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Chicharrón

Dried a day and then fried twice at two temperatures — low to render, hot to puff.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains lard, pork.

Ingredients

Method

  1. IT IS FRIED TWICE AT TWO TEMPERATURES -- LOW TO RENDER, HOT TO PUFF -- AND DRIED A DAY BEFORE EITHER. That is three stages and none can be skipped. Pork skin carries a thick layer of fat on its underside and a good deal of water in the skin itself. The day of drying takes the surface water out. The first fry, an hour at a bare bubble in barely warm lard, renders the fat layer away and leaves a hard, shrunken, leathery sheet that looks like a failure. Then the sheets are lifted out, the lard brought up to a fierce heat, and they go back in for sixty to ninety seconds -- and the water trapped in the collagen flashes to steam and blows the sheet up into the blistered, hollow, glassy thing that is chicharrón. One fry at one temperature gives either a greasy soft sheet or a hard brown board; nothing in between.
  2. THE FIRST FRY IS BARELY A FRY. The lard should be hot enough to shimmer and no hotter -- the skin should give off a slow lazy bubbling, not a sizzle. An hour. Too hot and the outside sets before the fat underneath has rendered, and that unrendered fat is what makes a chewy chicharrón.
  3. THEY ARE COOLED COMPLETELY BETWEEN THE TWO FRIES. Lifted out, drained, and left until cold -- an hour, or overnight in the fridge. A warm sheet going into hot fat puffs unevenly, because parts of it are already past the temperature at which the steam would have formed. Cold into very hot is what gives a violent even puff.
  4. THE SECOND FRY IS SHORT AND IT IS WATCHED. Sixty to ninety seconds. They inflate within about fifteen seconds and then they are simply browning, and burnt pork skin is acrid. Out as soon as the puffing stops and the bubbling slows.
  5. THEY ARE SALTED HOT AND KEPT ABSOLUTELY DRY. Salt on the hot greasy surface, straight out of the fat. And then a paper bag or an open basket, never a sealed box -- a chicharrón is hygroscopic and goes limp overnight in any trapped moisture. It is at its best in the first hour.
  6. The pork skin cut into sheets about 10 cm by 15 cm and any loose meat trimmed off. Scored lightly in a few places.
  7. Rubbed with the coarse salt and laid on a rack, uncovered, in the fridge for a FULL DAY to dry.
  8. The lard melted in a deep heavy pan and brought to a LOW heat -- shimmering, not sizzling.
  9. The sheets lowered in and cooked 1 HOUR at a slow lazy bubble, turned occasionally.
  10. TESTED: they should be shrunken, hard and leathery, with the fat layer rendered away. They will look wrong, which is correct.
  11. Lifted out, drained on a rack, and COOLED COMPLETELY -- at least 1 hour, or overnight in the fridge.
  12. THE LARD BROUGHT UP to a fierce heat, until a scrap of skin bubbles hard at once.
  13. The COLD sheets lowered in, two or three at a time.
  14. They should PUFF within 15 SECONDS, violently and evenly.
  15. Fried a further 60 to 90 SECONDS, until the puffing stops and the bubbling slows. Out at once.
  16. Drained on a rack and SALTED while hot.
  17. Kept in a paper bag or open basket, never sealed. Best within the hour, with lime and salsa.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes