This fried chicken is made with pork rinds instead of breading and making it yourself allows you to skip the processed seed oil frying oils virtually all restaurants use.
Ingredients
- About four raw chicken pieces
- 1/2 cup full-fat plain yogurt or 1 egg
- 1 cup pork rinds or cracklings
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika (optional)
- About 1-2 cups fat for frying (tallow or lard are best)
Instructions
- Fill the bottom of a pan with enough fat to cover at least half of your chicken pieces and bring to medium heat.
- Put pork rinds or cracklings in a blender or food processor and grind until they reach a fine consistency. Pour into a wide bow and stir in the salt and any other spices you wish.
- Coat your chicken pieces in either yogurt or a beaten egg.
- Roll the coated chicken pieces in the ground pork rinds or cracklings.
- Carefully place the chicken pieces one at a time into the oil. The oil should be hot before adding the chicken pieces. Be careful about adding too many at once because it can bring down the temperature of the oil.
- After about 5-10 minutes and once the underside has turned a dark golden brown, flip the chicken and cook for about the same amount of time. Cook longer the thicker the chicken is. You may want to measure the temperature with a thermometer to ensure it is cooked through. Chicken should reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Remove from the oil with a fork or a utensil that allows some of the oil to drain.
The measurements for this recipe are not exact and will vary depending on the size of your chicken and the size of your pan.
You may want to cut your chicken into thinner pieces if they are big. The thicker the pieces are the longer they will take the cook, and it can be difficult to cook the chicken through without over-cooking the breading for thick pieces.
I used yogurt for the chicken pieces photographed in this post. I like using yogurt because it tenderizes the chicken as well, but eggs are a great alternative for those avoiding dairy or more strictly limiting carbs. Yogurt can also be used to remove any undesirable taste older chicken might have.
My go-to yogurt is Fage Total 5%, which is made with whole milk and cream, and has 11 grams of fat and 7 grams of carbohydrates for 1 cup. It is the highest fat, lowest carb yogurt available at standard American grocery stores. Additionally, some people argue that yogurt has less carbohydrates than listed on nutrition facts, because the bacteria eats the lactose sugars and converts them to lactic acid, which is not a sugar.
I have made this recipe with both pork rinds and cracklings that I made from rending beef tallow.TThe pork rinds are drier and make a somewhat easier breading, but the cracklings are a great way to use leftover cracklings from rendering tallow, which would usually go to the waste, and have more fat and flavor. Your cracklings may still be fatty enough that they don't grind into a dry flour. Once ground, mine stuck together a bit and I had to pat them into the chicken rather than just being able to roll the pieces in it.