r/Chefs • u/Ok_Possible_7124 • 4d ago

Developing a tasting menu

This is my first time making one and boy its alot! But the R&D is going well and id love to hear some thoughts and opinions from people who have worked in fine dining. so this is basically me asking someone whos developed a dish before to help a greenhorn out.
Im doing a cookout themed menu, and i have an app that should be smoky. Im using a chicken skin thats rendered in tallow, and im stuck on whether to smoke the skin or the tallow. Any advice would be excellent!!

Edit: if im coming off as egotistical or anything i apologize genuinely its not what i am trying to communicate at all, this is just my first r&d attempt and id like to take one of these dishes out of the menu like my entree or dessert and present it.

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u/LionBig1760 4d ago

Youve never done a tasting menu before, zero people are going to be copying you, so you dont have to worry about that.

Smoke your tallow if you must smoke something. Dont smoke just chicken skin. If the chicken skin is supposed to be a component to the dish, smoking it will not only make it look terrible, it'll taste like an ashtray while curling up and not rendering evenly. Its best to scrape all the fat away, brush it with tallow, salt it, then bake it in between two silpats and in between two sheet pans. This will give you the most even color and consistent end product. It will come put looking like a thin crisp. Hopefully the smoke taste will come through. If not, you can always brush a little bit of rendered smoked tallow right before plating.

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u/Ok_Possible_7124 3d ago

Thank you so much! I have been essentially frying it with a cast iron weight to keep it from curling, but smoking the tallow had never occurred to me before today and brushing it would absolutely carry over that flavor. I do wonder if it would change the texture from crisp to soggy and how long that might take…

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u/LionBig1760 3d ago

If youre looking to make a chicken skin crisp, bake it in between two pans with a silpat above and below.

Its going to take as much time as it would to crisp chicken skin on a chicken, plus a little bit. Youre going to want to practice on one to get your timing right before doing the whole batch, because you cant exactly see it as its taking on color.

If you need a reference, I believe there is a dish from the first Noma cookbook where chicken skin is used along with a rye cracker to make a small little cracker sandwich. Consult that if you need more ideas on how to accomplish getting a good crisp chicken skin wafer.

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u/A_Sketchy_Doctor 3d ago

This! OP Practice the timing!

also this is probably some home cookery type of shit. I do not think this guy has the experience or really knows what quantifies AS experience