Oh no, don't throw it out, definitely toss it into the pot! I usually make stock and then refrigerate it overnight, so I can skim the fat off after it gets hard.

The skin will add lots of lovely flavor, so put it in.

Annie

Trudy, don't remove the chicken skin. It adds flavour. Once you broth has cooled you can remove the fat.

Ann

Yup, I dump in wings and backs, skin and all. As I type I just finished a batch of three quarts in my pressure cooker. Half an hour at pressure - DONE.

Skin goes in. Definitely!

I have a couple of carcasses in my freezer, too. Will have to make stock this weekend!

Linda

Yep yep....add the skin. There is lots of collagen in that skin that gives the broth that "walk on" quality.

Thanks!!! You guys are the best!!!

Trudy

Depending on what I want the stock for, I sometimes render the fat from the skin before adding the skin to the pot. The browned skin gives a 'roasted chicken' flavor to the stock which is great for heartier style soups or stock made specifically for gravy.

And don't forget the chicken feet for additional flavor and collagen!

I personally discard skin b/c I was told by a biologist (and also read somewhere) that skin cancers are the most common ones in chicken.

We have not eaten poultry skin in a many years and have survived. :-)

Eleena, please take this the way it is meant. But I really had to chuckle when I read this line. We have not eaten poultry skin in a many years and have survived. :-)

I'm hoping that everyone else that posted to cooking the chicken skin survived and aren't posting from the great beyond. LOL :>)

Ann

Ann T, I never even considered whether or not there would be internet access in "the Great Beyond"!

However, I can assure you that I am still alive and kicking, in spite of making chicken stock with skin for several decades.

Funny, I don't like chicken skin and I've always peeled it off the chicken and fed it to the dog or put it into my stock bag in the freezer but when I make stock, the skin always goes in. As Rachelellen mentioned, roasted chicken skin gives a nice flavor too, so if I roast a chicken, all that skin goes into he stock bag, along with the carcass, and it's frozen until I make stock

I do tend to be somewhat careful about what I eat, most here know that I raise grass fed organic beef, can my own homegrown organic vegetables, etc. Frankly, though, if most people really considered how commercially available chickens are raised and all the chemicals pumped into them, they'd probably stop eating them altogether, not just the skin.

As for the skin cancer thing, I'm not sure eating chicken skin is a health issue, other than the fat content. I do think all the antibiotics and hormones fed to the birds, the extremely unhealthy living conditions they endure and all the chemicals used in processing are far bigger health issues.

Annie

Ann, LOL!

True, nobody here is posting (yet?) from "the Great Beyond" but I am hoping not to get there for as long as possible. :-)

But Annie is right, is not just the skin but the entire commercially raised poultry that is not good for us. (Food, Inc, anyone?)

That is why I rarely eat conventional chicken anymore but if I do, I discard the skin - just to be on the "safer side". Seriously, I don't want to spend time researching whether the skin cancer thing is true (and I am not sure anyone really knows), so I am taking it at "face value" and it is easier for me to just discard the skin (which I never liked anyway).

Just saying...

eleena, don't get me wrong, I still eat chicken. I've even been known to pick up one of those extremely salty and greasy rotisserie birds occasionally, but I never eat the skin, just because I don't like it.

But, if you are really worried about health issues, you'll find a place where you can buy organically fed and pastured poultry, hopefully from a small place that lets you see how the birds were raised.

Then you know what you're getting.

Annie

Sometimes I feel like I'm posting from the great beyond. Maybe it's because of all the chicken skins I use in my stock.

I love love love a nice roasted crispy chicken or turkey skin!!! Considering that most chickens are butchered when they are just a couple of months old I cannot imagine how they could have skin cancer. In any case I have reached the ripe old age of 64 1/2 without any major health problems for which I am thankful! I mean I might as well make use of all that hydrochloric acid in my stomach after all!God put it there for a reason!
Joann

I agree with Joann...the crispy skin on fried chickens is one of the best things in the world!
And even if chickens don't often get skin cancer because they are butchered very young and rarely see the sun, eating cancerous skin won't give you cancer.
They don't screen donated blood for cancer cells do they?

As for chicken skin in the broth...I certainly don't want to eat that slimy skin that has had all the goodey boiled out....I strain it out alongw ith bones and the limp onion and celery.
Linda C