Chicharrones are off limits for traditional Jews — pork is not kosher. But that doesn’t mean hungry Judios have to go through life without delicious fried cracklings of their own — they chow down on a crispy fried chicken skin preparation called gribeñes.
Gribenes or grieven (Yiddish: גריבענעס, [ˈɡrɪbənəs], “scraps”) are crisp chicken or goose skin cracklings with fried onions, a kosher food somewhat similar to pork rinds. Gribenes are a byproduct of schmaltz preparation.
“I learned to make gribenes, from my Mother-In-Law, Dora Schmidt,” Chilanga Susan Schmidt writes on her Mexican-Jewsh blog, “and I have taken them to another level. I make them just occasionally at the end of a long workweek when the family gathers for Shabbat Dinner. This is the time when we all loosen the reins and indulge. I prepare this recipe as a decadent appetizer, in the form of a tortilla chip and guacamole, topped with crunchy gribeñes and golden onions.”
Gribeñes:
The skin from one whole chicken (I take the skin from the chicken that I make my chicken soup with)
1/2 onion chopped
Cut the chicken skin into small pieces (about 1/4 inch) with kitchen shears, and place them in a shallow non-stick frying pan.
Over a medium flame, Continuously stir with a wooden spoon until the pieces are evenly cooked to a crispy golden brown (about 20 minutes)
Remove the gribenes from the pan, Leaving about a Tablespoon of the schmaltz ( chicken fat) in the pan, drain the rest of the schmaltz and pour it into a glass jar, and reserve it in the freezer for future use (such as in the making of tamales).
Add the 1/2 onion to the still hot schmaltz left in the frying pan, and allow it to become crispy and golden as well.
Guacamole:
There can be many guacamole variations, so any of the below ingredients is optional except for the avocado of course.