Chicken Skin Chips

Don't you just love "crunchy"?

One of my favorite fictional lines (and often quoted around my house) is from Charlotte's Web when Tempelton is trying to find a new word for Charlotte to weave. He returns from the trash heap with a scrap of cardboard, lays it before her, and confidently states "It says: CRUNCHY". 

It just excites me a little bit to think of salty crunchy indulgences. I'm just not a cheesecake and chocolate kind of gal. I more closely identify with that popular meme that says "Feed me tacos and tell me I'm pretty". 

Now, there's nothing wrong with cheesecake or chocolate - I love some every once in a while. But if you want to bring true joy to my heart, hand me something salty and CRUNCHY. 

Here's the catch: most salty crunchy snackies are pretty unhealthy. Don't get me started on the health impacts of corn, seed oils, and industrial table salt. (I do encourage you to do your research though!)

Here's where my snack recipe outshines any crunchy counterpart. 

Make these crunchy chicken skin chips in under an hour and know that they contain NONE of those unhealthy things.

The last time I made these, even my young kids preferred them over store-bought chips. 

Here's what you need to do.

1. Thaw your Polyface chicken skin completely. You'll want to make sure you can pull apart the pieces and manipulate each. There were even some larger chunks of beautiful grass-fed fat on there that I pulled off and set aside for my soup pot. Go ahead and measure your spices onto separate plates so you can access them easily.

2. Cut the skin into manageable-sized pieces. I tried all different sizes and found the best size was about 4-5 inches. Having all your pieces roughly the same size will ensure that they're all done about the same time.

3. Season BOTH SIDES of each piece of skin. I used salt, pepper, and garlic powder. For an easy custom flavor, use NOURISH Chicken Dance dry rub, and you don't even have to measure amounts!

4. Arrange the pieces on a parchment-lined baking pan with sides.

5. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 20 minutes, then use tongs to flip each piece over. Continue baking for roughly 20 more minutes or until the pieces feel crispy. Remove from the oven onto a dish with a paper towel to soak up any extra fat. (You'll be left with lots of liquid gold - ahem, chicken fat - on your baking pan. I recommend pouring this into a small glass container to use for cooking eggs or sauteeing veggies.)

And that's it! Easy-peasy, no-guilt, only-nutritious crunchy snack.