Thinking outside the box with cracklins

"Gratons", "Cracklins", or "Chicharrones" no matter what you call them, those deep fried pork skins are unbelievable. I like to crumble some of them up and add them to Panko or Italian bread crumbs whenever I'm cooking paneed chicken fillets or pork chops.

Just be sure to use the traditional breading procedure of flour, egg wash and then the bread crumbs or the bigger pieces will fall off. To make sure the crackling pieces stay on, mix flour or fish fry in with the bread crumb/crackling mix. When the floured meat is added to the egg wash, the coating then acts like a sort of glue so the bread crumbs stick better to the meat. The flour mixed with the bread crumbs makes extra "glue" for the bigger pieces.

Also, use thin cut pork chops or pound out the chicken breasts first so you don't have to saute or fry the meat too long. If you don't, the cracklings tend to burn because they're already cooked.

For different breading texture try using those french bread crumbs you can buy now instead of Italian bread crumbs.

The most difficult part of the cooking procedure is not eating all the gratons in the first place in order to save some for crumbling up.

 

By the way, did anyone try making the hogshead cheese sauce?

 

Try mixing some cracklins in with a corn bread. Talk about good!

 

My father in law does this.

I've also add zucchni spears breaded in crushed cracklins... very good.

 

Say no more, will try as soon as I get real cracklins. sounds great.
Also I forgot to mention, get the softer, moister ones for breading.

Red's absolutely right about those hard cracklins. I've used a food processor once when they were real hard and dry. I got cracklin flour out of that attempt. The flavor was there though.

 

I like to wrap my cracklins in bacon...

 

This statement reminds me of the Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Chas song "Everthing On The Hog" (is good) :

Everything on the Hog | Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Chas Song - Yahoo! Music