Chicken Skin

[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....

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.

Finally had an opportunity to try your suggestion re: removing the knuckle. Found a wonderful mini-hacksaw in the hardware store and it works perfectly to remove the knuckle and the resulting legs were tender and tasty as can be! Many thanks for this suggestion. Now I won't be consigning all the legs to the stock pot.

[tissue]

I love the grilled chicken skin when I go eat yakitori.

[rooftop1000]

(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.

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It been years why has no one acted on this yet? Doesnt someone have a canoli form??

tracey

[Domestic Goddess]

How do Filipinos eat Chicken skin chicharron? We dip it in spicy vinegar (loaded with chilis, black pepper, minced onion and a sprinkling of salt). Highly addictive and betcha you cant stop at one bite. (Take it from somebody who finished an entire bag in one sitting).

*drooling from the memory*

[Pontormo]

Tracey, thanks for reviving this thread!

I've never done the dowel thing, but since I prefer braised meat without the skin, I remove it after the dish is done when it's nice and pliant.

Then I fasten the skin onto small frames of various sizes that I pick up at yard sales or TJ Maxx thusly.

When dried, chicken skin isn't nearly as durable as the skins of goats or lambs which are more traditional in making parchment or vellum.

However, the size is handy for grocery lists or menu-planning, and when bound as a codex, with a little applied gold leaf, it makes a most attractive manuscript.

[srhcb]

When dried, chicken skin isn't nearly as durable as the skins of goats or lambs which are more traditional in making parchment or vellum.

However, the size is handy for grocery lists or menu-planning, and when bound as a codex, with a little applied gold leaf, it makes a most attractive manuscript.

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Or you could whip up a batch of paste and make homemade, organic Post-It Notes?

SB

[Carrot Top]

However, the size is handy for grocery lists or menu-planning, and when bound as a codex, with a little applied gold leaf, it makes a most attractive manuscript.

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I used to do that when I was a secret agent. Every time I got captured by the other side, I'd eat my secret notes with happy lip-licking noises, then stick out my tongue and grin at them, valiant and true.

Now, I am engaged in the War of the Chicken Skins. The roast chicken leaves the oven and at that exact moment the hordes descend upon me. They are two in size, yet they are awesome in determination. The noise level alone could leave a woman senseless. Each one wants the chicken skin, for him or herself only. Precise drawing of a map upon the crisp skin of boundary lines (dark soy sauce on the tip of a wooden skewer is my way, though there may be others), followed by gentle disbursement of the skin itself (no time for fanciness here, for we are at war) is the only answer, but it is not a good one. There is never enough skin to go around, and one knows that war will yet again erupt the next time that aroma emerges from the kitchen.

[ruthcooks]

Note to Carrot Top: cook three chickens.

[Carrot Top]

Note to Carrot Top:  cook three chickens.

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I'm waiting for them to develop a chicken that's more skin than meat, Ruth.

Edited March 21, 2007 by Carrot Top (log)

[Kouign Aman]

Note to Carrot Top:  cook three chickens.

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I'm waiting for them to develop a chicken that's more skin than meat, Ruth.

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How about Cornish Game Hens?

[Carrot Top]

How about Cornish Game Hens?

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Ah. I hope everyone knows by now that once in a blue moon I exaggerate the situation for effect.

Nevertheless, I could cook six birds and still not have enough crispy delightful chicken skin for this family, though, and really we're not nuts about chicken in general, preferring beef, seafood, or pasta, "with" whatever.

Have you had a Cornish game hen recently, Kougin Aman? I can't compare their skins to a chicken's, though the meat is tastier in general for a battery-bred bird. To me, the skin is so much thinner and lighter, delicate . . . it just doesn't give me the rush a good crispy chicken skin does.

[ruthcooks]

What I would do with all that chicken left over from the "skin" meal is:

Make white meat chicken salad with homemade mayo, finely chopped celery and chopped eggs. Maybe grapes.

Make Escalloped Chicken with the dark meat. This is layers of bread dressing/stuffing and chicken, topped with a thick layer of eggy Sauce Supreme, baked and served cut in squares with pepper jelly on the side.

Make Matzo Ball Soup with a stock from the bones, wing tips and misc. bits, saving a little each of white and dark meat for the soup.

Each dish a favorite of mine and each one I'd rather eat than plain roast chicken--except for the skin, that is--unless you're making gravy from the drippings.

This is really torture as I haven't eaten much today.

P.S. I agree about Cornish Hen skin, no comparison. Turkey skin, however, is a bird of a different, er, skin. Let's see...Roast three turkeys...

[Carrot Top]

Each dish a favorite of mine and each one I'd rather eat than plain roast chicken--except for the skin, that is--unless you're making gravy from the drippings.

This is really torture as I haven't eaten much today. 

P.S.  I agree about Cornish Hen skin, no comparison.  Turkey skin, however, is a bird of a different, er, skin. Let's see...Roast three turkeys...

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All of those are good recipes, and I would like each one once in a while, too. Somehow, though, these children that used to eat everything in childhood have become more particular in early teenager-hood and seem to be having a phase where they only eat certain favorite foods and chicken, any way at all (except for the skin) is just not a favorite. Believe me, I've tried.

But I've read that phases in this change as children grow as do so many other things. So I wait, and figure that if this is the worst thing that happens, we're all lucky.

Meanwhile, it is truly a shame that I can't send all that extra roast chicken meat through the computer screen to you, Ruth.

P.S. Speaking of chicken skin, I wish there were a live poultry market near me. I've seen grown adults literally almost start to slaver and drool, with their eyes opening wider and becoming somewhat glazed with desire, after a bite of the roasted skin from a fresh, never-frozen, non-battery bird.

Edited March 22, 2007 by Carrot Top (log)

[Kouign Aman]

How about Cornish Game Hens?

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Ah. I hope everyone knows by now that once in a blue moon I exaggerate the situation for effect.

...

Have you had a Cornish game hen recently, Kougin Aman? I can't compare their skins to a chicken's, though the meat is tastier in general for a battery-bred bird. To me, the skin is so much thinner and lighter, delicate . . . it just doesn't give me the rush a good crispy chicken skin does.

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Exaggerate? You???

I dont think I've had a Cornish Game Hen since I was 5. My parents are from Britain. Apparently when I was 5 I walked into the house at 2 in the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day and asked "When are we having the turkey?". This was the first notice they had that I was expecting a Thanksgiving Dinner, thanks to my kindergarten teacher. My folks, after stopping a moment to quell panic, pulled two birds out of the freezer and told me they were baby turkeys. I was content.

The only time I roast* a chicken at home, I was the only one home. The skin did not make it into the fridge. I felt no guilt. I might feel guilty if I scarf it all next time. Only time will tell. Since we're still working on that one bird, it might be a month or so.

*my feeling for grammar says "roast" is the past tense of "to roast". But when I read that sentence, it sounds funny.

[srhcb]

There's a place that USED TO sell chicken skin:

Free-Range Chicken Skin and Fat - Frozen and Free

Reply to: sale-296572152@craigslist.org Date: 2007-03-19, 9:01AM PDT We process a lot of Free-Range Chicken Necks. What we don't use is the Skin and fat. ...

The posting has been deleted by the author, but it was from Multnomah County, Oregon, so a little detective work might uncover the location and info?

SB

[Carrot Top]

The only time I roast* a chicken at home, I was the only one home. The skin did not make it into the fridge. I felt no guilt. I might feel guilty if I scarf it all next time. Only time will tell. Since we're still working on that one bird, it might be a month or so.

*my feeling for grammar says "roast" is the past tense of "to roast". But when I read that sentence, it sounds funny.

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I would guess the right word would be "roasted". You should feel no guilt, about scarfing the skin or about not being able to remember the past tense of a word. Sometimes I forget my kids names and call them "Drewtin" or "Kr-Drew" rather than Kristen and Drew. It's better than it was, though. I used to holler out the dog's name when I meant to holler out their names.

I wonder if a lack of roast chicken skin can cause memory loss. If so, I'd better go get some, *now*.

There's a place that USED TO sell chicken skin:

Free-Range Chicken Skin and Fat - Frozen and Free

Reply to: sale-296572152@craigslist.org Date: 2007-03-19, 9:01AM PDT We process a lot of Free-Range Chicken Necks. What we don't use is the Skin and fat. ...

The posting has been deleted by the author, but it was from Multnomah County, Oregon, so a little detective work might uncover the location and info?

SB 

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So he/she is giving away chicken neck skin and fat? For free?

Wow.

I'm tellin' ya, Oregon is the place to be.

[Carrot Top]

I almost wish this thread had not been revived.

You know what's really good?

Warm Spinach Salad with Chicken Cracklings.

Sigh.

[Shalmanese]

Whenever I brown chicken thighs for a dish, I always find it a good idea to save the browned chicken skin as an attractive garnish for the final dish. Hopefully, one day I will be able to test out this idea, possibly after chaining myself to the radiator 3 rooms away to stop me from scarfing down the entire batch.

[mizducky]

Oh dear.

In the bad old/good old days, before I made my commitment to healthy eating, I had a frequent practice of buying one of those supermarket rotisserie chickens, bringing it home, and then systematically demolishing it. I had a set order in my demolition: first went all the skin. All of it. Next was the pope's nose. Next after that, the little oysters from the small of its back. Then all the rest of the dark meat. I usually didn't even bother with the white meat until the next day, and then only after chopping it up for chicken salad. But if money had been no object and I could have gotten over my deeply ingrained horror of wasting food, I definitely would have bought something like three rotisserie chickens at a shot, eaten the skin off of all of 'em first thing, then devoured pope's noses and oysters ... and then fed the rest to the cat, or something.

And don't even get me started about gribenes. Oh. My. God.

P.S. That savory chicken-skin cannoli concept sounds fabulous. Heart-attack on a platter, fer shure ... but fabulous, none the less.

[divalasvegas]

I don't recall seeing them mentioned, but if you really want to get your crispy chicken skin fix three words: fried chicken backs. Roasted is fine, but chicken backs fried in a cast iron skillet Southern-style is chicken skin nirvana, along with chicken wings of course.

[SeaGal]

Ok, this thread inspired me. I was sauteeing my chicken thighs for arroz con pollo last night and after I'd browned the skin side, I flipped them and removed the skin. Finished browning the thighs and used them in the casserole (the skin usually gets soft when cooke with the rice, so we didn't miss it).

I took those skins and continued sauteeing them until I had cracklings and then salted them. Served them with side cars and my husband and I were in crackling heaven.

[little ms foodie]

Ok, this thread inspired me.  I was sauteeing my chicken thighs for arroz con pollo last night and after I'd browned the skin side, I flipped them and removed the skin.  Finished browning the thighs and used them in the casserole (the skin usually gets soft when cooke with the rice, so we didn't miss it). 

I took those skins and continued sauteeing them until I had cracklings and then salted them.  Served them with side cars and my husband and I were in crackling heaven. 

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YUM!!! sounds even better than the fried garbanzo beans!

[GreekCook]

I'm lucky because my mom and both sister go for "healthy" eating which means they always skin their chickens before cooking, so i get my chicken bag at least once a week, unfortunately my girlfriend is a chicken skin fanatic so everytime I'm make crackling she eats them while I'm busy frying the next batch...I always end up losing out

[Marlene]

Ok, this thread inspired me.  I was sauteeing my chicken thighs for arroz con pollo last night and after I'd browned the skin side, I flipped them and removed the skin.  Finished browning the thighs and used them in the casserole (the skin usually gets soft when cooke with the rice, so we didn't miss it). 

I took those skins and continued sauteeing them until I had cracklings and then salted them.  Served them with side cars and my husband and I were in crackling heaven. 

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I love this idea. I rarely braise chicken for the same reason. The skin gets soft and icky, now matter how well it's browned before. So now, I'll brown the chicken, remove the skin and crisp it some more and continue with the braising. Brilliant.

[dondford]

Speaking of Chicken Skin I have discovered the most wonderful snack food.. Kims Chicken Cracking (the Deep South version of Gribenes)! They are made in Clarksdale, MS by a Chinese guy. They are not distributed in my part of the country, but every couple of months I call them at 662-627-2389 and order a case. They don't take Credit Card orders, but you can pay via PayPal.

Give them a try, you may like me, become addicted.

Don