Make Poultry Cracklins in a Deep Fryer
Eating the salty, crackling skin of a bird is one of my favorite things about eating birds, but once cooled, it can go from unusually crunchy to unpleasantly sticky in minutes. Depending on the size of the bird, trying to eat all of the skin before it cools may seem a little creepy, but you don’t have to. Leftover poultry skin can be restored to its original condition in just a few minutes in a deep fat fryer.
As I mentioned earlier , these skins often get even better the second time around:
Any fried skin is delicious, but the fried skin of already cooked chicken is something special. It has already been cooked once, so much fat and collagen have melted, so it becomes crispy quickly and easily. It’s also usually already seasoned, and those seasonings will become concentrated as the skin is browned, making perfect chicken chips. Even the gray flabby skin on the bottom of the bird turns into something golden and crunchy in a matter of minutes.
Leftover fried skin can be used to make chicken (or turkey) chips, but I recently started throwing any leftover poultry skins into a deep fryer that grinds them evenly and quickly without any greasy splashes.
The procedure is simple. Peel off any remaining skin from cooked poultry, being careful not to neglect the patchy, unattractive skin at the bottom of the poultry carcass. Lay it flat on the insert in the fryer basket, then cook at 350 ℉ until brown and crispy, which can take 5 to 15 minutes depending on how the skin was first processed and how large the piece you are dealing. (Open your cart from time to time to track your progress.)
You can also make a crispy crust from completely raw poultry skin if you like. The process is the same; it will take a little longer. It will also result in much more processed fat, which you must conserve and appreciate (and use for cooking potatoes).
After your skin has shrunk and turns into a salty crisp, season it with salt, let it cool, and eat like a crisp. You can also chop it up in salads or sandwiches, especially any leftover turkey sandwiches you might enjoy the day after Christmas.