for tiffin for work, and for family picnics, and for almost every other event! Try it yourself, and you’ll see why.

What Ingredients do you need to Liver Stuffing?

You’ll need a lot of ingredients. Firstly, the chicken liver and bread slices or loaves. We also add the chicken hearts and stomachs sometimes. A few veggies like onions, carrots, green peas, and tomatoes. Fresh spices including green chilies, ginger, garlic, mint and curry leaves, fresh coriander, and other spices namely garam masala (a mix of spices such as cloves, cinnamon, cardamom pods, and peppercorns), chili powder, pepper powder, and turmeric.

You will also need sour limes, oil for frying the bread cubes, and water to cook the liver. Apples, raisins, and roasted cashews are optional to richen the chicken stuffing dish.

How to make Liver Stuffing?

To make the liver stuffing, the first thing you need to do is boil the chicken liver, hearts, and stomach till cooked. When it has cooled down, cut the liver into small pieces. This can be done the previous day or a few days before as the entire cooking process is a bit long. That’s one of the things that make it worth it!

Also, remember to keep the liver broth, don’t discard it! You can use it later instead of water while frying the stuffing.

Boil carrots and green peas and when cool, dice the carrots into small pieces. Depending on when you plan on making the dish, you can prepare this a few hours in advance or the previous day as well.

Next cut the bread or loaf slices into one-inch cubes. Fry these bread cubes in oil or ghee and keep them aside for later use. You want the bread fried, but not too much. They should be semi-crunchy, but not nearly as crunchy as croutons.

Once your bread is done, move on to the veggies. Finely chop the onions, chilies, ginger, and garlic and set aside for later. Dice the tomatoes into small pieces. Chop the mint and curry leaves and fresh coriander fine. Cut the sour limes into halves and set aside for later.

The optional add-ons are apples, raisins, and cashews. We always add them because they make the dish a whole lot richer.

Deseed and cut the apple into fine pieces and remove any sticks or seeds from the raisins. Break the cashews into smaller pieces, and if you want more flavor, roast them.

After all the ingredients have been prepped, start with the cooking process. Heat oil or ghee in a kadai (deep round vessel or pot). Add the onions, chilies, ginger, and garlic, and saute these ingredients for a few minutes.

When the onions have slightly browned, add in the tomatoes and allow to simmer for a while. After the tomatoes add in the chopped chicken liver, boiled carrots, and peas. You can also add small pieces of bacon or salami, but this is optional. Mom adds it sometimes, but mostly she doesn’t. Mix all the ingredients well and allow to cook.

After a few minutes, add in the spices; turmeric, pepper powder, chili powder, and garam masala, and of course mix again. In our cuisine, we mix a dozen or two dozen times, or maybe more!

After mixing the spices, add the liver broth. Follow that with the diced apples, raisins, and roasted cashews. Lastly, add in the fried bread pieces and mix well.

Once all the ingredients have been mixed together, add the fresh coriander. Last but not the least, squeeze the sour lime juice onto the bread and liver stuffing.

After a few more minutes of cooking or frying, whatever you call it, your giblet stuffing is ready for use! Stuff this bread pudding in a whole chicken or pigling for a roast. The normal procedure is to fill the cavity of the bird or pigling and tie it up. The chicken or pig is then roasted. Once ready, the stuffing tastes a lot different because of the juices from the chicken, duck, or pigling. It really tastes amazing!

And if like us, you always make extra chicken stuffing; you can always eat this liver pudding as a meal by itself. I get mom to make the chicken liver stuffing on its own quite often. It’s just delicious!

I love it cold out of the fridge too! Tastes even better as a leftover snack covered with lime juice!

What’s perfect about this Liver Stuffing recipe

• It can be eaten as a whole meal on its own.
• Chicken liver has some great nutritional value.
• It can be used as stuffing for roast chicken, stuffed sucklings, turkey, and roast ducks.
• This liver pudding recipe uses giblets, or should I say offal. Isn’t that endearing enough to some of us?

Cooking Tips & Tricks

• Boil the liver and cut it the previous day. This will save a lot of time on the actual cooking day.
• Boil and dice the carrots and peas ahead of time too.
• Cut and fry the bread slices or leftover loaves before starting with the veggies.
• Add the fried bread pieces to the cooked liver mixture a little at a time so that the pot does not get too full. It also helps to mix it well with the other ingredients of the liver pudding masala.
• Our recipe works for about 15 to 16 people, so reduce the quantity by the number of family and friends you want to serve.
• You can add a cup of boiled rice to the stuffing. It’s part of the traditional recipe, but we skip it. I prefer the taste without!
• You can follow the same recipe with other birds – turkey, duck, or even with piglings.
• Serve the chicken stuffing with some delicious homemade currant wine to up your traditional quotient!
• Other chicken recipes you might try are kasuri methi, chicken tope, mustard chicken, chicken soup, and chicken gizzard.

What you want to know About Making liver Giblet Stuffing

What Is Giblet Stuffing?

Stuffing is a mix of giblets, bread, veggies and spices used to fill in the cavity of a bird such as chicken, turkey, duck, or even a pigling.

What Is Traditional Stuffing Made Of?

It varies from region to region; however, most include bread, rice and cavity organs.

What Are Giblets?

Giblets are the edible organs of a bird such as heart, liver, gizzard, and the neck that are often used in various dishes.

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