What can I do with piles of chicken skin?

[catdaddy]

Last time I had this problem, we wrapped prawns in chicken skin and deep-fried them. Ridiculous, but tasty.

Brilliant! It is on "the list"

Wow that sounds fabulous. I will try this.

[_john]

yakitori

[Blether]

You can also put the skins in your stock as is. You'll end up with a layer of fat that comes off most easily after you chill the whole thing. That's no more hassle than pre-rendering, so long as the one chilling fits your timetable.

I've made a wine stew from skin-on chicken breasts in the past, where I rendered the fat from the (separated) skins in a frying pan and used it in the stew (no skin in the stew, but fat to help the prone-to-dryness meat).

I second the thought of chicken fat in cooking - great for roast spuds, of course, and I've used it successfully in pastry for chicken pies / turnovers. Particularly with the price of butter & packaged lard around here, I see this last as quite a boon - to be getting pastry almost 'for free'.

[Edward J]

Used to get in a case of fryers a week and break them down--boned out brsts, drumsticks, b'less thighs, etc. I'd portion up the bones in bags and freeze them, every day the cooks would pull out a bag, use the last days (now thawed in the cooler) to make stock for daily soup.

All the skin, and visible bits of fat went for "Schmalz". I'd grind up the skin and fat with aromatic vegetables in the meat grinder, toss the mix into a pot with water and herbs and render it down. This got used for many purposes, but the main one was sauteing soup vegetables in.

[KingLear]

I keep all the extra skin and fat every time I break down a chicken. Don't forget to take the skin and fat off the backbone - that's the best part. I save it all in freezer bags.

When I have lots, I thaw the skin/fat, cut it into fairly even 1"-2" pieces, then put the pieces in a skillet over low heat. I add a thinly sliced onion and keep cooking it all down (rendering) until all that's left is liquid fat and crispy cracklin'/chicharrones/gribenes (all basically the same thing). It could take a couple of hours - just don't let the skin burn.

Strain the fat into a clean jar and place in the fridge. That's schmaltz and it will keep for ages. Use it to cook eggs, chicken, whatever - it has tremendous depth of flavor. Place the gribenes (crispy chicken skin and onions) on paper towels to absorb the surface fat, then sprinkle with salt. They keep for days in the fridge (although they won't last that long), while magically retaining their crunch.

[Foodietopo]

+1 on the yakitori. It's sometime no crispy enough for my taste, but I found a couple shops where the skin is really crispy. I've never made it at home, but it should be pretty easy to just skewer some skin and BBQ them. Each store has it's own sauce, but the base of yakitori is usually saké, sugar and soy sauce.

[_john]

+1 on the yakitori. It's sometime no crispy enough for my taste, but I found a couple shops where the skin is really crispy. I've never made it at home, but it should be pretty easy to just skewer some skin and BBQ them. Each store has it's own sauce, but the base of yakitori is usually saké, sugar and soy sauce.

There are two ways to get it crispy. Air dry the skin, skewer, then grill. Second way: deep fry then grill. I like mine with salt.

you can sandwich the skin between two sheet pans and bake it to make skin chips as well.

[Mikels]

I add the chicken skins to bags I keep in the freezer. Because of the work involved, I do the following only a few times a year and process about 10-20 pounds of skin.

I semi-thaw the clumps of chicken skins to make cutting easier, then cut them into 1/2" cubes. I boil them in water for a few hours to extract the fat and collagen. Then, I remove the bits of skin and slowly roast them in the oven until crisp (placing them on paper towels helps wick away the fat. I skim off as much of the fat as possible and further reduce the water. Then I add back the fat and cool until I have a solid fat layer. I pack the water layer, which contains gelatin, into small containers and freeze, adding it to soups and sometimes stews for an improved mouth feel.

Usually, there is some junk attached to the lower part of the frozen block of fat, so I reboil the fat to clean it up, then chill it. I drive off the excess water from the fat layer and use for cooking. Because the fat is almost flavorless, you may want to flavor it with some garlic and onion.

The crisped bits of skin are added to dishes to add crunch. To add additional flavor to them, I will fry some garlic in some of the fat and fry the skins before roasting. You can also add onions at the same time. While the skins will keep for weeks in the fridge (if they last that long) you can increase their shelf life if you pour some of the melted fat over them.

Although it seems like quite a bit of work, the active part is usually quite small.

[Nyleve Baar]

Why wouldn't you leave the skin in the stock pot? It has flavour and probably other things also. If you're going to be chilling and removing the fat from the stock anyway, it's no more trouble to have a little more to take off.

Alternative - rendering the fat and creating crisp, addictive, murderously delicious chicken cracklings. My personal kryptonite. I rarely do this, despite the usefulness of chicken fat, because I can't stop myself from eating them and, really, it's too much.

[Pam R]

I always add the skin to the stock pot, but you could use it as a wrapper. There's an old peasant dish that made a stuffing and then stuffed it into the skin from a turkey neck. If you have large pieces of skin you could make up some sort of stuffing, roll it up and pin it closed then cook.

[Toliver]

I think this was once mentioned in another discussion but you could wrap the skin around a cannelloni tube and deep fry it. Once fried and drained remove the mold/tube and pipe them full of your favorite mashed potato recipe. Serve immediately to retain crispness.

[Anna N]

I think this was once mentioned in another discussion but you could wrap the skin around a cannelloni tube and deep fry it. Once fried and drained remove the mold/tube and pipe them full of your favorite mashed potato recipe. Serve immediately to retain crispness.

Oh my - know exactly what to do with any chicken skin now - that is if I don't crisp it and eat it right away.

[helenjp]

Hmmm...apparently chicken skin makes good rat bait!

[weinoo]

Yesterday, I made a delicious chicken in the pot, which if I was French I might call poulet en cocotte. Thing is, when you make a chicken this way, the skin isn't really the best; it's pale, soft and fairly unappetizing.

Oh, it's browned first (and I made sure to get a nice brown color going) and then cooked, covered, in the manner of a braise\, but with a lot less liquid. The chicken is fantastic; flavorful and juicy and the skin is, well, discarded.

But my question is more general. When you cook chicken, do you eat the skin? Even if it's braised? Do you cook your chicken specifically so that the skin is extra delicious? Or , even if the skin is edible, do you discard it for health or caloric reasons? Inquiring minds...

[DeliciouslyLekker]

It depends if the skin adds flavour. Sad to say, I almost never discard the skin because of health or caloric reasons. I probably wouldn't bother cooking chicken (unless the skin doesn't add anything to the dish and the chicken is supposed to taste 'that way') then!

I could never eat a roast chicken, Hainanese chicken or fried chicken for example without the skin. I find chicken skin in curries quite pointless though (unless it's a dry Southern Indian one then it's yummy).

[scubadoo97]

Last night I pulled my butterflied chicken off the smoker and onto the grill to get a nice crisp mahogany colored skin for the pleasure of eating crispy skin.

[Mjx]

Sometimes, if it's nice and crunchy, I just eat the skin. Flabby skin I avoid. When we roast a chicken, my boyfriend and I may be seen frantically pulling the skin off the portions we haven't plated, so we catch it before it softens. I rein in calories by eating less food overall, rather than eating 'normal' amounts, and skipping the things I love.

[Anna N]

If I know the skin will be flabby due to the cooking technique then I will usually remove it first and fry it up as a cook's treat. I don't like flabby skin. But sometimes I just know that the skin will add to the flavour or protect the flesh even if it gets flabby and then I will discard it before serving.

[alanjesq]

A special treat during certain Jewish Holidays was Greben. (spelled many different ways). Chicken Skin fried crisp in Schmaltz with onions. Yum, Yum and double Yum!!!

alanjesq

[Paul Bacino]

I will remove the skin, check for seasoning, place on a wire rack, back into the oven @375 till crisp and rendered.. eat!!

This is if it isn't crispy enough ..

Paul

[rarerollingobject]

What kind of crazy question is this? I'm thinking anyone here who DOESN'T eat the chicken skin, or at least try to optimise it to some level of crispy edibility, should just hand in their eGullet membership card, take their toys and go home! I could SORT of countenance medical or dietary reasons I guess, but even then..a fine line.

Kidding. Though I say this as someone who managed to eat 8 sticks of torikawa (nothing but crispy chicken skin, bunched up on skewers) in a Tokyo yakitori bar recently, closely followed by 4 skewers of pope's/parson's noses..or whatever the little bundles of fat and crispy skin from the tail end of a chicken are referred to in the US..?

[munchymom]

Much like Jack Sprat and his wife, my husband and I are perfectly matched in this respect. He doesn't eat poultry skin - loathes the very idea of it - and I consider the good crisp skin of a roasted bird pretty much the best part. When I roast a chicken or turkey, I get that delicious skin all to myself.

[CaliPoutine]

What kind of crazy question is this? I'm thinking anyone here who DOESN'T eat the chicken skin, or at least try to optimise it to some level of crispy edibility, should just hand in their eGullet membership card, take their toys and go home! I could SORT of countenance medical or dietary reasons I guess, but even then..a fine line.

Kidding. Though I say this as someone who managed to eat 8 sticks of torikawa (nothing but crispy chicken skin, bunched up on skewers) in a Tokyo yakitori bar recently, closely followed by 4 skewers of pope's/parson's noses..or whatever the little bundles of fat and crispy skin from the tail end of a chicken are referred to in the US..?

I think its absolutely disgusting, but I'm not about to turn in my foodie card. Taste is so subjective. The thought of even eating skin makes me gag a little. I also can't stand blue cheese, raw tomatoes and Kalmata olives and I dont eat any beef( or organ meat) Like I said, taste is subjective.

[Beebs]

Flabby pale chicken skin is gross. So when I do chicken braises, stews, etc., I'll cook it with the skin on, but pull it off just before I eat it. I only pull it off on my portion though. Everyone else can eat their own flabby pale chicken skin.

Oh, the exception is some Asian style chicken, like white-cooked or soy sauce. That's ok. I'll eat that flabby skin.

Crispy skin, on the other hand, has my DH & I at each other's throats for it!

[ruthcooks]

I think the skin is the whole point. I used to think that if I were in a situation where I could request my last meal I would request the crisp skin and the tail of a roast turkey. The tail is all skin, fat and the sweetest meat, and there's not much competition for it.

The soggy stuff I don't usually eat, unless it has been browned first.