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Gribenes substitute

Best substitute

Homemade Gribenes From Chicken Skin

Use the same amount as the gribenes you are replacing

Best for chopped liver

Close match

The real thing, made from the skin and fat you trim off a chicken, rendered slowly with sliced onion until the skin is brown and brittle.

Other gribenes substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

Substitutes for Gribenes with ratios

  1. 2Crisp-Fried Bacon or Pancetta, Crumbled

    Different taste

    Use the same amount by volume

    The most available substitute for the salty, fatty, crunchy job gribenes are doing.

    What changes
    Best for
    kugel, mashed potatoes, salads, soups, garnish

    Texturally excellent and immediately convincing. The difference is smoke and cure - bacon brings a smoky, cured, almost sweet flavour that gribenes do not have, so a chopped liver made with it tastes distinctly of bacon rather than of roasted chicken. Pancetta is the closer of the two because it is unsmoked. Neither is kosher, which rules them out of the traditional dishes gribenes belong to.

  2. 3Crushed Pork Rinds or Chicharrones

    Different taste

    Use the same amount by volume, added at the last second

    Puffed fried pork skin, which is essentially the same idea as gribenes applied to a different animal.

    What changes
    Best for
    garnish, toppings, salads, mashed potatoes

    The crunch is spot on and the flavour is closer than bacon because there is no smoke or sugar. What is missing is the browned onion sweetness that real gribenes pick up from being rendered with onion. They also go soggy faster than gribenes, so scatter them on at the table. Not kosher.

  3. 4Crisp Fried Shallots or Onions

    Different taste

    Use the same amount by volume

    Thin-sliced shallot or onion fried in oil or schmaltz until brown and brittle, or the ready-fried kind from a jar.

    What changes
    Best for
    chopped liver, kugel, mashed potatoes, vegetarian versions, soups

    This is the best non-meat option and the one to reach for if you keep kosher and have no chicken skin, or if you want the dish to stay vegetarian. It gives you the crunch and a good deal of the savoury sweetness, but none of the poultry richness - fry them in schmaltz rather than oil if you have any and you close most of that gap.

  4. 5Crisped Chicken Skin From a Roast

    Different texture

    Use the same amount

    The skin you pull off a roast chicken, torn up and crisped for a few minutes in a hot dry pan or under the broiler.

    What changes
    Best for
    chopped liver, garnish, salads, matzo balls

    Flavour-wise this is nearly identical to gribenes and it uses something you would otherwise throw away. It is thinner and shatters rather than crunches, and it has no browned onion in it, so stir in a spoonful of caramelised onion if the recipe is leaning on that sweetness.

  5. 6Schmaltz Alone, Accepting the Loss

    Different texture

    Use Use 1 tablespoon schmaltz for every ¼ cup gribenes omitted

    The honest answer when you have the fat but not the crackling: keep the flavour and give up the crunch.

    What changes
    Best for
    chopped liver, matzo balls, kugel, soups

    There is no real substitute for the specific texture of gribenes, and this option admits it. Schmaltz carries the same roasted chicken flavour and richness, so the dish will taste right and simply be softer throughout. In chopped liver that is a genuine loss, since the contrast between smooth liver and crisp bits is half the point; in matzo balls or kugel you will barely notice.

What is Gribenes?

Gribenes is Gribenes are the crisp bits of chicken skin and onion left behind after rendering chicken fat into schmaltz, so they are pure salty crunch with a deep roasted-poultry flavour.

Cooking tips

  • Gribenes do two jobs at once - crunch and roasted-poultry savouriness - and almost every substitute covers one but not both. Decide which one your dish actually needs. Chopped liver needs the crunch. Matzo balls and kugel mostly need the fat and flavour, which schmaltz alone supplies.
  • Start rendering in a cold pan with a tablespoon of water. The water keeps the skin from seizing and scorching while the fat slowly melts out, and it evaporates long before the skin browns. Skin dropped into a hot pan browns outside before the fat renders and comes out chewy rather than brittle.
  • Add the onion only in the last ten minutes. Onion put in at the start burns bitter over a half-hour render, and burnt onion will taint the schmaltz you are collecting at the same time.
  • Salt gribenes the instant they come out of the fat, while the surface is still slick - salt will not stick once they cool. Then drain them on paper towel and leave them uncovered, because a lid traps steam and softens them within minutes.
  • They keep badly. Gribenes are best within an hour or two of being made and lose their crunch in the fridge; if you must store them, keep them airtight at room temperature for a day and re-crisp in a dry pan for a minute before serving. This is also why every substitute should be added at the end of cooking rather than stirred in early.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave gribenes out?

Yes in most dishes, with one exception. In matzo balls, kugel or mashed potatoes they are a bonus and a tablespoon of schmaltz covers the flavour they would have added. In traditional chopped liver they are load-bearing - the whole dish is built on smooth liver against salty crunch - so leave them out and you have a pate rather than chopped liver. Crisp fried onions are a good rescue there.

What is the difference between gribenes and schmaltz?

They come out of the same pan. Schmaltz is the liquid rendered chicken fat you pour off; gribenes, sometimes called grieven or chicken cracklings, are the solid crisp bits of skin and onion left in the pan. If a recipe calls for both, one batch of rendering gives you both.

Are pork cracklings the same as gribenes?

They are the same idea and a decent substitute, but not the same thing. Gribenes are chicken; pork rinds, chicharrones and Polish skwarki are pork. The crunch transfers well, the flavour is fattier and less poultry-like, and pork obviously cannot be used in the kosher dishes gribenes traditionally belong to.

Where do I buy chicken skin to make gribenes?

A butcher or the meat counter will usually sell you skin and fat trimmings for very little if you ask, and kosher butchers often keep them bagged. Otherwise save the skin and fat every time you break down a chicken and freeze it until you have a couple of cups, which is enough for a proper batch.

Can I make gribenes in the oven instead of a pan?

Yes, and it is more forgiving. Spread the skin in a single layer on a rimmed sheet and roast at 325F for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring a couple of times, adding sliced onion for the last ten. You get less control over the browning than in a pan, but nothing sticks and nothing scorches while you are not looking.

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