Beautifully golden and pillowy pork rinds

Tonight’s culinary adventure was born from an impulse purchase. I was at the produce and meat market to get some on-sale chicken, and I saw that everyone had a pork shoulder (or few!) in their carts. Peer pressure doesn’t usually phase me, but I also can’t resist an amazing deal when its staring me in the face. $9 later and I had a giant 7lb bone-in, skin-on pork shoulder riding shotgun on the way home.

I quickly decided that I’d make some slow-cooker pulled pork with the bulk of my purchase, but would remove the skin to do so. In the interest of maximizing the deal and using every part of the shoulder, I knew I also had to make some homemade pork rinds. If you don’t want to buy a whole pork shoulder just for this adventure, you can also get pork skin on its own at the meat market (or any grocery store with a good meat counter, or a butcher), and it’s usually super cheap – like $1-2 for a decent size package.

I used to think I hated – absolutely hated – pork rinds. It wasn’t until I had some legit homemade pork rinds did I realize they are actually amazing (it’s just the store-bought ones that are gross). They’re also super easy and mostly hands-off to make yourself, and only require two additional pantry-staple ingredients.

Get some skin

Pork skin that I cut off IN ONE FULL PIECE

You can probably find pork skin sold separately (in a specialty meat/produce market, at a butcher, or a grocery store with a decent meat counter), or you can do as I did, and use a super sharp knife to cut the skin off a bone-in skin-on pork shoulder. I’m a big fan of peeling the skin off of oranges in one full piece, and that feeling of accomplishment is even more intense when cutting this skin off of a pork shoulder in one full piece. It also makes it a lot, a lot easier to trim the fat off the back of the skin when you keep it in large pieces.

Trim the fat, and cut into rectangles

Trim most of the fat off the back of the skin. Leaving a little behind is fine but you don’t want to leave too much there – you want these to dehydrate and be as light/thin as possible for maximum puffiness. Cut into roughly 1×2″ rectangles, and bake on a baking rack on a cookie sheet at 250°F for 2-3 hours. I got creative and used my roasting pan rack on top of a half-sheet pan. Just make sure that whatever wire rack you use is oven-safe. A lot of cookie cooling racks are coated with material not suitable for cooking.

Pork skin trimmed into 1×2″ rectangles

Fry em up!

Once your pork rinds have sufficiently dehydrated, remove them from the oven and set the cookie sheet close to your stove top.

Dehydrated pork rinds – cooked for 3 hours at 250°F

Pour about 2c of high-temperature cooking oil such as canola, peanut, avocado, or sunflower oil into a 3qt heavy-bottom saucepan, and heat on medium until oil reaches 375-400°F. Working in batches, add 1-5 pork rinds at a time, and cook until puffed up and as golden as you like.

Pork rinds frying in canola oil

Remove with a cooking spider or metal slotted spoon to a paper towel-lined plate. Sprinkle immediately with a pinch of salt to taste.

Enjoy your homemade pork rinds!

Enjoy immediately! Serve as-is, or mix up a tangy dipping sauce.

Homemade Pork Rinds (Chicharrones)

Homemade pork rinds are about 10 million times better than the store-bought variety. Don't let the cooking time dissuade you - after minimal prep, you set it and forget it, and frying them is quick and entertaining. Add a simple zingy dipping sauce made from pantry staples, and level it up even more!

Print Pin Rate

Course: Snack

Keyword: chicharrones, keto, low-carb, pork rinds, snack

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 15

Inactive Cooking Time: 3

Total Time: 3 25

Servings: 4 people

Calories: 623kcal

Equipment

1 baking sheet
1 baking rack
1 heavy-bottom 3qt sauce pan
1 cooking spider or metal slotted spoon

Ingredients

1-3 pound pork skin you can purchase pork skin from a specialty meat store on its own, or trim it from a large cut of pork such as a bone-in skin-on pork shoulder
2 cups high-heat cooking oil high-heat cooking oil like avocado oil, sunflower oil, or canola oil will work well for this recipe, you can also render lard from pork fat
1 pinch salt

Dipping Sauce

.25 cup vinegar distilled white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or rice wine vinegar all work well
1 tablespoon sabal oelek (chili paste) or substitute red pepper flakes to taste
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 cloves crushed and minced garlic

Instructions

Pork Rinds

Preheat oven to 250°F. Set an oven-safe baking rack on top of a cookie sheet.
Trim/scrape excess fat from back of skin with a sharp knife. Once trimmed, cut skin into rectangles roughly 1"x2".
Place rectangles on baking rack, place in preheated oven. Bake for 2-3 hours or until dehydrated.
Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and set near stovetop. Add approximately 2c of high-heat cooking oil to 3qt sauce pan, heat on medium until oil reaches 375-400°F.
Carefully add the skin rectangles to the hot oil in batches, 2-5 at a time. Cook for approximately 1 minute, or until puffy and it reaches your desired brownness/crispiness. Remove to paper-towel-lined plate with spider or slotted spoon. Immediately sprinkle with salt to taste. Serve as-is or with dipping sauce.

Dipping sauce

Add all ingredients to small bowl and whisk to combine.

Notes

Nutrition fact note: there was no match for "pork skin", only for already-fried pork rinds, so that is the value used in this calculation- for one serving of pork rinds made from 1-3lbs of pork skin (so, this whole recipe divided by 4). Bear in mind, the weight of the skin /pork rinds will decrease substantially throughout the cooking process.

Nutrition