Chick­en Thigh Ril­lettes with Gribenes

(serves over 20 as canapes on toast or crackers)

6 bone-in, skin-on chick­en thighs

2 tbsps duck or goose fat (or ren­dered schmalz, even olive oil in a pinch)

1 1/2 cups/375 ml chick­en stock

glug Marsala or Madeira wine

1 stem rose­mary, leaves only

4 cloves gar­lic, minced

sea salt and fresh black pep­per to taste

This is French-Jew­ish fusion food.  What could be better?

To make the gribenes, remove skin and fat from thighs.  Place in a fry­ing pan in a sin­gle lay­er, or over­lap­ping as lit­tle as pos­si­ble, and add 1/2 cup/125ml water.  Place over very low heat and cook at a tiny sim­mer until the skin is crisp.  This will take at least 90 min­utes.  Remove skin to paper tow­el and pour ren­dered fat, “schmalz” into a jar to use in this recipe, or to save for anoth­er recipe in the fridge.

In a deep saucepan or wok that can accom­mo­date the chick­en thighs in a sin­gle lay­er, melt the fat, stock and wine togeth­er.  Add the rose­mary and gar­lic and sea­son to taste.  Place the chick­en thighs in the liq­uid and cook at a sim­mer, cov­ered, for at least 2 hours.  The meat will fall off the bones.

Remove the chick­en thighs to a cut­ting board and allow to cool so you can han­dle them.  Reserve the cook­ing liq­uid.  Remove the bones, car­ti­lege and any sinewy bits until you are left with pure chick­en.  With two forks, shred the meat to a con­sis­ten­cy you like, then place in a large bowl.  Strain the cook­ing liq­uid into a cup and pour in as much of it over the shred­ded meat as you need to make the chick­en mix­ture nice and juicy.

At this point, it’s about pre­sen­ta­tion.  If you’d like to give the ril­lettes as gifts, pack about a hand­ful of the chick­en mix­ture into lit­tle ramekins and top with a bit of the crisp skin, the gribenes.  If you’re hav­ing a par­ty, serve lit­tle bite-sized por­tions of the ril­lettes on toast or crack­ers, or tucked into tiny let­tuce leaves, topped with chopped gribenes.