There was a time a generation or two ago when many Jewish-American homes had a jar of gribenes crispy bits of chicken skin yielded through the rendering of schmaltz, or chicken fat on the table. Stirred together with deeply caramelized onions, the whole mess was spread on rye bread or toast and sprinkled with salt for an indulgent snack. Portland, Oregon’s Kenny & Zuke’s is part of a new wave of artisanal Jewish delis intent on revamping the classics for a new generation. Its chef, Ken Gordon, created these slyly elegant, crunchy rillettes just for us, adding a hint of fresh thyme and piling the gribenes onto thin rye toasts think of them as “Jewish cracklings.” Chances are, if you give your local butcher a day’s notice he’ll save you the chicken skin and sell it to you for a song.
Ingredients
- 3 cups chicken skin and fat (from 2 large or 3 small chickens)
- 3 large onions (2 pounds), peeled and diced (6 cups)
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- Microgreens, for serving
- 24 very thin small slices of rye toast, or packaged rye bagel toasts
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Prepare the Chicken Fat
- Spread the chicken fat and skin on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets and freeze until mostly but not completely solid, 1 to 1½ hours; the skin will still have a little bit of give. Cut the skin and fat into ½-inch-wide strips, then cut the strips into ½-inch dice. Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat, add the skin and fat, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the skin starts rendering its fat and has shrunk to about half of its original size, 14 to 15 minutes. Make the Cracklings
- Pour a scant ½ cup of the fat into a large, heavy skillet and add the onions to the new pan. For the first pan, turn the heat up to medium-high under the chicken skin and cook, stirring frequently, until all the fat renders out and the skin turns a deep golden brown, an additional 8 to 10 minutes but just enough to prevent the skin from burning. When the skin is uniformly brown, strain and reserve the rendered fat, and spread the cracklings on a baking sheet lined with paper towels. Cook the Onions
- While the cracklings are rendering, continue to cook the onions over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they’re very soft, 10 to 12 minutes, then turn up the heat to medium-high and brown them until they’re very well caramelized, but not burnt, an additional 7 to 8 minutes. Remove from the heat. Make the Gribenes
- Place about ½ cup of the rendered chicken fat in a large bowl. Cover and chill in the refrigerator until solidified, but still soft, about 2 hours. Add most of the cracklings and onions to the bowl, reserving ¼ cup of each for garnish (don’t refrigerate these garnishes!). Add the thyme, salt, and pepper, and gently toss until well mixed. Portion out the fat spread into small ramekins, and chill until ready to serve. To Serve
- Spoon some of the reserved onions on the top of the ramekins, then sprinkle each with a teaspoon of cracklings. Serve with microgreens and rye toasts.