meat/recipes/snacks

Chicka-rones: Deep-Fried Chicken Skin Recipe

Posted October 14, 2013 by Stephanie
crispy chicken skin recipe - www.iamafoodblog.com

Do you ever have a bunch of random chicken skins hanging out in the fridge/freezer? I always buy skin-on chicken but a lot of the time I’ll end up using the chicken and having leftover chicken skins. I’ll either pan-fry them up or if I’m feeling particularly wicked, I’ll deep fry them up into a chicken version of that puffy pork skin favourite: chicharrón.

crispy chicken skin recipe - www.iamafoodblog.com

I didn’t grow up eating pork rinds, in fact I didn’t even know what those bags at the grocery store full of styrofoam-looking puffs were. After cooking through the Momofuku book, I realized they were pig skin, dehydrated and puffed up into airy, crisp skin snacks.

Making chicharrón is a pretty simple process: skin is boiled, dehydrated then deep-fried. It sounds incredibly unhealthy, but pork rinds can actually be described by a lot of health buzzwords: no carb, gluten-free, and paleo.

crispy chicken skin recipe - www.iamafoodblog.com

It’s a little magical, how the dry skins puff up after a bit of gentle chopstick action. Deep-fried, salty and crunchy, these are ideal paired with beer on a crispy fall night.

Chicka-rones: Deep-Fried Chicken Skin Recipe
makes as many as desired

  • chicken skins, as many as desired
  • grapeseed or rice bran oil for deep frying
  • shichimi togarashi

Heat a pot of water over high heat. Add the chicken skins and simmer until chicken skins are cooked, 5-8 minutes. Drain, spread out on a plate and cool. Scrape off as much fat as you can while keeping the skin intact. Place skins in the fridge, uncovered, overnight or for 2 hours to dehydrate.

Heat up 1 1/2 inches of oil to 350°F in a deep sided pot. Carefully deep fry the chicken skins until puffy and crisp, 1 minute or so. Drain on paper towels and enjoy immediately sprinkled with shichimi togarashi.

crispy chicken skin recipe - www.iamafoodblog.com

Also, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in Canada! Hope everyone is falling into a food coma and is thankful for all the good things in life: love, family, friends and food.

 

21 Comments

  1. Juliana says:

    Hi there,
    I am a huge fan of your blog and have tried numerous recipes and all of them were great! I was so excited to see that you posted this deep fried chicken skin recipe because like you, I always have leftover chicken skin as well! And I thought exactly the same thing, why not deep fry those suckers! I love the simplicity of your recipe, they look delish :) My recipe involves marinating them in buttermilk, coating them in flour + spices, and then deep frying them. They literally taste like the best part of classic fried chicken. I served mine with a homemade hot sauce made with green tomatoes, a bunch of serranos, vinegar, and honey. They are to DIE for, but I can’t wait till I have another batch of leftover chicken skins to give you recipe a go! Thanks for the great recipes and always-yummy-lookin food!! Here’s a link to my recipe for crispy chicken-fried chicken skins & hot sauce:

    http://www.piecelovecooking.com/2013/06/crispy-chicken-fried-chicken-skins-with.html

    http://www.piecelovecooking.com/2013/06/homemade-wrecked-junction-hot-sauce.html

    XOXO,
    Juliana from Piece, Love, & Cooking

    1. David says:

      I am sure you already know this, but chicharones (even chicken ones) are very different than battering (is this a word?) chicken skins and deep frying them. What you are describing, as you admit, is basically making the outer coating of fried chicken.

  2. I’ve never thought to make these at home – love these as a snack, great idea.

  3. Tom says:

    Thanks for this great idea. I’d like to think that with all the boiling and rendering they’re probably not even all that fatty. :)

  4. Miss Tangy says:

    these are EVIL looking and i love the idea :) i always order chargrilled chicken skin when having yakitori. need a pint of iced cold beer now just staring at your gorgeous pictures.

  5. paul says:

    aggressive photography, i simply love it. Love chicken skin crisps too, who am I kidding.

  6. VINBAB says:

    Oh so that’s how you dehydrate chicken skin. Very easy!

  7. ayna says:

    i am in love with this!

  8. Vince says:

    The chicken skins I’m the photo, did you dehydrate them prior to flying? I just want mine to look exactly like yours.

    1. Stephanie Le says:

      hi vince,
      i dehydrated them by letting them sit in the fridge, uncovered, overnight.

  9. Morgan Myers says:

    I am always looking for low carb crunchy snacks to have around- and hate wasting the skin I remove from store bought chicken. This is a win-win in the world of a low carber and someone who hates to waste. Thank you!

  10. Jo says:

    Would it be possible to make it in an oven without deep frying?

    1. Stephanie says:

      hi jo,
      unfortunately they need to be deep fried to puff up!

  11. Vivian says:

    How long would the shelf life be for this recipe? Can I make it beforehand and package them? Thanks!

    1. Stephanie says:

      hi vivian,
      i haven’t tried packaging them – they usually get eaten up quickly. i don’t think they’ll last too long since there aren’t any preservatives

  12. Jean says:

    Hi Vivian,
    Can I use a regular dehydrator for drying the skin?

    1. Stephanie says:

      hi, you definitely can!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

$(function(){ var trigger = $('.hamburger'), overlay = $('.overlay'), isClosed = false; trigger.click(function () { hamburger_cross(); }); function hamburger_cross() { if (isClosed == true) { overlay.hide(); trigger.removeClass('is-open'); trigger.addClass('is-closed'); isClosed = false; } else { overlay.show(); trigger.removeClass('is-closed'); trigger.addClass('is-open'); isClosed = true; } } $('[data-toggle="offcanvas"]').click(function () { $('#wrapper').toggleClass('toggled'); }); bindBehavior.subscribe(); });