Puffed Chicken Skin Rinds (Chicharron)

Hey all,

I'm looking for some advice in making chicken skin chicharrons. Ie:cook time/temp before dehydration and frying. What circulator temp and for how long in the bath?

I want to get a nice puffed product. I am looking to gelatinize the skin enough to puff when dehydrated/fried. However, I also require the skin to hold its shape enough to be handled in the dehydration process.

Any/all advice is appreciated.

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Chris_Young_80640

@jonlovett:

This recipe covers part, but not quite all of the traditional technique:

http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/buffalo-style-chicken-skin

The basic technique for chicharron is simple. Cook skin until nearly all of the collagen has converted into tender gelatin. This can be done relatively quickly in a pressure cooker (1 to 1.5 hours at full pressure) or sous vide at any number of time/temperature combinations, such as 80 °C / 24 hrs. Or you can even just boil it for several hours.

Once the collagen has turned into gelatin, you'll want to dehydrate the skin until it's nearly, but not quite, devoid of any water, You can dehydrate in a warm oven until the skin becomes stiff, but ever so slightly flexible. The exact temperature isn't that important.

Once most of the water has been driven out of the skin, you can store it in a dry container until you're ready to fry it. When you drop a piece into a very hot deep-fryer (190 °C or so), it should puff almost immediately. This is actually a good test while you're dehydrating. When it seems like it might be dry enough, drop a piece in a small pot of really hot oil; if it puffs, then you're done.

Jon_36276

Thanks, Chris! Great reply.

Chris_Young_80640

You're welcome.

Ed_Jones_23751

Hi Chris and Jon.

Just registered with chefsteps so I could ask you both a few questions. How long would the skin need in the oven in order the it to be sufficiently dehydrated? I'm interested in adding some different flavours...maybe some shichimi powder to mimic the style of a chicken skin yakitori. What point would be best to flavour it? Straight out of the fryer I guess it would stick to the surplus oil quite well but then its a raw seasoning. Before the fryer it would surely shed the coating when dropped in oil.

Also I wondered about whether you add any water to the pressure cooker / pot when rendering. I've experimented with adding some seasoning during this stage (ginger,garlic,kaffir leaf etc) and think it definitely adds to the finished.

Any help would be much appreciated. I'm not a trained chef but I work in a bar and have been making snacks for a few months now. My experiments with chicken skin have been quite the hit but would like to get the a consist product every time. I also have no idea about shelf life but I imagine they'd be the same as pork rinds if all the fat has been rendered and moisture driven out to prevent spoilage.

Thanks in advance,

Chris_Young_80640

To get a good puffed snack, it turns out the final water content needs to be between 11% and 13% by weight. That's not terribly helpful, I know, so here is a practical approach to the problem.

First thing I do is simmer or pressure-cook the skin, it should become very delicate as the connective collagen is converted into gelatin.

Second, I dehydrate the skin in a low oven. When it seems very dry (it can only barely flex before it snaps), I toss a piece into very hot deep frying oil (about 180 °C or hotter) and it should puff right away.

If it doesn't, I keep drying. When it does (and assuming all of the skin seems equally dry) I remove the skin from the oven and store in a sealed, dry container.

It usually takes a bit of practice to judge the correct dryness, but once you've gotten the hang of it, it's easy. As for flavor, I prefer to dust the skins in an aggressively seasoned powder right after frying. Adding rendered chicken fat to the frying oil can be nice too.

Ed_Jones_23751

Hey Chris thanks for your reply! Interesting about the water content. I haven't been able to get that bit right and that's where I'm going wrong probably. I'm thinking of investing in a dehydrator for the second stage as I can rack up to 9 shelves in the Excalibur. What temp do you have the oven on out of interest though?

My process is otherwise similar to yours but I'm still unsure as to when all the collagen has converted during the rendering stage. I boil for 2 hours but I think there might still be some fat left in there. May have to get a pressure cooker but my last batch was 30kg of skin so not sure there's a pressure cooker out there for me.

I fry mine at 190. As soon as the skins go in the fryer there is a serious amount of water evaporation initially, so much so that I can't fully lower the frying basket otherwise it spills over. I lower slowly until the evaporation subsides and the skins continue to cook quite happily. After a dozen or so batches, the oil quickly starts breaking down. Is this because of the water hydrolisising the oil? It ends up being quite expensive to produce as I have to replace the oil after each frying day.

Your last point about rendered chicken fat gave me an idea though. Is it possible to fry the skins in the fat that I rendered out during the simmering stage? I guess it probably has a much lower smoke point than processed oils but seeing as its a by product its worth a shot I guess.

I also recently bought a cold smoker and thought about cold smoking the skins before they are rendered in order to get a nice smoky skin as well as smoked rendered fat to cook my roast potatoes in.

Sorry for yet more questions..

Thanks!!

Chris_Young_80640

@Ed_Jones:

Electrolux commercial makes pressure brat pans that go large enough for really huge batches. But they're not very cheap

If you're getting a lot of water evaporation when you go to fry the dehydrated skins, that's a sure sign they're not really dry enough for a good puff. And, yes, the steam and fragments of skin accumulating in the fryer will start to break down the oil. Saturated fats are more resistant to this, but all frying oils will eventually be rendered useless after heavy frying loads. Essentially, the oil starts to break down into emulsifier and also polymerizes. This makes for thick and foamy oil that develops a rancid aroma from free fatty acids.

If you clarify the rendered oil from the simmering stage, it can be a very good frying oil.

choonming_273987

Hey guys, this has been a really old post but I've only recently started to test out with chicken skins. Read some really interesting stuff here and it would definitely come in handy. Also would really appreciate some advise. 1) For a crispy chicken skin snack, is it better to coat it with some form of flour after the boiling and dehydrating process ? Was wondering whether the skin would be crispier. Also would the chicken skin (whether fried with flour or without) turn soggy/hard after a while if i let it rest and place it in a container. 2) Would it be better to dehydrate the skin in a dehydrator, fridge or oven ? 3) In regards to the cold smoker. Is it better in flavors to cold smoke the chicken skin first or to smoke the seasoning powders to achieve maximum flavor.

Thank you !