I’ll tell you the truth — I’m filing this recipe under “fun experiment, probably won’t do it again.”

Let me elaborate: I procured a slice of pig skin in my Techniques of Fine Cooking class at ICE. We were making a dish with bacon in it, and we started with a nice big piece of pork belly that was still covered in the skin. Pig skin is TOUGH (like, you know how they make footballs out of it? Yeah. Not edible as-is), but I knew that pork rind is a popular snack in some parts of the world. So I started asking my instructor about how one could cook with the skin, and she eventually offered to let me take it home. Score!

We’ve been logging some serious football-watching hours lately so I started reading up on chicharrones, a nice compliment to sports games and beer that involves frying pig skin. There are a few different versions of chicharrones that you’ll find out there; some involve keeping a bit of meat attached to the skin, while others work exclusively with the skin. In my case, all I had was skin, so skin it was for me!

First I boiled the skin in water for almost 2 hours to help soften it. Then after scraping the extra fat off of the back of the skin, I set it on a wire rack over a baking sheet and stuck it in the oven at 200 degrees. For 10 hours. Yup.

The skin was slowly dehydrated until it resembled a dog chew: super dry and brittle. No moisture left in that thing whatsoever. I broke the whole thing into little chunks and fried them one-by-one. This was the most fun part, because these things just puff right up and become light, airy, and crispy! Take a look:

Here’s the somewhat disappointing part: despite tossing the fried chicharrones in a sweet and spicy coating, I just didn’t find them to have that much exciting flavor. Any chicharron experts out there have a recommendation? I used canola oil, but I wonder if they would have been better if I’d had enough pig fat on hand. Ah well, at least I can say that I tried! Sometimes the joy of making something new is saying “that was fun, but I’m glad I don’t have to do it again!”

Chicharrones (adapted from The Cooking Channel)

Ingredients

• Large strip of pork skin, trimmed of excess fat and nipples
• Canola oil, or other frying oil with high smoke point
• For the seasoning: 2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp chile powder, 1 tsp sugar

Instructions

1. Put the pork skin in a pot and cover with water until completely submerged. Bring to a boil and cook until soft, about 1.5-2 hours. Add more water to cover as needed
2. Remove the skin from the water. Set skin completely flat on a wire rack set inside a baking sheet. Either refrigerate for 2 hours until cool, or freeze for 30 minutes.
3. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees F, or to lowest setting on your oven. Using a sharp knife or bench scraper, scrape any leftover fat from the back of the skin.
4. Set skin back on the wire rack over baking sheet. Place in the oven and let dehydrate for 10-12 hours (note: the original recipe says to let it dehydrate overnight. I’m not thrilled with the idea of leaving my oven on overnight. Do as you wish).
5. Dehydrated skin will be dark brown in color and completely brittle. Break into 1-inch pieces. (The skin can be kept at room temp in an airtight container for up to 2 days at this point).
6. Bring a few inches of frying oil up to 385-400 degrees F in a deep-sided pot. Fry skin one square at a time. It will puff and expand after 10-15 seconds. Remove to a plate lined with paper towel and sprinkle immediately with seasoning. Serve warm.