Crispy Chicken Skin

One of the basic tenets of my restaurant was that no part of an animal went to waste. So we would make every attempt to use all parts of the animals that we butchered, and that extended to the skin of animals as well. From pork skin, we would make chicharrones, for example. And if we were not going to leave the skin on chicken or salmon, we would often crisp the skin into basically meat crackers and either use them for garnishing a dish or as an integral part of the dish, such as crispy salmon skin hand rolls.

I've illustrated below the basic technique when using a thin skin such as chicken.

Cleaned, Trimmed Skin on a Silicone Mat

Clean the skin by removing any attached meat and excess fat. If you are looking for a particular shape for a particular application, trim the skin to shape and size. Be aware that on cooking, the skin will shrink by a quarter to a third. Lay the skin meat side down on a silicone mat on a sheet tray. The silicone mat is not necessary, but it helps prevent the bottom from sticking to the sheet tray.

Place a second sheet tray on top of the first such that the skin is trapped between the silicone mat and the bottom of the top sheet tray so that the skin will not curl while cooking.

Put the sheet trays into a moderate oven (350F will be fine) and bake until the skin is brown and crisp, about 25-30 minutes. Your nose is a great indicator of doneness; when you smell awesome fried chicken smells, you're close to wanting to take the skin out of the oven.

Remove the skins to paper toweling to absorb the excess fat and allow to stand at room temperature for an hour or so to cool and to finish crisping. You can store the skins unrefrigerated overnight in a tightly closed container, but be aware that the fat will go rancid quickly. Crispy skins are best made and used the same day.

The Final Goodness

What to do with the skins? Well, they're a great snack with a beer, but they make super garnishes on dishes as well. For our tasting menus, we would make circular salmon skins and using three crispy skins, we would build a napoleon from the plate up: skin-smoked salmon mousse-skin-smoked salmon mousse-skin-salmon caviar. You are only limited by your imagination.