Baked Pork Rinds (Pork Cracklins)
A super-simple recipe for baked pork rinds (baked pork cracklins) that you can make at home and skip the processed snack aisle!
Servings Prep Time
1big bowl for sharing 15minutes
Cook Time
3.5hours
Servings Prep Time
1big bowl for sharing 15minutes
Cook Time
3.5hours
Ingredients
Eatin' ingredients (software)
Instructions
  1. Lay out your pork skin, fat-side-up. If it is larger than your roasting pan or roasting rack, cut it to size carefully with your very sharp knife. Pork skin is tough, so work carefully.
  2. Using the same sharp knife, trim fat from the skin until there is an even layer of pork fat around 1/4" thick all over the sheet of skin.
  3. Using your sturdy fork, or meat tenderizer (with sharp prongs), prick the fat side of the pork skin as you would a pie crust. Poke hard. This will help the fat render evenly and will help the skin crisp evenly.
  4. Season the fat side of the skin liberally with salt and black pepper, then flip it to skin-side-up. Pat the skin dry with paper towels and sprinkle the skin with salt, rubbing it in with your hands. This will help draw moisture out of the rinds as they bake, and will help with the puffing.
  5. Lay the pork skin/rinds, fat-side-down, on the rack in your roasting pan. If they hang off the edges of the rack, make sure you tuck them in so any melting fat drips into the pan. The skin will shrink substantially upon baking.
  6. Roast for 2.5-3.5 hours at 325 degrees F. Check about every hour. Tap the skin with tongs for crispness -- you may have to rearrange them mid-roast if your rack is angled like mine was -- I found the edges of the cracklin at the "bottom" of the V rack wasn't crisping as fast as the "top" edge, so I turned them halfway through and that solved it. I assume the fat was rendering and collecting a little at the bottom edge, keeping it from getting fully crunchy. This picture is the pork skin after one hour -- don't be surprised if it curls at first, it will flatten again as it roasts.
  7. After the first 2 hours, it's a good idea to remove the rendered pork fat from the bottom of the pan with a bulb-style turkey baster. Suck the fat out and put it into a heat-resistant container (it's HOT HOT FAT) and then carefully dispose of it when it cools a little.
  8. When the cracklin has shrunk, is golden brown, and is uniformly hard and crunchy when you tap it with tongs, it's done. Remove it from the oven and immediately re-season it with some salt and any seasonings you like.
  9. Let the pork cracklins cool for 5-10 minutes. When they are cool enough to handle, turn them fat-side-up and carefully start to cut/break them into pieces using your very sharp knife. Throw them in a bowl, taste for seasoning, and feel free to season them more and toss them in the bowl if needed.
  10. We had ours with chile powder, garlic, onion powder, salt and pepper, and we also tried them with some Louisiana-style hot sauce dribbled over top of them. They stayed crunchy and held up to the liquid sauce, so they'd be a great choice for dipping, too! Enjoy!
Recipe Notes

It is best to use the skin and fat from pastured hogs in this recipe, rather than commercially-raised/supermarket hogs.  Hogs and other animals store toxins, medicines, hormones, antibiotics and chemicals in their fat layers, so any bad things a commercially-raised hog eats could be passed along in the fat that is connected to the skin.

Organic or pastured hogs will not have this problem, and their fat is actually healthier than canola oil, corn oil, vegetable oil, butter, margarine, or shortening.  It is high in Omega 3's and has less saturated fat than butter.

Pastured hog lard has 20 percent less saturated fat than butter; it's higher in monounsaturated fats which are said to lower LDL cholesterol; and it has zero trans fat.  It is high in Omega 3 fatty acids and is an excellent source of Vitamin D because happy hogs have been out in the sunshine.  There's a reason our grandparents grew up eating it and didn't suffer ill effects.