This is another special from Tim Anderson’s fantastic book “Your Home Izakaya” which has given me a tonne of Martini inspiration (such as the fusion-style avocado sashimi recipe).

These crunchy chicken skin crackers aren’t the healthiest snack you’ve ever had, but you’re only going to have a small amount – and what a way to upgrade your martini.

You’re already treating yourself, why not push the boat out that little bit further?

You can prepare them earlier in the day to serve with a martini for something convenient as well as devilishly good. If you store them in an airtight container they can even last for a day or two. Making them in advance also means you can clean the kitchen and let the cooking aroma subside before you enjoy your drink.

So here’s how to prepare crispy chicken skin crackers at home:

You will need

• Chicken skin – I normally peel mine off store-bought chicken thighs (which I then put in the slow cooker for dinner) but if you have a good quality butcher they might be able to help you as well.
• Sesame oil
• Salt
• MSG
• Pepper or shichimi powder

How to make your crispy chicken skin crackers

You can make as little or as much of this as you like. The only real limitation is how much skin you have and how much space you have to cook it.

Heat an oven to 150⁰C/300⁰F then get to work on the skin while it’s warming up.

I peel it off the chicken by hand.

Trim off any excess fat or non-skin parts that might be attached to the skin and discard them.

The skin will shrink when it cooks so while I prepare it I like to cut it into four times what might be considered a civilised bite size.

The recipe book calls for lining a roasting tin with parchment paper which you then brush with sesame oil before laying down the chicken skin.

If you don’t want to use paper you can put sesame oil on your fingers and rub a wire racks or two, sit them on a pyrex dish and lay the chicken skin on top of that. The paper version is easier.

Next, sprinkle over some salt and MSG powder then add everything to the hot oven.

I cook it for about an hour (checking at 30, 40 and 50 minutes to make sure nothing is burning).

When it’s golden, but not fully crunchy, take the chicken out of the oven and turn up the heat to 180⁰C/350⁰F.

If you have collected any chicken fat beneath the skin you can try and pour it into a dish to save for other purposes (like cooking recipes later).

Next, return the chicken skin to the now hotter oven and roast it for about 6 minutes to crisp it up, checking and turning it half way through.

Remove the chicken, sprinkle over some shichimi pepper (optional) then let it cool.

How do you serve crispy chicken skin crackers?

You don’t need to do anything else. They are ready to eat!

However, I obviously serve them with a nice, cold martini.

I mean… come on… what do you expect me to do?

They are exceptionally good. The savoury, fatty crunch of the seasoned chicken contrasts beautifully with a cold, oily, herbal, citrus martini.

If you want to pair them with a specific martini I would say that a citrus flavour does very well at cutting through the fatty crunchiness of the chicken.

As such, I would suggest that this dish goes very well with a classic martini made with lemon peel.

I would also suggest that it goes well with any other lemon, pickle or flavourful based martini variation.

This could include a Gibson, a Filthy, a Spicy, a Hot ‘n’ Dirty and even a sweet and sour Lemon Drop Martini or scintillating Porn Star Martini although the latter two would be a bit too overstimulating for me, rather like eating too much processed, sweet and salty food at a funfair before jumping onto a rollercoaster. Nonetheless, each to their own – you might love the combo!

Another suggestion for the chicken skin crackers is that if you really wanted to be fancy you could serve them with some lemon flavoured oshibori towels. This would be particularly VIP of you.

I can also report that they go extremely well with sparkling wine.

Whatever you decide to serve them with, the crackers won’t last long.

Enjoy!