How do you render chicken fat for cooking?

Question

Has anyone attempted to render chicken fat, also called schmaltz, as a form of cooking oil? How is it done?

Answer 1

All the fats are great, really. Schmaltz, lard, and tallow all add great flavor to things.

Comments

Yep been saving bacon grease, Schmaltz, and beef Tallow in mason jars for years.

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I will draw a line at cod liver oil... Disgusting taste... And I love fish.
I'm assuming things like whale and seal blubber would be an acquired taste too...

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Schmalz is just the german word for tallow/lard and can be used synonymously with both. Schweineschmalz, Hühnerschmalz, Rinderschmalz even Butterschmalz whatever solid heat refined animal based fat you have is basically Schmalz.

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Cool and thank you but to me and just about anybody else Schmaltz Ming's chicken fat

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Love lard fried chips, adds almost pastry like notes

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Schmalz, not schmaltz.

Answer 2

Restaurant I worked at a few years back did a brownie Sunday with chicken fat caramel and fried chicken skin. It was amazing!!!! Probably one of the best desserts I’ve ever had.

Comments

I've never thought about using chicken fat in a dessert. I'm intrigued by this. Not big into desserts but I might give this a go

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made content about their chicken fat tarte tatin you should check it out!

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this sounds like something a restaurant created just to have a thing and girls end up pressuring their boy friends into eating it.

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Not really, chicken doesn't have a strong flavour on its own, so the chicken fat wouldn't really add a lot of its own flavour. I think it could work quite well with chocolate

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, it sounds delicious. You might have some issues with women

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it doesn’t add a lot of flavor what’s the point? Look I get it. A restaurant gets to have their own unique item and it’s tasty enough regardless so no one Bats their eye.

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Try it before you knock it, chicken fat is delicious in almost anything.

Answer 3

Sammy's Romanian used to have bottles of it on the table, very common in Ashkenazi Jewish food

Answer 4

My grandma used to prepare Matzoball using matzo meal, chicken Schmaltz and Gribenes (the chicken skin and onions fried in schmaltz)

Answer 5

Nice. Thank you

Answer 6

i went to the philippines and often at restaurants they'll have a bottle of chicken fat on the table along with soy sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper and the idea is when you have a plate of rice (in the philippines you always have rice at meals) you pour the chicken fat over the rice and it is so simple but delicious

Answer 7

In Germany, wie have "Schmalz" from geese, pork, sometimes duck, and it is eaten on bread with salt or other spices. But here, nobody would eat chicken-fat or refer to it as "Schmalz". I keep most of the rendered fats from cooking for later use, but chicken-fat is the least tastiest.

Comments

You need to season it a bit

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Duck and goose fat are great.

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That's because poultry fat in general is referred to as schmalz by Ashkenazi Jews - who traditionally did use lots of chicken and goose fat in their home cooking. This word is most likely borrowed into English via Yiddish rather than via German.

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Yes.

German:
Schmalz = animal fat (duck, goose, pork). Other animal fats are normaly not called Schmalz.
Yiddish:
shmals = mainly the (kosher) chicken fat.

But however you may call it, chicken fat is so much less tastier than most of the other animal fats. In my opinion it's mostely a cheap (industrial) fat when you want to have some chicken taste without putting (expensive) chicken in the dish.

Answer 8

Schmalz (which is how it is written in German) usually refers to rendered goose fat, not chicken fat.

Comments

yes, nor lard, so shmalz is a good alternative

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he's right, butter and meat isn't kosher but schmalz and meat is

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i'm not jewish

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Schmalz (von mittelhochdeutsch smalz; verwandt mit schmelzen), auch Schmer (von mittelhochdeutsch smër; verwandt mit schmieren), ist als ausgelassenes tierisches Fett von hochviskoser Konsistenz[1] ein weiterverarbeitetes Schlachtfett, vor allem von Schweinen und Gänsen, früher auch von Hühnern und Hunden. Das Schlachtfett von Rindern hat einen höheren Schmelzpunkt und wird Talg genannt. Im weiteren Sinne wird auch Butterschmalz zum Schmalz gezählt.

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no - are you?

Answer 9

I like to work this with tallow and save the crispiness for later fried rice or noodles/pasta. However my family always find a way to sneak away these bits before I could even start with the final stirring!

Answer 10

Absolutely!
Liquid gold! like the stock from duck confit
cracklins

Answer 11

I sometimes debone and remove the skin from chicken thighs, when I do I slowly dry fry the skins and save the fat they let out

Answer 12

Khao mun gai is my ultimate comfort food, so yes I've cooked with chicken fat before but it's difficult to cook more than one thing with it for me

Answer 13

My grandma thought me how to make it. Love you gran

Answer 14

what temp is low?

Comments

I imagine about 140c.

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Thank you!
I usually do it on top of the stove. This helps!

Answer 15

I do that all the time! Save all fat from pork, chicken or beef and use it to cook something else later

Answer 16

If you put the skins through a meat grinder (cold-near frozen) you can render a lot more fat from the skins (if you just want the schmaltz).

Comments

Very insightful thank you

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Great tip

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could probably make a dog treat with the left overs too

Answer 17

Good job there were subtitles, as I didn't know what "...budder" was.

Answer 18

That's where you roast your potatoes. with a bit of thyme and rosemary.

Answer 19

I love to use a little to toast rice in before boiling it. Also makes for an alright yorkshire pudding.

Answer 20

No need to roast, I live in Thailand we fried it in their own fat, just mix the skin with some salt, move in the cold pan, add cup of water and cook at very low heat for around an hour, it can keep in the box for a week.