Our Top Pick Of The Week is something special for lovers of chicharrónes (fried pork rinds or cracklings), or for those who love a low carb chip but don’t eat pork*†.

As with chicharrónes, Flock Foods turns seasoned strips of skin and fat and fries them to a crispy, puffy state. Fly down to the next section to learn all about them.

> National Pork Rind Day, a.k.a. Pork Rind Appreciation Day, is Super Bowl Sunday, when one pigskin recognizes the other.

> July 6th is National Fried Chicken Day. That includes the skin!

> If you’re vegetarian or vegan, check out these PigOut Pigless Pork Rinds.

> The history of chicharrones is below.
 
 
FLOCK FOODS: CHICKEN CHIPS & THEN SOME

At Flock Foods, what started as a single flavor of crispy, packaged chicken skin chips has became a zero-carb line of small-batch, wok-fried, tasty snacks in:

 
The chips are all natural, made from just three ingredients: chicken skins, a proprietary seasoning blend, and oil. That’s it!

There are 13g of protein per one-ounce serving.

While we’ve only tasted the chicken chips, the line has expanded to:

 
Flock Foods has become the place to go for all the high-protein, low-carb meat snacks your crunch-loving palate desires.

The line is dairy-free, gluten-free, and keto-friendly. All products have zero sugar, and zero carbs.

The snack is also an excellent source of collagen protein, the protein found in connective tissue, skin, tendon, bone, and cartilage. Collagen provides structural support to tissues and is also involved in essential bodily processes, including tissue repair and signaling between cells. (here’s more about it).
 
 
WAYS WE USE FLOCK CHICKEN CHIPS

Add them to the plate, or incorporate them into:

 
Recipes

[1] Crispy snacking: chicken chips (all photos © Flock Foods).

[2] There are four flavors.

[3] Toss some on a salad instead of croutons.

[4] Add them to a cheese or charcuterie board.

Head to FlockFoods.com.

In addition to a supply for yourself, treat friends who are on carb-avoiding diets, and give them as party favors and stocking stuffers.

For a bigger gift, sign someone up for a subscription!
 
 
THE HISTORY OF CHICHARRONES

As with so many cooked foods, the origin of chicharrónes (the plural of chicharrón) is lost to history. Certainly, pork skins and other edible animal skins have been consumed since man discovered how to use fire. Every part of an animal that could be eaten, was.

The word entered the English lexicon in the 1940s. In the U.S., the snack crossed the border into the Southwest, and became popular with followers of the Atkins Diet in the 1970s.

It got a boost in the 1990s when President George H.W. Bush proclaimed chicharrónes to be his favorite snack.

Their compliance with gluten-free, keto, low-carb, and paleo diets helped raise awareness even more in recent years. Here’s more history of chicharrónes.
 
 
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*Chicharrones can also be made from the skin of chickens, cows, pigs, or sheep. The snack began in Spain and traveled to Latin America. Here are the regional differences.