Chicken Skin

[Jinmyo]

So I had 6 chicken quarters left after service, Pope's nose and all, crispy crispy skin seasoned with garlic and chile paste and crunchy salt and shards of peppercorns.

And you know how chicken skin just doesn't reheat right.

I had plans for the meat (shredded into a garlic chive broth with eryngi mushrooms). And the skin...

Well...

My lunch was the skin from those chicken quarters stuffed with a bit of gohan (Japanese rice) with kimchi. And Bek So Ju, Korean ginger rice wine.

I do this kind of thing quite often.

Am I alone?

[tejon]

Chicken skin tends to be a snack here, but that lunch sounds delicious!

[FoodZealot]

I haven't done anything like it, but it sounds brilliant. I must admit to liking Pope's nose and turkey tails, etc. As an aside, I believe Filipinos make chicharron out of chicken skin, but I don't know how they are eaten.

[balex]

When I have some cold roast chicken, I often take of all the skin that is left and fry it until it is crispy, and then eat it all myself (S & P and hot sauce sometimes) while I take all of the meat off the bones for the rest of my family. I guess this means I am a bad person.

[tejon]

No, no - I consider crispy chicken skin to be a fair trade for all the work of stripping the meat off for everyone else :-)

[prasantrin]

I haven't done anything like it, but it sounds brilliant.  I must admit to liking Pope's nose and turkey tails, etc.  As an aside, I believe Filipinos make chicharron out of chicken skin, but I don't know how they are eaten.

Straight (ditto for Thais, in my experience), though I sprinkle them with a bit of salt and eat them with ketchup.

Sometimes if I have a particularly large piece of chicken skin, I'll dust it with cornstarch before frying. Yum!

[elyse]

Reheating skin the next day is not beneath me. Toaster oven does a fine job of crisping. Salt and pepper. Period. Then I lick the foil.

[richw]

Pope's nose

What's does this mean?

Rich

[Varmint]

You could just pop some of that skin in a Toast-N-Serve Magic Bag.

[Suzanne F]

Pope's nose

What's does this mean?

Rich

The part that goes over the fence last, we used to call it. I don't really like that other term.

My introduction to the writing of John Thorne was his piece about "chicken Skin Po' Boys." Oh, man, they can almost give bacon a run for its money.

[aprilmei]

When I go to Bangkok, one of my favourite street foods is grilled chicken tails. They cook the tails on skewers until they're crisp on the outside and then pour this fabulous, really spicy and garlicky sauce over it then pop it in a plastic bag. The trick is eating it quickly so the skin stays crisp - but it's hellishly hot since it's straight off the grill.

oh god, I'm salivating...

[maggiethecat]

I don't really like that other term.

My introduction to the writing of John Thorne was his piece about "chicken Skin Po' Boys."  Oh, man, they can almost give bacon a run for its money. 

Neither did my PC Episcopalian parents. They called it the Parson's nose. (If you're slurring your own kind, it's OK, right? )

Chicken Skin Po' Boys. Be still my heart.

[richw]

The part that goes over the fence last, we used to call it.  I don't really like that other term.

My introduction to the writing of John Thorne was his piece about "chicken Skin Po' Boys."  Oh, man, they can almost give bacon a run for its money. 

Thank you Suzanne. I love tails!

[Mayhaw Man]

And while you are enjoying your chicken skin you could listen to this great music.

While I was looking for this record I learned something new-In Hawaii the term chicken skin refers to goose bumps.......you can now go forth to face the day with one more piece of virtually useless knowledge. Have a great day.

[Stone]

My friend's sister tends to eat only the chicken skin and maybe the first 1/8" of meat. We were at dinner (Mercer Kitchen, very mediocre) and she mentioned that mashed potatoes should be made with chicken skin, not bacon. (Pardon the blasphemy.) Since I'll probably be cooking a meal for this lady and her hubby in the near future, I figured I'd do some sort of mashed potato featuring chicken skin. My first thought was to make the potatoes separately, then cook whole sheets of skin (peeled off a breast most likely) under a bacon press until relatively crisp and laying the skin atop the potatoes on the plate. Can anyone think of anything more creative? How about a good garnish? Maybe a drop of truffle oil?

(Yes, I also thought about rolling the skin around some type of dowel, deep frying it like a pasta tube and piping the potato inside. I quickly dismissed that idea as lunacy. I'm not even trying to get this woman into bed.)

[elyse]

(Yes, I also thought about rolling the skin around some type of dowel, deep frying it like a pasta tube and piping the potato inside.  I quickly dismissed that idea as lunacy.  I'm not even trying to get this woman into bed.)

WOAH.

[slkinsey]

Here is an idea:

If I were you, I would start buying and eating a lot of whole chickens. It has been noted here in the past that one can often buy a whole chicken for less cost than two boneless/skinless breasts. What you should do is take all the skin off of every chicken you buy, cut it into quarter-sized pieces and freeze it. Also, trim all the fat from the chickens you buy and toss that into the freezer bag with the skin. You then have boneless/skinless chicken breasts to sauté, skinless thighs to sauté or braise and skinless drumsticks to braise (cut off the knuckle first, as this improves the texture of the meat) and bones you can freeze for later stockmaking.

The morning of the dinner for your friends, put the frozen chicken skin and chicken fat into a saucepan with a heavy bottom over medium heat until the fat renders out and the skin is nice and crispy. Fish out the skin and sprinkle it with salt. You have just made chicken skin cracklings. You can set these aside to cool. Save the chicken fat.

When you make the mashed potatoes, substitute the rendered chicken fat for the butter you would normally use and fold in the crisp chicken cracklings immediately prior to serving.

[Suzanne F]

Uh, Sam, you mean maybe gribenes?

Stone, on several levels, I love the idea of flattening sheets of chicken skin with a bacon press. What a cool adornment: a crisp, golden brown flake of chickeny goodness. But truffle oil? Nah. Some things are NOT improved by truffle oil, and chicken skin mashed potatoes is one of them.

[mudbug]

The morning of the dinner for your friends, put the frozen chicken skin and chicken fat into a saucepan with a heavy bottom over medium heat until the fat renders out and the skin is nice and crispy.  Fish out the skin and sprinkle it with salt.

Only one addition to make it better, this is the way we do it at home ... sprinkle a dash of MSG. No kidding.

Fried Chicken Skin Chips are in my all time top ten of favorite foods.

aprilmei,

Grilled Chicken Tails? Sounds fabulous!

Some things are NOT improved by truffle oil, and chicken skin mashed potatoes is one of them.

Agreed. 100%.

[slkinsey]

Uh, Sam, you mean maybe gribenes? 

We goyim with roots in the South call them "cracklings."

[Katherine]

I do this kind of thing quite often.

Am I alone?

I do exactly the same thing. Generally, the meat is saved for lunches and leftovers. I only eat some of the meat if I'm still hungry after finishing the skin.

I've made chicken cracklins in the past, but the skin of dark meat chicken tastes best when it's still moist on the inner side that baked over the meat. Usually when there is leftover raw skin it goes into the soup pot, adding flavor to the broth and chicken fat to the supply in the fridge.

[Anna N]

... You then have boneless/skinless chicken breasts to sauté, skinless thighs to sauté or braise and skinless drumsticks to braise (cut off the knuckle first, as this improves the texture of the meat) and bones you can freeze for later stockmaking....

Sam:

What is the "knuckle" and how does removing it improve the texture of the flesh?

Thanks.

[jackal10]

No one has mentioned stuffed chicken neck (geflite helzel) in the Ashkanzi tradition, and equivalent in other cultures...

[slkinsey]

... You then have boneless/skinless chicken breasts to sauté, skinless thighs to sauté or braise and skinless drumsticks to braise (cut off the knuckle first, as this improves the texture of the meat) and bones you can freeze for later stockmaking....

What is the "knuckle" and how does removing it improve the texture of the flesh?

The knuckle is the joint at the skinny end of the drumstick (the end not connected to the thigh). If you cut this off (chop the end of the bone off at that end), it allows the meat to naturally contract a little as it cooks. If you braise it, you end up with something like a little chicken "ossobuco." This seems to have the effect of making the texture of drumstick meat more thigh-like rather than that characteristic (and unpleasant, to me) drumstick texture I think it may have to do with the way the muscles and tendons are arranged, kind of stretched out over the length of the drumstick. If you don't cut the tendons down by the knuckle, the meat stays stretched out and is not able to contract (which is meat's natural reaction to heat), with the result being that slightly dry, mealy texture.

Try it some time. Make a braised chicken dish using just drumsticks where you leave some drumsticks whole and chop the knuckle off others. I bet you'll notice a difference.

[Anna N]

...

Try it some time.  Make a braised chicken dish using just drumsticks where you leave some drumsticks whole and chop the knuckle off others.  I bet you'll notice a difference.

Thanks, Sam. I will give it a try. I avoid drumsticks for the very reason that I dislike the texture of the meat. And what you say makes sense to me.