Pork Rinds Belong In Your Soup In More Ways Than One

A popular snack the world over, pork rinds are bite-size pieces of fried pig skin. This salty, crunchy puffed snack is often eaten straight from the bag. But it also makes a distinctive addition to soups as a crispy topping or main ingredient. 

Try replacing the croutons in your French onion soup with extra-crispy pork rinds. The crunchy rinds are perfect for avoiding soggy bread in your French onion soup. The salty, porky flavor of the rinds also balances well with the sweet, roasted flavor of creamy roasted tomato soup. Pork rinds are also a frequent topping for lomi, a Filipino egg soup that includes thick egg noodles and various meats and vegetables.

But they don't just go on top. Pork rinds are sometimes incorporated in tomato-based sauces or soups in Mexican dishes like chicharrones en salsa roja (pork rinds in red salsa). Sopa de chicharrón (pork rind soup) is a flavorful Mexican soup in which you cook pork crackling in chicken stock with tomatoes and onions so the flavor is integrated throughout. You can also incorporate pork rinds as a main ingredient in egg drop soup, a Chinese dish made with chicken broth and wisps of egg. In fact, you can allow them to cook in the last few minutes of any soup for an extra tasty result. Any type of pork rind will work — puffy, airy pork rinds or chicharrones that include some pork and fat for a meatier version.

Pork rinds taste similar to bacon, though the intensity of the flavor varies based on the source and type. Butcher-shop pork rinds are more flavorful than prepackaged varieties, which are typically dehydrated and deep-fried, with the fat and meat removed entirely.

However, there are different cultural and regional variations of pork rinds. For instance, in Central and South America, they are called chicharrones and often feature both pork skin and a layer of meat (which is largely the only difference between pork rinds and chicharrones). There is a similar variety made in the Philippines, called chicharón or crispy pork belly, which also has some meat left on it. In the American South, cracklins — or cracklings — which have Cajun roots, are pork rinds with a bit of fat left on them to give them a richer quality.

Whichever kind you prefer and whether you add them as a topper or the star of the show, they add a salty, crunchy topping or toothsome bite to help you create the perfect comfort food.