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INGREDIENTS
■ Skin of 1 chicken (you can
either get this by buying a whole
chicken and taking off the skin,
or you can ask your butcher for
them — sometimes they’ll give
them to you free of charge)
■ 1 ½ lbs green beans, trimmed,
blanched in salted water until
fork-tender and chopped into
1-inch pieces
■ ½ lb cremini mushrooms,
roughly chopped
■ ¼ lb shiitake mushrooms,
roughly chopped
■ 2 Tbsp butter
■ 2 tsp schmaltz
■ 3 shallots, diced
■ 1 Tbsp fresh thyme, minced
■ 2 Tbsp flour
■ ½ cup dry white wine
■ 1 cup chicken stock
■ ¼ cup heavy cream
■ Fried onions (any kind you like,
but we used Onion Crunch)
■ Salt and pepper
This
green bean
casserole
incorporates
both silky,
rendered
schmaltz and
the crispy,
impossibleto-stopsnacking-on
fried chicken
skin bits that
result from
making it.”
EAT
THIS
HUFFINGTON
11.24-12.01.13
DIRECTIONS
FOR THE SCHMALTZ AND GRIBENES:
1. C
ut your chicken skin into 1-inch, bite-sized pieces. The easiest way to do this is to chill
the fat in the freezer for a few minutes so it firms up, and then just whack at it with
kitchen shears, right into a cold skillet.
2. C
ook the skin and fat over low heat, until the fat starts to melt and the skins start to
sizzle. Bump the heat up slightly to medium-low, and cook until the gribenes are brown
and crispy — some recipes will tell you this takes 15-20 minutes, and that is a lie. It took
us 45 minutes to get brown, crispy skins over medium-low heat. Patience is worth it.
3. Once your gribenes are done, strain the skins and fat through a fine mesh strainer, set
over a bowl. Reserve the schmaltz (you can keep it in a jar in the fridge for two weeks).
Season the gribenes with salt, and let them drain on paper towels.
FOR THE CASSEROLE:
1. P
re-heat your oven to 375 degrees. Melt butter and schmaltz over medium-high
heat in a deep, heavy-bottomed pan. Add shallots, 1/2 tsp salt and cook until the
shallots are soft and translucent. Add the mushrooms and thyme and cook until the
mushrooms have released most of their liquid and the pan is starting to dry out.
2. A
dd flour, stir to coat vegetables, and cook until it starts