Not much of a post here, but just to give you an idea of how much I hate wasting food...
There are times when I would cut up a whole chicken, and remove the skins prior to cooking (let's say for chicken alfredo or chicken tocino). I then boil the bones and skin along with some seasoning for chicken stock that I use in pancit or arroz caldo. Or if I have roasted chicken then I would boil the carcass for that. In both cases, I have to have the skins pre-cooked. Then I would place them in the oven (I like using the nu wave for this purpose, sprinkle some garlic salt, and bake the skins until they are crispy and all the fat have dripped underneath. (My nu wave rack has just the right amount of surface to make chicharon out of the skin I get from one chicken. If I do have more, I will just probably deep fry on medium low heat until they get crispy and have rendered their fat to add to the oil.) It requires about 30 minutes to get to a crispy state. The thing I like about nu wave is, one glance at it and I know if it is done. No need to open.
As soon as the aroma fills the house, my kids rush down to the kitchen and ask what I am cooking, then eagerly wait for these chicharon. My kids love them!
On a side note, sometimes I chop the cooked skin and render its oil to use for sauteeing when cooking chicken-based dishes. Also, if I have oil on the broth that I prepared, I separate the fat from the broth and chill this, then gather the oil/chicken fat later, place it in a jar, and use it for sauteeing, frying rice, and in the future, I plan to try using it for chicken empanada dough. Health buffs might turn up their noses at me for this, but I am no health food fanatic and I do not pay attention to food fads...I try to stick to traditional methods of preparing foods...the less "refining" process involved, the better. The closer it is to natural state, the better. So if you have something bad to say about this, keep it to yourself and don't bother to leave a harsh opinionated comment, or I will delete it.
4 comments:
Oh my gosh! That looks really good manang. You are so passionate about cooking and knows a lot of things. Can I have some? LOL!
I usually buy skinless chicken. This is an incentive to buy whole chicken once in a while. The chicharron looks yummy, I will definitely try this in the toaster/convection oven. Thanks for the idea.:)
Manang, sulit ba ang Nuwave? Ano ang kaibahan niya sa ibang turbo broiler? Salamat!
Hi Manang,
Love your blog. I remember that we used to do this in Abu Dhabi where hotels normally discard chicken skins, since my roommate's bf worked in the hotel he'd ask for the chicken skins and give it to us.
We loved doing the chicken skin chicharon the traditional way -- boiling the chicken skins in a big pot half-filled with water and lightly salted over medium heat. Soon enough after 20 minutes the whole pot would be filled with crispy chicken skin and of course oil from the skin :)
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