Recipe for chicharron – puffed pork rinds
The tastiest and crispiest pork rinds I have ever made – and I have made many.
These chicharron are essentially pork skin that is pressure-cooked, dehydrated, and deep-fried.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am always eager to find perfect methods to prepare my food, especially if I can discover new techniques and equipment that can help me achieve my goal.
That’s why I am a huge fan of the book series Modernist Cuisine, where they nerd out to the max.
I have particularly had my eyes on this recipe for the crispiest and puffiest pork rinds for a long time, but I lacked some equipment to pull it off. Not anymore, so I quickly jumped into action and started making it.
The recipe requires a pressure cooker, dehydrator, and deep fryer (which can be substituted with a regular pot with oil).
My local butcher always has fresh pork skin for me if I call him in the morning – so this recipe has been tested on 2 different pieces of about 20 x 20 cm.
.jpg)
The recipe requires only 2 ingredients – pork skin and, once they are fully prepared, a bit of salt or a seasoning mix to taste.
But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to make and, aside from patience, it also requires a steady and careful hand.
Chicharron - puffed pork rinds
Equipment
- Dehydrator
- Pressure Cooker
- Deep fryer
Ingredients
- Pork Skin
- Salt
Instructions
- Add water and pork skin to your pressure cooker. The amounts should be about the same - for example, 400 grams each. The meat should be covered by the liquid.
- Turn on your pressure cooker to 1 bar and cook the pork skin for 2 hours.
- Let your pressure cooker release the pressure and take off the lid.
- Take the skin out and place it on a cutting board with the skin side down. Be very careful as the meat is very porous and can easily break.
- Use a butter knife/regular knife to carefully scrape away the fat. This is one of the hardest parts of the recipe because the skin can easily be scraped off with the fat.
- I made two different pieces of skin and there's no doubt that the best one was the one from which I removed the most fat.
- Then place the skin in a dehydrator and dry it thoroughly. Mine took 10 hours at 63 degrees Celsius (145 degrees Fahrenheit). If you don't have a dehydrator, set them in the oven at the lowest possible temperature your oven has.
- The skin should become flexible like plastic/leather, where it can bend slightly. If it's too dry or too moist, it won't puff up much.
- Maybe dab the skin dry a few times during the drying process with a clean cloth. The fat is hard to get dry, which is why it needed to be removed.
- Once it's been in the dehydrator and is dry, it should be deep-fried.
- Heat your deep fryer to 190 degrees Celsius (374 degrees Fahrenheit) and break small pieces off the skin and put them in the fryer.
- They will pop up quite quickly. Press them down a few times to make sure they get crispy all over. It takes about 1-2 minutes.
- Take them out of the fryer and place them on grease-absorbing paper.
- Pat them dry on top and season with salt.
- Serve immediately, and basically, I can already guarantee that you've made too few – no matter how many you've made.
