10# Bags of Cheap Chicken Leg Quarters- How To Guide for Kitchen Newbies


(Bean) #1

I’m not sure if this is helpful to any kitchen novices, but here’s a quick overview of how I make the most of the 10# bags of leg quarters. You could do this with most any cheap bone-in poultry.

These are seconds from a local poultry producer that does small flock, sustainable farming. Since about half their products are organic, I’m guessing some of these are too. The price is up a bit right now, so $1.30 / pound (American). You can see the package in the background of the next picture. I had 2/ 10 pound bags like that.

I peeled the skin off all but the ones I wanted to roast. I made “chicken chips” with the skin.


All the skinless ones went in a stockpot with just a bay leaf.

I cooked the chicken until it was tender, and then pulled it off the bone and onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. I put the bones back in the pot.

I froze the chicken chunks, broke them up and bagged them for quick meals. My college kiddo and one of her roommates are celiac, so this is quick protein for them since they need to scratch cook almost everything.


In the meantime, I roasted the 6 quarters for meals later in the week.

After about 6 hours I strained, cooled, and put away the broth overnight in a large metal bowl. In the morning I skimmed the fat and added it to the rendered fat from the chicken chips. I got about 3 of these:

I use them in about 2-3 weeks. (I don’t generally buy butter). If I get ahead of myself, I freeze a couple. Freeze with the lid off. If it expands too much, it will break the jar. Then I packed the broth- mostly for my uncle who has multiple health issues. I cook it down like a “glacé”, so a little goes a long way.


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#2

Wonderful share. Can you share how you make the “chicken chips” from start to finish? Thank you!


(Bean) #3

I usually do chicken chips while I have the oven on for something else. I have gotten whole 40# cases of chicken skin though GFS food service vendor if you are in the U.S. It’s literally a 40# chicken skin ice cube, so I don’t recommend it.

Turn your oven to 300-325.

Line a baking sheet with parchment.

Lay out the skin and sprinkle it with salt. Don’t add too much salt- they shrink.

Put them in the oven. Turn them over about 15 minutes into cooking. Rotate the tray and check them every 5-7 minutes after that. I have a convection oven, so your times may vary.

Be careful. You are rendering chicken fat. Try not to slosh and use hot pads that give you a good grip.

When they are golden brown, carefully remove the tray from the oven. If they are almost too done- things go fast at the end because the skin is frying in its own fat- use tongs to move them to a plate so they stop cooking.


(The picture above is two-three baking sheets worth with the fat already removed. It’s an older picture from a larger batch).

When things are cool, pour off the rendered chicken fat to use in cooking. We use it as something of a butter substitute. Store in the fridge.

You can store the chips in the fridge (if there’s any left to store. There won’t be if you have college kids around). The chips are better reheated.

If they are “crispy dry” I’ve just thrown a bag of the chips in my purse like if we’re on the road or a train and I know we’ll eat them in a few hours.


(Robin) #4

Have mercy, pretty sure I could live on those and be quite content.


(Judy Thompson) #5

This is a magnificent tutorial @beannoise! You do have an industrial kitchen. Brilliant use of chicken, nose to tail. :heart:


(Bean) #6

Thanks, JJ. My kitchen is actually just a well-organized galley. I’m lucky I have a pantry closet. I still have a few culinary friends, and do impose on their kitchens once or twice a year. :eyes:


#7

Thank you!

So the uncooked picture shows large pieces of skin, but the cooked picture looks like they were chopped into small pieces first. When you cook that large pieces of skin, do they get crispy enough to easily break into pieces? Or do they naturally shrivel up and just look like they are in pieces when they actually are still whole?


(Bean) #8

A little of both. You can keep them thin like in the raw picture and they will be crispy, or crowd them and they will be meatier. You can even render them in a pot. That makes then more like cracklins.


(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #9

The Yiddish term is gribenes, which are the kosher equivalent of pork rinds. Yum!

The other relevant term is schmaltz, which is the rendered fat. Also yum! (Though I have to admit to a preference for bacon grease, lol!)


(Bob M) #10

Which was used by many Jewish people in the US until the government denigrated fat, so they turned to seed oils. Now, they fry their latkes in seed oils. This recipe for instance only uses 1/4 cup schmaltz to much more seed oils:


#11

This is amazing information thank you for sharing.


#12

I use my air fryer at 390* for about 10-12 minutes to yield these. A little salt and pepper, yum.


#13

Not really. You have to cook them at a high temp for a while (and risk burning) to get them to “crumble.” Whenever I do these, they are a mix between chewy and crispy, which is the product of the varying thicknesses of the skin, how crowded the air fryer is or isn’t, etc.


(Bean) #14

Sorry to resurrect an old thread. I wanted to add this to the top of my original post, but apparently there is a time limit for editing.

Anyhow, thanks all for your feedback. I spiffed up the instructions a bit and posted to a Google site so it’s easy to access. You know, in case the server breaks. Although that seems unlikely to happen again.