Cooking Tip: Chicken Skin Compromise

Here's a little trick I came up with recently to find a happy medium between skin-on (= fattier) and skinless (= flavorless) chicken.

When roasting leg/thigh pieces or bone-in breasts, I remove the skin from the raw chicken (kitchen shears help with this, or you can just slide your fingers under the skin, peel it back, and pull).

But! Then I throw the skin into the roasting pan and let it render (i.e. melt) while the oven is preheating. I then season the chicken parts and once they are ready to go in the hot oven, there is a nice little layer of grease to toss them in. That way, they don't stick to the pan, and they have some schmaltzalicious flavor, but you're not just straight-up eating the skin. There! Now everyone is happy!

N.B. When roasting an entire chicken, I leave the skin on. I'm not a psycho.

Shown above: Seasoned chicken legs (Detail view of this meal)