If you think you need to add more fat to your carnivore diet, crispy fat chips can be a tasty carnivore snack and a great way to add more fat to your diet.

You can make crispy fat chips from beef fat, pork fat, or lamb fat. I usually use beef fat because I can get it easily from the butcher and I think beef fat is more nutritious than other types of fat.

However, I must admit that the crispy chips made from pork fat taste much better than those from beef or lamb fats.

If you like pork rinds, you can also make crispy pork rinds using the same method.

Crispy fat chips recipe

Ingredients

  • 3-4 pounds of fat trimmings (1.4 kg to 1.8 kg)
  • Optional seasonings. E.g.1 tsp salt, 10 garlic cloves, 5 shallots, 2 small fresh chilies. Lightly crush garlic by pressing the knife blade down onto the cloves (leave the skin on), split the shallots in half and leave the chilies whole.

Instructions

  1. Remove all connective tissues, bits of muscle meat or odd lumps that you find in the fat. Cut into bite-size
  2. Heat a thick-bottom frying pan to medium heat. Add the fat to the pan. Stir regularly.
    • If you don’t use seasonings, fry until the fat pieces become golden and crispy, drain the rendered fat using a strainer
    • If you want to use seasonings, fry until the fat pieces have shrunk a lot but are still white and soft. Drain the rendered fat using a strainer and return the fat chips to the frying pan. Add all seasonings and continue to fry until they become golden and crispy. Remove the garlic cloves, shallots and chilies with tongs. The fat chips would have soaked in the flavor by now. Drain any remaining rendered fat
  3. Let the fat chips cool completely before transferring to a glass jar. They will remain crispy between 3 to 5 days at room temperature or in the fridge
  4. Store the render fat in a jar in the fridge to use for cooking later.

Be careful of fat splatter, either reduce the heat or use a splatter guard if you encounter any problem.

Air fryer method

If you have an air fryer, you can make crispy fat chips with very little effort as follows:

  1. Set the temperature of the fryer to 300 F (~150 C) and cook for 15 minutes
  2. Stir the fat chips, set the temperature of the fryer to 320 F (~160 C) and cook for further 10 minutes
  3. Rest the fryer for 20 minutes, stir the fat chips, set the temperature of the fryer to 360 F (~180 C) and then cook for 15 minutes more.

Please note that the cooking time may vary depending on how big the fat pieces are.

You can eat the chips as a snack or with lean steaks.

Another way to cook the fat is to cut it into two-finger width pieces and fry them on high heat for a few minutes or so. They will be crispy on the outside but still soft inside. You can eat them with your steaks or organ meat (e.g. liver, hearts or kidneys which are quite lean).

I started with these fat trimmings which I got from the butcher for free:
beef fat trimmings on a chopping board
Remove all the tissues which can make the fat chips very chewy and cut the fat into bite-size:
beef fat cut into bite-size on a chopping board
Fry them on medium heat till crispy:
crispy fat chips
Store the chips in glass jars
crispy fat chips in two jars
Save the beef tallow for cooking scrambled eggs, lean steaks, or organ meat
rendered fat in two jars

You can also make crispy pork rinds in a similar way. I find that pork rinds don’t store as well as fat chips – they are no longer crunchy after a few days, so I usually only make a small batch for a couple of days’ use max.

crispy pork rinds

Please check out my other carnivore diet recipes in the recipe library here which is updated regularly.

DisclaimerThe information in this post is for reference purposes only and not intended to constitute or replace professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified medical professional before making any changes to your diet or lifestyle.