My Nanna used to make these. They were her take on a sort of home made sausage. She was European and lived on a small farm where I visited during the week as it was closer to school than my family home.
She'd slaughter her own chickens, and nothing would go to waste, and this was her way of stretching one more meal from the chook.
These bake up glistening, golden and crisp, and you can fill them with just about anything. Our favourite is just fresh breadcrumbs (gluten free ones here), bound with an egg and some herbs, spices and cheese and toasted nuts. But add some camembert cubes and dried cranberries and it's suddenly pretty gourmet fare. In fact, once you've made these, you might see a remarkable similarity between Stuffed Chicken Skin Parcels, and some of those fancy looking rolled chicken roasts at the specialty deli.
The easiest way to get your chicken skins for this recipe is to buy the whole chicken, cut it down the middle of the back with kitchen scissors, and flatten it out with your hands.
Then slide your fingers between the flesh and the skin, and simply ease it away. It will peel off like skin from a mandarin. If that's all too hard, you could try asking your local butcher if he's save some for you from jointing the chicken for sale as skinless breast and thigh meat, but don't give away our secret or next thing you know, every butcher will be selling stuffed chicken skin parcels for $12.99 a kilo!
You'll need:
For 4 chicken skin parcels
Skin of one chicken, cut in to four rough squares/oblongs
8 slices of bread
1 egg
1/2 cup grated tasty cheese
1 onion, peeled and diced finely
Chopped fresh herbs of your choice or 1/2 teaspoon each of a combo like thyme and rosemary, or sage and basil
A little milk or cream if required to make the stuffing hold together
Oil for brushing before baking
Dried cranberries or toasted almonds if you wish (I highly recommend this combo...delicious!)
Salt and pepper
Kitchen string
Then just:
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Cut four pieces of chicken string into 30cm lengths and set aside.
Cube the bread finely and add the next four ingredients. Mix well with clean hands until it holds together when squeezed into a ball. Add a little milk or cream if the mixture is too dry.
Stretch your pieces of chicken skin into as regular a shape as you can manage.
Spoon a handful of the bread mixture onto the centre of each piece of chicken skin.
Fold the edges over like an envelope. Use the kitchen string to tie around all four sides like gift ribbon on a present. Knot the string firmly, and set the parcels on a lined baking tray. Brush generously with oil, and season well with salt and pepper.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden and crisp.
Serve with a crunchy salad, or steamed veges and roast potatoes as you would any other roast dinner.
You won't believe how scrumptious these are. Honest!
Photo to come :)
