Chicharron Ni Manok

Greetings Travelers,

     There aren't many things that are better than a fried crispy confit piece of chicken skin.  When I was very young, I remember being in the kitchen with my Grandma while she was roasting chicken. She would always pull up a piece of the skin and laid it in the pan where all the fat was rendering.  She would tell me to wait patiently and always gave me the first piece of that delicious crispy skin.  

      It was a regular day at work this past Sunday.  My cook Monley and I were tearing it up as usual, aka working hard, as Monley was prepping the chicken for our Chicken and Dumplings dish for Tuesday evening.  While he was cleaning the half chickens, he was saving all the pieces of extra chicken skin and fat.  I didn't think much of it at the time seeing as I am trying to stay away from fatty foods because that is what I am myself at the moment, when he then throws a pot on the stove next to me which had water, the extra chicken skins, fat, and some bay leaves and peppercorns.  I wondered what he was making and asked him, to which he replied, "I am making chicharron, are you a rookie cook?"  I guess he was right because what he made was one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. 

      My usually approach making chicharron from chicken skin is to cook the skins until soft and fry them in oil.  The genius part of this cooking method is that you do these steps plus more to further intensify the chicken flavor, and this guy didn't even know how complex the way he was cooking it was.  By boiling the chicken skins with bay leaves and peppercorns you soften the skin as well as render the fat, which then picks up all the flavor in the skin itself.  As the water evaporates you essentially confit the skin, or cook it in its' own fat, all while keeping the flavor from the aromatics you added initially.  When there's no water left and the fat starts to hit the smoking point caramelizing the chicken skin,  you are then achieving the crispy chicharron texture which again has all the flavor from when you first started the process.  The only tip here is that the chicken will burn once the water is gone fairly quickly so babysitting is required toward the end.  Not only is it a genius way to make this but it's all done in one pot!  Makes clean-up a breeze.  Super simple and super delicious, tell me what you think!

Chicharron Ni Manok