Rendered Schmaltz: How To Render Chicken Fat

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While everyone else seems to be obsessed with beef tallow, I’m over here asking “have you even tried schmaltz?”  Schmaltz is rendered chicken fat popularly used in Jewish cuisine and such.  It’s often overlooked but once you try it, the flavor is unmatched.  Fried chicken, french fries, or even homemade tater tots fried crispy in schmaltz will change your life!  And don’t get me started on savory pie crusts!  I still prefer beef tallow for my skin care products, but for cooking, it’s schmaltz all the way baybeeee!

To clear things up, since social media lost its ever loving mind over me sharing schmaltz and claiming that’s not what it’s called, here in the US that is what it is known as.  Schmaltz is rendered poultry fat (duck, goose, chicken), lard is rendered pork fat, and tallow is rendered beef fat for me.  If it’s different for you, perfectly fine, just resist the urge to try to incorrectly correct me over regional differences.  Schmaltz is actually derived from the yiddish word schmalts which means rendered goose fat or poultry fat.  Jusss sayinnnnn. If you wanna be a boob and call it lard, go for it!

For me, animal fats are readily available to us and save us a lot of money on purchasing oils since we raise our own meat, we can save all the fat.  I really don’t like food waste if you haven’t figured that out yet!  I use rendered animal fats in place of oils like vegetable oils, olive oil, and store bought seed oils since it’s not much more work to render the fat we already have.  I even use it in place of butter in some recipes.  We process our own chickens here on our farm and this year our freedom rangers got to grow 2 weeks too long and were extra covered with fat.  Once they hit a certain size, they really don’t grow anymore and just start packing on excess fat… which… YAY, cause chicken schmaltz.  Out of 25 birds, I ended up with almost 1/2 gallon of rendered schmaltz.  That’s wild and a rather good amount of fat!  All that liquid gold and flavorful rendered chicken fat on my shelves is a sight to behold!

Equipment You Might Want:

• Stock Pot
• Fine Mesh Strainer
• Jar Funnel
• Leak Proof Mason Jar Lid
• Electric Roaster

There are two different ways to render schmaltz and I’ll leave it up to you to decide which is easiest, because there’s no perfect or best way!  Let’s go!

Method One:  Rendering From Solid Fat

Trim the fat off of the chicken along with the skin, chop it all up, and add to a stock pot with a tiny splash of water to get it going.  This is called “wet rendering” because I add water and I have better luck with it.  Just make sure you render all the water out of it before storage, which is easy to do, and I’ll get into that in a bit. If you don’t want to add water… don’t!

​Bring this to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until the skin pieces have turned into crispy bits and are nice and browned.

Strain into a jar, add in some water, cover with a leak proof lid, invert the jar so the fat floats and the small pieces sink to the bottom of the jar (the lid since it’s upside down), and place it in the fridge to cool and solidify overnight.

The next morning, pour off the water and scrape off the solid bits.

​Add the solid fat back to a pan and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and allow to simmer until you see no steam coming from the pot.  This reassures you got all of the water out of the fat.

See below for how I store it!

Method Two:  Skim the Fat Off Broth

Jam carcasses of whole birds with water, skin scraps, and fat into a big electric roaster and cook overnight at 200 degrees F, which is how I make my chicken bone broth.

The next morning, skim the floating fat off the broth into jars.

​Add some water to the jars of fat, add a leak proof lid, invert, and refrigerate until solid.

​Remove the lid, pour off the water and scrape the bits and the broth off the top.

Add the fat back to a pan, bring to a boil over high heat and reduce to a simmer over medium heat and allow to cook until no more steam is coming off the pot.  Schmaltz is rather talkative and with snap, crackle, and pop as it simmers, so just cook it til it quits talkin’!

​How to Store After Rendering

Pour the fat into a sterilized (dry) glass jar, allow to cool, then vacuum seal the lid onto the jar.

OR

Pour liquid fat into sterilized jars, add lids and bands, and set aside to seal.  What I do is I heat my jars at 225F for 15 minutes to sterilize them, heat my lids for the last few minutes, then working one jar at a time I fill them with the simmering schmaltz, wipe the rim with a dry cloth, add a hot lid and band, and set aside and they’ll seal.

Store in a cool, dark place, refrigerate, or freeze.  Whatever you prefer.  Properly rendered fat (with no water remaining or solids) will store for years on the shelf at room temperature with no further processing.  You don’t have to refrigerate or freeze.  You don’t have to pressure can it.  You just need to put a lid on it to keep the freeloaders out of it.  Think airtight container.

I REPEAT.

You can store this on the shelf.

Properly rendered fat is shelf stable.  Promise.

Meaning.  You have cooked all the water out of it (no more steam) and there are no solids left behind that can go rancid.

But, if you aren’t confident you got all the water out or on your rendering skills, absolutely refrigerate or freeze it in portions and maybe leave a small amount on the shelf to test out how you did?

How I Use Schmaltz

My favorite ways to use schmaltz are to substitute it in recipes for frying, homemade mayo, dumplings, and savory pie crusts like for chicken pot pie.  The flavor of the fat is unmatched and once you try it, you’ll love it!  

​Some recipes in Jewish cooking, like matzo ball soup, commonly use schmaltz.  Schmaltz is normally rendered with onions for a more rich flavor for these recipes, too.  I just choose not to do that so I don’t impart anything extra to affect the stability and storing of the fat.

These methods can be used for schmaltz for any and all poultry.  Give it a go, because duck fat is totally underrated!