Recipe: Chicharrones - sous vide and traditional

No trip to Mexico is complete without digging into some chicharrones at some point.  When you go to the market, look for the giant sheets at the butcher shop.  If you are lucky, you might get a chance to watch them fry it - it usually involves a very large and often seemingly unstable vat of hot oil and some fearless guy manipulating the large pieces of skin with a long set of tongs or a couple sticks.

drying skins

There a variety of ways to make chicharrones, some from fresh with bits of meat on it, and others just purely puffed pork skin, but today we're going to focus strictly the puffed skin since it is a little more involved.  This is primarily a technique, so don't worry about a recipe so much, just remember that at the initial cooking stage, you have the opportunity to introduce some aromatics into the process, and therefore into the final product.  If you happen to have just cooked up a belly, you can just jump straight to the scraping and drying stages as you have already cooked and brought some flavour to the skin.

You will need:

pork skin

lime juice (to taste)

aromatics (optional)

kosher salt

Traditional method:

 - depending on the size of your equipment, cut the pork skin into manageable pieces
 - wash the skin under cold water
 - place the skin in a pot of cold water seasoned with lime juice and salt and any aromatics you want
 - bring up to a simmer and cook for at least an hour until the skin is very tender
 - remove the skins from the water
 - strain the broth and keep as a pork stock
 - scrape the fat off the skins as much as possible
 - dehydrate at 40C / 104F, or in a low oven, or air dry (that's how the butchers do it)
 - when the skin is dry and hard turn on the deep fryer or get a pot on the stove ready
 - bring the oil to 177C / 350F
 - drop the pieces in the oil and agitate until they puff
 - turn over to make sure they are puffed all over
 - drain on paper towel and season with kosher salt
 - eat (Carla would say with a generous squeeze of lime and Valentina sauce)

Sous vide method:

 - again, cut the skin into manageable pieces and wash under cold water
 - season the skin lightly with salt, lime juice, and any spices you like
 - lay flat in the vacuum bag with any aromatics
 - set the bath to 65C / 150F
 - cook for about six hours
 - remove from bath and take the skin out of the bag while still warm
 - scrape the fat off
 - dehydrate / dry out until the skin is hard
 - bring the fryer or a pot of oil up to 177C / 350F
 - fry the skin until puffed
 - drain, season, and serve

this guy is something of a rock star