Muddy Buddy Chicharrones

Townsman was my favorite restaurant in 2015. I went there several times and had some amazing meals. One of my favorite things I ate was during an impromptu pop-in where I sat at the bar for a few drinks and ate some of the bar snacks. These muddy buddy chicharrones caught my eye and I wasn’t sure what to expect. Turns out fried pork skin goes really well with chocolate and peanut butter!  Just the kind of mash-up I love! I had some extra pork skin lying around my apartment, cause that’s how I roll, so I decided to make them at home last week.

The reason I had the pork skin is because I am making homemade bacon!  That recipe will be up here in a couple weeks.

All the trimmings from that big pork slab went into a stock pot to make broth. I pulled the skin after a few hours though to make these chicharrones.

The skin still has some fat clinging to it, so scrape it off with a knife.

Then you need to dry them out. If you have a dehydrator you can use it, but I just put them into the oven at a low temp.

Before you fry, get the sauce ready. Peanut butter, chocolate, and butter.

The pork skin puffs up really nice in the fryer.

Pour on that sauce.

Then the powdered sugar.  You guys have made muddy buddies before right? You know the drill.

Oh man.  These are good! You sort of expect them to get soggy but they stay crazy crispy.

Sweet and salty is just what you want in a bar snack!  It might take a long time to make these pork rinds but it is a really fun cooking project that wasn’t hard at all.  It ends up being basically free too because you would be throwing away the pork skin otherwise.

Print Recipe

Muddy Buddy Chicharrones

Inspired by Townsman restaurant in Boston, these chicharrones are tossed in peanut butter, chocolate, and powdered sugar.

Prep Time30 mins

Cook Time12 hrs

Total Time12 hrs 30 mins

Course: Appetizer, Snack

Cuisine: American, Puerto Rican, Spanish

Keyword: fried, Mash-Up, Over the Top, Sweets

Servings: 6 people

Ingredients

• 2 pounds pork skin
• oil for frying
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• salt

Instructions

• Boil the skin in salted water for about 3 hours until it is much more tender but not falling apart. I actually did this with additional pork and bones and saved the stock for soup.
• Use a knife to scrape any extra fat that is clinging to the pork skin. Rinse the skins and cut them into roughly two inch pieces.
• Put the pork skin on to a wire rack on top of a baking sheet and lightly salt. Bake at the lowest temp your oven will go (mine is 170) for 8 hours or so. Flip them occasionally while they cook. Let them fully dry in the oven for however long it takes.
• Once dried they can last on the shelf indefinitely if you don’t want to cook them right away.
• Mix the chocolate, peanut butter, and butter in a bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir and repeat until fully melted and combined. Stir in a pinch of salt, along with the vanilla.
• Bring some oil to 400. Break the brittle pork skin into roughly half inch pieces. Add the pork skin to the hot oil about 6 pieces at a time. It will only take about 20 seconds to cook and fully expand into that crispy airy pork rind you know and love. Put on a wire rack and lightly salt as they comes out of the fryer and continue until you fry them all.
• Put the chicharrones into a bowl and pour in the peanut butter mixture. Only add enough to lightly coat. Toss to evenly coat the chicharrones. Add in the powdered sugar and toss some more. Serve with a delicious beer.