Chicken, skin (drumsticks and thighs), raw

Raw chicken skin from drumsticks and thighs is usually trimmed off before cooking and set aside for a separate purpose: rendered slowly in a pan to make schmaltz, or roasted flat between two baking sheets until it shatters like a cracker. Cooks also leave it on the meat and crisp it under high heat so the surface blisters and browns while the leg or thigh stays moist underneath. Fried chicken skin, deep-fried until crackling, shows up as a bar snack in its own right, and rendered chicken fat gets used the way lard or butter would, for frying potatoes, basting a roast bird, or enriching gravy. Its flavor is mild and poultry-forward, so it takes on whatever seasoning surrounds it, from a simple salt-and-pepper rub to garlic and paprika.

Because it is almost entirely fat and skin, this cut is best chosen as a cooking fat or a crunchy garnish rather than a main protein source. Per 100 grams it runs 440 calories with 44.2 grams of fat and only 9.58 grams of protein, so a little goes a long way for flavor and texture. Sodium is naturally low at 51 milligrams per 100 grams before any salt is added in cooking. Keep raw skin refrigerated and use it within a day or two, or freeze it in a bag for later rendering, since fat left at room temperature turns rancid quickly.