Calling all Cracklings fans

[cliffrod]

Do you make your own?  Have you ever made them with chicken skins?    If you haven't, you oughta try it...





Then, after a couple of batches, you can use the saved clarified chicken fat to make some bubba duck confit (chicken cooked and then stored/preserved in its own fat).  Sure is good.

[wymple]

I'm just coming off from a massive heart attack. Knock it off !

[Rich A]

If you ever make dishes like chicken stew, coq au vin, etc. that end up with gloppy skin. Cut the skin off the chicken and roast it. Like cracklins' but with more flavor.

Rich A

[jbell]

I do that with brisket trimmings to make tallow for cooking and have the cracklings left over to munch on.

[cliffrod]

I hadn't made any for years, but got a bunch of chicken on sale Friday afternoon.  Boned it all to freeze meat & make stock, so made a few cracklings for a special treat while we watched Smackdown wrestling on Fri night.  Salt, pepper and a little granulated garlic. 

Sat morning my wife wanted biscuits & gravy because we hadn't had any this year.   I used the pan with golden fond from the cracklings to cook the sausage & sage gravy and finished it with the leftover cracklings crumbs.  Good stuff.













As far as the fat, it's hard to beat skin-on fried chicken thats actually fried slowly in rendered chicken fat & nothing else, seasoned only with salt before cooking (nothing to scorch). Color, flavor, crunch is fantastic.  It's even better than using real lard.   If there's a "real" traditional fried chicken, I bet that's it.