crispy chicken skin!!!!!!!!
it's time
Hello!!!!! It’s summer in San Francisco, which is very hot and sexy and cool for me. Remember last week when I said I wasn’t sure if summer was over or not? That was a trick question because I forgot where I lived for a second and only recently realized summer in the Bay doesn’t even really start until October. We love that for me!
What have I been up to, you ask? Hmm… Well, last week, I was in Joshua Tree for the first time. I sat on a rock in the middle of the desert and laughed-cried in a sunshower. It was very beautiful.
I started and completed my quarterly reread of The Blue of Distance. I’m also finally reading the book it’s from (A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit), and it’s, as the kids say, lit as hell. I found this part particularly moving, and it’s only, like, 3 pages in:
In case you were wondering, those aren’t tears on the page. It’s sweat. Not that I would care if you thought it was tears or not, because crying is wonderful and important. I just think you should know the truth!
Anyway, I was in Joshua Tree to celebrate Lara’s birthday. In case you don’t know who Lara is, she’s the better half of virgo supperclub and one of my very best friends. As a birthday present to her, you should absolutely subscribe to her newsletter. It’s full of beautiful words and delicious food and smart ideas, and I think you’d really love it because I really love her.
As part of her birthday festivities, her sweet partner Sean (famously my roommate) and our sweet friend Chu planned a banger of a dinner that they let me sous chef for. There was a lot of fresh pasta and three (3!!!!!!) different kinds of sauce. An herby one and mushroom one and a tomato one. There were infused oils and a salad with preserved lemon dressing. There were various meats and fried shallots, and there were tomato water martinis and crispy chicken skins.
That last one is what we’re going to focus on here.
crispy chicken skins
Crispy chicken skin is the best thing in the entire world. It’s a gift. A pleasure. A treasure. A joy. It freaking rules, baby. But! Sometimes, it can be hard to come by. Pan searing or roasting usually works. Braising and then broiling can do the trick most of the time. However! There is a secret. And that secret is…. you can have crispy chicken skin all the time if you just cook chicken skin! Tada!!!!!! Magic!!!!
Now, there are a few ways to come by Just Chicken Skin. One way is to ask your butcher or the person behind the meat counter at your local grocery store if they’ll sell you a pound (or more!) of chicken skin. Most of the time, they totally will. So do that!
The other way is to buy the largest pack of bone-in skin-on chicken thighs you can find and then take the skin off yourself. It’s pretty easy, tbh.
My hottest hot tip is that if you do that and then roast or braise the thighs, you can prepare the chicken skins as outlined below and sit the crispy skins on top like delicious little hats. Chic!
what to do with crispy chicken skins
Like I said above, if you’re deskinning the thighs (or breasts, I guess) yourself, you can prepare the skins to serve on top of the chicken. But! That’s not all. Here are some of my favorite ways to use crispy chicken skins:
As crackers! Literally blow people’s minds and put them on a cheese board—no one will ever be the same
On a BLT (CLT??) Skip the bacon, sub chicken skin, live your best life
Put them on a salad (like we did for virgo supperclub)!!!!
Put them in lots of sauces—when I was working at a restaurant, I developed a recipe for chicken skin chili crisp that, pardon my French, fucking ruled—the skins really hold up once you’ve got them crispy, so don’t be shy!
Add them to pasta, why not??
Eat them on their own as a side
Listen, no matter what you do, I guarantee your life will be better after you do this, so, just do it (or whatever).
crispy chicken skin ingredients & method
Ok, the ingredients are simple—you need a pound of chicken skins (but you can do it with more or less, whatever you have!)
Preheat your oven to 400
Pat your chicken skins dry
Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil
Spread the chicken skins in an even layer, making sure they aren’t overlapping on the sheet
Season with kosher salt and black pepper (or curry powder or chili powder or cumin and sumac—have fun!)
Bake for 20 minutes—start checking at 15!
Once the skins are deeply golden brown, remove from the oven—remove skins from the tray and set to cool on a paper towel-lined plate and season with more salt and pepper!
Two notes!
The chicken skins may stick a little! It’s ok! I use tongs to pull the chicken skins up and a spoon to hold the foil down—be patient and stern. You can do this, I promise! Alternatively, you can roast them on a rack on top of the foil-lined tray, but it’s really not worth getting the rack dirty in my opinion!
You will have chicken fat in your pan. Horray!!!!! Save it, for it is a gift from the chicken gods. Pour it into a container and store it in your friend and use it to roast vegetables or fry eggs in or use some in your next batch of biscuits. Relish in the glory of chicken fat!
And that’s it! Thank you for letting me go long on chicken skins. Sometimes (most of the time), simple things are the best things, and I really think these things (chicken skins) deserve their own attention. Snack on them, give them as a gift, wear them as a hat or a crown, listen to this song, and have the sweetest time.
I hope you’re enjoying the last bits of summer or the first bits of it wherever you are.
xoxo,
Garrett