Creamy, salted butter, packed with delicious savoury flavour from crumbled roasted chicken skin. It's the ultimate accompaniment to freshly baked bread, or as a topping for steamed vegetables.
Place the chicken skins on a baking tray and sprinkle with the salt and pepper.
skin from 4 chicken thighs, ½ tsp salt, ¼ tsp black pepper
Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until crisp. If using an Airfryer instead of the oven, cook at 180C/350F for 10-12 minutes, checking once or twice, until crisp.
Remove the chicken skins from the tray and place on a wire rack to cool. Reserve any remaining fat from the tray and place in a small bowl.
Place the butter in a bowl and beat with a wooden spoon (or whisk with an electric whisk) until light and creamy.
120 g (1 stick) unsalted butter
When the chicken skins are cool, place in a food processor and blend until they resemble fine breadcrumbs.
Stir in crumbled chicken skin and 1 tablespoon of the reserved chicken fat from the tray (the rest can be used for cooking - it makes great fat for roast potatoes!).
Give it a taste and add in more salt and pepper to taste (I sometimes add in an extra ¼ teaspoon of salt at this point, especially if I’m using it to serve over vegetables), then serve.
Video
Notes
Making ahead:If making ahead, cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days, then remove from the refrigerator about an hour before serving to allow it to soften up again.Making a butter log:If you want to make a butter log (for slicing into rounds) spoon the mixed butter out into a fat sausage shape (2.5cm or 1” in diameter) on a long piece of clingfilm. Wrap the butter in the clingfilm and roll it on the countertop to get an even sausage shape. Place in the refrigerator to firm up. Unwrap and slice into discs when ready to serve.Cooking the chicken skin in an airfryer:Season the chicken skin and airfry at 180C/350F for 12 minutes, checking once or twice, until crisp.Using leftover skin from a whole cooked chicken:You can also make chicken skin butter using leftover skin from your roast chicken chicken dinner. Simply remove the skin, season a little more with salt and pepper and place in the oven for a few minutes to crisp up. Then continue on with the recipe. If you're using leftover skin, you won't have the leftover chicken fat, but don't worry, it will still be really flavourful.Ingredient additionsIf you want to change it up a little, try these options:
Add the leaves from a sprig of fresh thyme or rosemary when mixing the butter
Add a pinch of dried sage and/or lemon zest when mixing.
Stir in a couple of cloves of crushed roasted garlic (or one small clove of fresh garlic, or add a pinch of garlic powder or garlic salt) when mixing.
Nutritional information is approximate, per tablespoon. I've based this on each chicken skin being approx 68 calories (calorie calculator estimations range from approx 49-70 cals per skin)