The Best Pork Rinds

Truthfully, making Pork Rinds isn’t all that difficult to do but it is quite a time consuming process and one that you might rather avoid if you don’t mind buying a bag of fried pig skins or cracklings, instead.  I say that, mostly, because you don’t save any money, doing it yourself, and cooking these fresh doesn’t seem to improve the taste or flavor, in my opinion.  I like to eat Pork Rinds as much as anyone, so don’t take my thoughts the wrong way.  Just know that I’d rather just buy a premade bag instead of making them myself, next time(unless I have skin I don’t want to go to waste).  So if nothing else, you can at least learn how it’s done and hopefully enjoy this post, recipe and the work I put in to making the Pork Rinds video.

Purchasing Skins for Pork Rinds

As you can see, in the photo above, I purchased my Skins, to make Pork Rinds, from my local Asian Market.  Skins usually come from the Belly side of the pig, where the the bacon is removed.  So there’s generally a ton of fat associated with the cuts.  I paid $2 dollars a pound, for this package, so I didn’t really save any money vs. buying a premade bag of Pork Rinds.  But, because the fat was already removed I didn’t get charged for all the extra weight.  Though, I’m sure if it were still attached, the price would’ve been altered accordingly.  Regardless, you should be able to purchase pig skin from any butcher that sells pork.

Making Pork Rinds

As I mentioned before, making Pork Rinds is time consuming and quite tedious.  Even though the majority of the fat content was removed from the skins, the skin needs to be boiled and scraped to ensure that all of the fat is gone.  And it’s best to boil the skins whole, before cutting and slicing them into portions.  This way you can do it in large sheets instead of individual 1 inch pieces.  Removing the fat, completely, helps to aerate the skin when it bakes and helps the Rinds fluff up more when they’re frying.  In the video, I Boil the Pork Rinds for 30 minutes, strain and then baked them, on low, for approximately 4 hours before frying.  Then once they are removed from the oven, they can be dropped in a deep fryer set at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, for 2 minutes.

Fried Pork Rinds

A few things you need to consider, when making Pork Rinds, is that there are several different ways you can screw these up.  If you’ve ever bitten into a pork rind that just about broke your tooth or was just too hard to chew, then you need to pay attention to a few things.  First, cut off tough and discolored edges that seem dried out and pleathery.  Second, again, be sure to scrape out the fat.  And third, be sure to remove all of the pieces that that didn’t puff up in the fryer.  You follow those three easy steps and all of your teeth will stay intact.

As far as seasonings go, anything with onion and garlic powder in them is generally a good way to go but you can use ranch powder, adobo, pico de gallo or just plain old salt and pepper.

Pork Rinds Ingredients:

2 lbs Pig Skin
2 Quarts Water
1/4 cup Salt
Oil for Frying
You’re Favorite Seasoning

Be sure to remove all of the fat from the skin, boil the skin for 30 minutes, bake the skins on low for 2 to 4 hours and
deep fry the skins at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 2 minutes. Place the Pork Rinds on paper towels and
season with your favorite seasoning or salt.