My Favorite Keto Beef Liver Recipe
Easy low carb recipe for tender, nutritious beef liver, smothered with bacon, butter, onions and mushrooms. A family favorite healthy organ meat recipe.
Prep Time10 minutes mins
Cook Time30 minutes mins
Total Time40 minutes mins
Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: American, Keto, Low Carb, Organ Meat, Primal
Keyword: Keto Recipe, Organ Meat, Paleo Recipe, Primal Recipe, Whole 30 Recipe
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 297kcal
Author: Stacey Davis
- 1 pound grass-fed beef liver
- 4 strips bacon we use Garrett Valley Uncured Bacon
- 3 tbsp pasture butter divided use
- ½ large Onion
- 4 large garlic cloves
- 10 ounces sliced button mushrooms
Unwrap the beef liver and lay flat on a layer of paper towels. Pat dry.
Salt and pepper the liver generously, and leave it out at room temperature while you prepare the remaining ingredients.
Dice bacon and fry in 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet. When crispy, remove the bacon bits from the pan and drain on paper towels. Leave the grease and butter in the pan.
Slice onion roughly. You want your pieces of onion to be similar in size to a bite of liver. The one-to-one ratio is part of the flavor secret! Saute on low in bacon grease and butter until it starts to soften but is not yet translucent.
Add garlic to the onions for an additional 30 seconds.
Add mushrooms to the onions and garlic. Saute everything until mushrooms are tender.
Shove all the vegetables to one side of the pan, away from heat. You may want to scoot the pan so that side is off the burner a bit.
Turn the heat up to medium and add the last tablespoon of butter.
When the butter is melted, add half the liver slices. Cook until you start to see the edges cooking. They’ll turn from red to gray. When that border is a few millimeters thick (2-3 minutes, or so), flip them over.
Fry on the second side for another 2-3 minutes. Until you know how you like your liver, the best way to check is to cut into it. If it’s still red, keep flipping until it is just barely cooked through. You want just a tinge of pink so it’s cooked but still tender.
Place liver on a platter and cook remaining liver in the same fashion.
Toss the bacon bits with the vegetables and smother the liver with them.
Serve!
As written, this recipe has 11 grams of net carbs per four ounce serving of liver. For people following a very low carb count, I would use half the amount of onion, garlic and mushroom. The liver itself has 1.1 grams net carbs per ounce, or 4.4 per serving. If you halve the vegetables, you'll bring the net carb count per serving to about 7.
I have sometimes soaked beef liver overnight in milk to help remove some of the stronger flavor. This does seem to soften it a bit. I’ve also seen people suggest soaking in apple cider vinegar. I haven’t tried that but it might help, too, if you just aren’t used to the taste. All that nutrition is worth learning to enjoy!
Calories: 297kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 28g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 409mg | Sodium: 304mg | Potassium: 642mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 44551IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 15mg | Iron: 8mg