Smoked Pork Belly Chicharróns (Pork Rinds)

When most "normal" people hear the words, "Pork Rind," they make a funny face.  Well it's more of a "squeamish" face, actually.  I can't blame them.  When I think "Pork Rinds," I think of convenience stores and bags of puffy plastic looking fried pork skin that is so over-seasoned that "normal" people couldn't even eat them.  BUT, What if you took whole slabs of bacon, with all of that delicious meat and fat, and you left the skin on, and cut it into bite-sized chunks and THEN you gently deep-fried it?  You've an AMAZING snack called a "Chicharrón!"

You Will Need:

• One whole Skin-On Pork Belly, cooked and refrigerated overnight.
• Deep Fat Fryer, pre-heated to 400 degrees

Luckily, more and more stores are selling whole pork bellies these days.  You'll need a whole skin-on pork belly, smoked to perfection and an internal temperature of 190 degrees.  You can use my recipe, here, if you choose, or use any one that you like.  Just place the whole cooked belly into the refrigerator overnight before you proceed.

Place the belly on your cutting board and slice it into planks, just exactly as though you were slicing bacon.  Cut them 1/2" thick.

Then, slice 1/2" cuts from your 1/2" slabs until you have hundreds of gorgeous little bite-sized chunks of the best snacks you'll ever make!

Place them, a handful at a time, into your fry-basket.  Gently drop them into the hot fat and keep your hands, arms, elbows, and anything combustible away from the fray!

When cold pork fat hits hot oil, lots of really cool things happen.  It melts down, and crisps up.  The skin bubbles and gets super crispy.  The meat firms up and develops a nice firm "chew."  So, once they cool down and you can pop them into your mouth, you get a flavorful and amazing crispy chewy snack that melts in your mouth!

Is this a ton of work to go through in order to have a giant basket of amazing pork snacks?  Yes.  Is it worth it?  Yes!  My friend Toney stood tall at the fryer and cooked all of these.  We put them on the table for our Cinco de Mayo party and the next morning, when we were going through the party leftovers, we learned that these had completely disappeared!  We had leftover fajita meat, guacamole, salsa, tortillas, etc, but the Chicharróns completely disappeared.

This made me sad, because I wanted to snack on them for awhile...