Healthy Cooking Columns

Chicken skin: to eat, or not to eat

Roast chicken recipes beg the question: skinless or not?

For years we have been told to not eat the chicken skin. It is one of the foundational pieces of advice when people are taught about eating healthy.

This may be bad advice. Not because you want to eat more calories or more saturated fat –  just the opposite – but eating healthy and eating well is about striking a balance between just that: eating well and eating healthy. And sometimes you want to have a piece of chicken with the skin on. Yes, there are a lot of recipes on the website that call for skinless chicken thighs or breasts. But not all of them.

For years we told people to not eat eggs because they contain high amounts of cholesterol. While this was well intentioned advice, the science now tells us that eggs in moderation are actually a pretty good choice. What is moderation? In the case of eggs, it works out to no more than about 6 per week. Getting past that number and the health risks kick in. That is, however, the same for almost anything. The skin adds about 60 calories, most of it in fat, to a 3 1/2 ounce serving of chicken breast. That’s not a tremendous amount unless you do that every day.

It is not chicken skin that is the culprit, it is the balance between most of the time having the healthier option of skinless chicken breasts with the occasional roast chicken dinner, skin and all. There is a third alternative to the skin or no-skin debate. Roast your chicken with the skin on, bit don’t eat the skin. Testing shows that this technique gives you a moister, juicier chicken, but with the same calories as if you roasted the chicken without the skin.

This Peruvian Chicken recipe calls for roasting the chicken in the oven, but it can be slow roasted on the grill outdoors for even more flavor. Move the chicken away from the hot coals and keep the lid on the grill with the temperature in the same 325°F range.

The chicken itself has bags and bags of flavor on its own. The combination of the simple spices is great, but the soy sauce really brings out an umami punch. Peru might be the first country to have fusion food without reason of fashion. There has long been a large Japanese population and many Asian ingredients have made their way into Peruvian recipes. The main example of this is Nikkei, the name for the sushi that combines Japanese and South American flavors.

As for flavor, the rub for the chicken is best if you use smoked paprika. The combination of the soy and smoke really make the chicken shine. Secondly, if you don’t like your food too spicy, cut back on the number of jalapeno peppers. There is still some heat, but the green sauce will be mellower and still a great complement to the chicken.