The Absolute Best Cut Of Meat For Making Crunchy Homemade Pork Rinds

Pork dishes can delight with their crunch. The mouthwatering qualities of extra-crispy bacon are well-documented, but don't neglect the magic of pork rinds or chicharrones. Composed of fried pork skin, the dish is a regional favorite, especially in the American South. Oftentimes, pork rinds are bagged and sold in convenience stores next to chips, making them seem like a processed snack. However, with the right type of pork on hand, you can also make them at home.

Standalone pork skin isn't often sold in U.S. grocery stores, so you may wonder where to procure the essential foodstuff. For the easiest effort, turn to skin-on pork belly, which probably is available. This cut comes with a large, flat area of skin that's easy to slice off. Plus, while pork belly lets you easily slice away and save the majority of the meat, it also lends you the opportunity to leave a bit of flesh behind so the pork doesn't curl but still attains that essential crispiness. So craft in a large batch, and dig into the delightfully crunchy result.

Although by no means a difficult dish, you want to take steps to ensure maximum crunchiness. For one, make sure to cut the skin into uniform, easy-to-eat pieces for enough surface area to get crispy. Furthermore, while you could simply slow-roast the rinds in the oven, such a dish results in too dense of a texture. Instead, first boil the pork before roasting it, then finish with frying; boiling breaks up the skin's protein structure to lend extra softness while roasting renders out the fat, making the rinds crispier and less greasy once fried. Undoubtedly, this extends preparation time to several hours, although if you're after the puffiest mouthfeel with a measured amount of chew, then the technique pays off.

The dish certainly benefits from making a large batch at once, meaning you might have leftovers. In addition to munching on the food on its own, use in culinary applications such as adding pork rinds to your soup. Once you get the process down, you'll surely be crafting more rounds of rinds.