Chicken Skin substitute

Best substitute

Duck, goose or turkey skin

Use the same amount by weight as the chicken skin you are replacing

Best for rendering fat

Close match

It depends which of chicken skin's three jobs your recipe needs. If it is there to keep lean meat moist, thin slices of unsmoked pancetta, prosciutto or pork fatback wrapped around the outside do the same barding job, and brushing the meat with schmaltz, duck fat or butter under a sheet of parchment covers it with no meat at all. If it is there as a fat source for rendering, duck skin, goose skin or turkey skin behave identically and pork fatback gives you more fat per ounce. If it is there for crunch, be honest with yourself: nothing shatters quite like well-rendered chicken skin, and crushed pork rinds or panko fried in schmaltz are the nearest you will get. Butchers will usually sell you a bag of skin for very little if you ask, which is often easier than substituting.

Other chicken skin substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Pork fatback, caul fat or lardo, thinly sliced
Taste and texture differ
Use Enough to cover the surface, about 2 to 3 ounces for every pound of lean meat
Sheets of pure pork fat, or the lacy caul membrane, used to wrap lean meat.
What changes
Best for
barding lean roasts, terrines and pates, roulades and stuffed birds, wrapping game or rabbit, meatloaf
This is the classical solution to the same problem and in some ways better at it. Caul fat is the traditional wrapping for anything that needs to hold its shape and self-baste, and it melts away almost entirely, leaving a burnished surface. Fatback and lardo do the same and are easier to find. The differences are that the flavor is porky rather than chicken-like and, more importantly, that these do not crisp into a crackling layer the way skin does; they render and soften, so you get moisture and richness but a soft surface. Ask a butcher rather than looking on a shelf.
3Bacon or unsmoked pancetta slices
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by covering area, 3 to 4 slices per pound of meat
The most available barding fat, wrapped over the outside of lean meat.
What changes
Best for
wrapping chicken breast or lean roasts, stuffed birds, meatloaf, roulades, adding fat to lean game
Everyone has this and it works. The layer of fat renders down and keeps whatever is underneath from drying, and it browns handsomely. What changes is the flavor, decisively: bacon brings smoke, cure and often sugar, so a dish designed to taste of roast chicken will instead taste of bacon. Pancetta is the closer choice because it is cured but not smoked. Neither will crisp as thin or as evenly as chicken skin, and both curl as they cook, so overlap the slices and tie them or secure them with toothpicks. Neither is kosher, which rules them out of the dishes chicken skin most often appears in.
4Schmaltz, duck fat or butter brushed on, with parchment or foil
Different texture
Use 1 tablespoon fat for every portion
The honest answer when the skin was only ever there to stop lean meat drying out.
What changes
Best for
skinless chicken breast, poaching and gentle roasting, stuffed birds, matzo balls and dumplings, any dish where the skin is discarded before serving
In a great many recipes the skin is a heat shield and a fat supply rather than something anyone eats, and in those cases a tablespoon of fat and a loose cover of parchment does the same work. Schmaltz is the exact flavor match, duck fat is richer, butter is excellent but browns and can burn at high heat. You get no crunch at all and no burnished surface, so this is the wrong choice for a roast that needs to look impressive and the right one for a braise, a poach or a stuffing.
5Crushed pork rinds or panko fried in fat, for the crunch only
Different taste
Use ¼ cup crumbs for every 2 ounces of skin, scattered at the last moment
A crisp topping that replaces the texture of a crackling layer without pretending to be skin.
What changes
Best for
garnishing soups and salads, topping mashed potatoes, crusting a skinless breast, chopped liver, adding crunch to braises
If what you have lost is the shatter, this is the practical fix. Pork rinds are closest in character because they are literally rendered skin, unsweetened and unsmoked, and panko toasted in schmaltz or duck fat gives you crunch plus poultry flavor. Both go soggy quickly once they touch anything moist, so add them at the table rather than during cooking. Neither has the thin, glassy, slightly chewy quality of real rendered chicken skin, and no crumb ever will.
6Prosciutto, speck or serrano ham
Different taste
Use 2 to 3 thin slices for every portion
Dry-cured ham wrapped around lean protein, which crisps into a salty shell.
What changes
Best for
wrapping chicken breast, wrapping fish or lean game, saltimbocca-style dishes, garnish crisps
Very good for texture and quite poor for moisture, which is the opposite of what people expect. Prosciutto has little fat to render, so it dries into a crisp salty sheet rather than basting the meat underneath, meaning a chicken breast wrapped in it can still come out dry. It is intensely savory and salty, so cut the salt everywhere else in the recipe. Use it when you want a crisp, flavorful jacket, and add a little butter or oil under it if moisture is the real concern.

What is Chicken Skin?

Chicken Skin is Chicken skin is the fatty outer layer of the bird, roughly half fat and half collagen, saved by cooks to render into schmaltz, crisp into cracklings, or wrap around lean meat so it bastes itself as it cooks.

Cooking tips

Work out which of three jobs the skin is doing before you choose anything, because no single substitute covers all three. It supplies fat, which is why it renders into schmaltz. It acts as a moisture barrier over lean meat, which is why birds are roasted skin-on. And it becomes a crisp layer, which is why anyone eats it. Fat brushed on covers the first two; bacon covers the first two with a flavor change; only skin of some kind really covers the third.
Chicken skin is easy to buy even though it is rarely on display. Ask at a butcher counter or a kosher butcher and you will usually get a bag of skin and fat trimmings for very little, and otherwise save the skin every time you trim thighs or break down a bird and freeze it until you have a couple of cups.
To crisp skin properly, dry it first. Lay it flat, salt it lightly, and leave it uncovered on a rack in the fridge for a few hours or overnight, then press it between two parchment-lined sheet pans and bake at 375F for twenty to thirty minutes. Pressing is the trick that turns wrinkled skin into flat brittle sheets. To render fat instead, start it in a cold pan with a splash of water over low heat for twenty to thirty minutes, which melts the fat out gently rather than searing the outside.
Salt after rendering, not before, if crunch is the goal. Salt pulls water to the surface, and surface water is the enemy of crisping. The exception is the overnight drying step, where a light salting helps precisely because you are giving the moisture hours to evaporate.
When roasting a lean cut skin-on, remember that the skin insulates. If the skin is flabby by the time the meat is cooked, pull the meat, peel the skin off, and crisp it separately under the broiler or in a pan for a few minutes, then serve it alongside. This also works with turkey and is the most reliable way to get both properly cooked meat and properly crisp skin.

Frequently asked questions

What is chicken skin actually doing in a recipe?

One of three things. It is a source of fat to be rendered, which is how schmaltz is made. It is a self-basting layer that shields lean meat from direct heat and drips fat over it, which is why roast chicken is cooked skin-on. Or it is a texture, a thin crisp layer that people eat for its own sake. Identify which one and the substitution becomes obvious: fat for the first two, and something genuinely crisp for the third.

Can I use bacon instead of chicken skin?

For wrapping lean meat, yes, and it is the most common real-world swap. Overlap three or four slices over a breast or a lean roast and it will render and keep the meat moist. The catch is flavor: bacon is smoked, cured and often sweetened, so the finished dish tastes of bacon rather than of chicken. Unsmoked pancetta is a closer match. For rendering into a neutral poultry fat, bacon is the wrong choice, since you will get smoky pork drippings rather than schmaltz.

Can I just leave the chicken skin out?

Often yes. If a recipe roasts a bird skin-on and the skin is discarded anyway, brushing the meat with a tablespoon of oil, butter or schmaltz and covering it loosely with parchment gives you an almost identical result. If the skin is being rendered for schmaltz, you cannot leave it out, but you can buy rendered chicken fat or use duck fat instead. If the skin is the point, as with cracklings or a crisp-skinned roast, leaving it out means making a different dish.

Is chicken skin the same as gribenes?

No. Chicken skin is the raw ingredient. Gribenes are the finished product: the crisp brown bits of skin, usually rendered with onion, left behind after making schmaltz. If your recipe calls for gribenes or chicken cracklings, you are looking for the crisp bits rather than raw skin, and the substitutes are different, mostly crumbled crisp bacon, pork rinds or fried shallots. If your recipe calls for chicken skin, it wants the raw sheet, either to render or to wrap something in.

Where can I buy chicken skin on its own?

Ask at a butcher counter, an Asian market or a kosher butcher, all of which routinely trim skin and fat and will usually sell a bag cheaply or hand it over for next to nothing. Bone-in skin-on thighs are the supermarket fallback, since the skin peels off easily and you get the meat too. Failing all that, buy whole chickens and save the skin in a freezer bag until you have enough.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Chicken Skin substitute

Other chicken skin substitutes

2Pork fatback, caul fat or lardo, thinly sliced

3Bacon or unsmoked pancetta slices

4Schmaltz, duck fat or butter brushed on, with parchment or foil

5Crushed pork rinds or panko fried in fat, for the crunch only

6Prosciutto, speck or serrano ham