Super Simple Pork Rind Crispy Chicken Drumsticks

I like to make these chicken drumsticks as a snack, like jumbo chicken wings.  I like them to be spicy, but you can easily season them differently (salt & pepper or honey garlic for example).


Ingredients
200g of crushed up pork rinds
4 chicken drumsticks
1 egg
2 tsps of hot sauce
seasoning (to taste)
a dash of salt and pepper.


Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, grease aluminum foil on a pan (I use coconut oil).
2. Crush up pork rinds. I like to use a spoon to crush them in a medium bowl.
3. Add dry seasonings (except salt) to pork rinds.
4. Crack egg in a separate bowl.
5. Add 1/2 tsp of hot sauce to the egg mixture (optional).
6. Add a dash of salt to the eggs mixture.
7. Let the chicken drumsticks sit in the egg mixture for about 5 minutes.
8. Roll chicken drumsticks in the crushed up pork rinds. Try to coat as much of the drumstick as possible. This will depend on how crushed the pork rinds are.
9. After you coat the entire drumstick place it on foil and bake for 15 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and flip. Spoon hot sauce over the drumstick.
11. Bake for 15 more minutes.
12. Remove from heat. Spoon more hot sauce onto the chicken (to taste).
13. Wrap foil over chicken until you are ready to serve.

Nutritional info to come...

Pork Rind Breaded Chicken Bites

We made these amazing pork rind chicken bites on a night when we had run a little tired of our normal
grilled chicken breasts.

They are super easy and you can vary the recipe by using different sauces.

For this batch we used Guy's BBQ Sauce (0 carb) and cut it with hot sauce.

We wanted hot bites, if you are making 'salt and pepper' bite or garlic bites you may not want to spice the egge mixture with cayenne pepper and chili flakes.

Ingredients
1 Egg
1/2 Teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper
1/2 Teaspoon of Chili Flakes
2 Chicken Breasts
A Dash of Salt and Pepper
1/2 Bag of Pork Rinds
2 Tablespoons of Coconut Oil

Procedure
1. In a small bowl mix together salt, pepper, egg and spices.
2. In another small crush up half a bag of pork rinds for breading the chicken breasts.
3. Cut chicken breasts into bite sized portions or strips.
4. Heat one tablespoon of coconut oil at medium heat in pan.
5. Dip chicken in egg mixture.
6. Coat chicken with crushed pork rinds.
7. We make them in two batches, frying half the bites at a time. Fry for about five minutes. Flip and fry for an additional 2 minutes.
8. Plate the bites and then spoon sauce over the bites.


You may not want to use sauce at all for coating the chicken bites. You can alternatively just use a dipping sauce.

Nutritional Information 
(will be updated soon)

Pork Rind Nachos

This is such a simple snack, one of my favourites for sure! Before I cut carbs out of my diet nachos were my go-to snack. I missed them so much! So, once a week I will treat myself to some pork rind nachos to quell  my snacking needs.

Ingredients
-1 bag of pork rinds
-1 cup of grated cheese
-100g of deli chicken (or cut-up bacon, steak etc.)
-sauces for garnish to taste (salsa, sour cream, ranch)

*I recommend tomatilla salsa, it tends to have fewer carbs than other salsas.

Procedure (I microwave mine, but you can oven back them the same way you would bake tortilla chips)
1. Spread pork rinds over a plate.
2. Sprinkle half the cheese over the pork rinds.
3. Spread the meat over the cheese and pork rinds.
4. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the meat.
** I drip chipotle sauce over the top as well for a little more spice.
5. Microwave for 1:30 to 2:00. Keep an eye on it and pull the dish if all of the cheese has melted to a gooey point. You may need to rotate the plate half-way through if your microwave does not rotate well.

Nutritional Information To Come...

Where Are The Pork Rinds?

If you would have told me at this time last year I would be craving pork rinds I would have said one of two things:

1. "I need to stop watching American Horror Story because weird cravings are not my style."

or, more likely...

2. "What the hell are pork rinds?"

Keto has opened my eyes to some new foods, things I never thought I would eat. Like miracle noodles. Granted, I never will eat Miracle Noodles again, there is one thing I truly miss now that I am back in Nova Scotia that is impossible to find. Pork rinds. 

Living in the arm pit of the universe makes it hard to find certain things you grow accustomed to eating beyond the boarder. Pork rinds are the first example, they common place in any convenience store in other provinces and in the United States but impossible to find in Nova Scotia. My boyfriend and I joke about the reasons why these 0 carb snacks are "illegal" on the peninsula, but I would seriously like to know why we are not allowed to buy pork rinds. 

In general, we do not have a diabetes store or anything of the sorts that we can find. This obviously does not make keto/low carb living impossible, but it does add a few challenges. When living in Calgary we were able to by 0 carb, sugar-free foods pretty conveniently.  Here, it is a completely different story. Pete's Frootique carries some sauces that have made life a little easier, but lines like "Guy's Barbecue Sauce" and "Walden Farms" sauces simply do not seem to exist here. 

Have you run into these problems? This is a problem for me, I do not have a credit card. I would much rather buy local than order things online, but right now that is looking pretty impossible. I try to cut frankenfoods as much as possible from my diet, but sometimes a syrup or sauce is just nice to have. And, pork rinds are the perfect snack for nachos or just on their own. I much prefer them to Beanitos (which we do have in Nova Scotia). 

Believe me, if I had money to spare (if I wasn't a poor student), I would open a Diabetic store in Nova Scotia.