Chicken fat or schmaltz is a traditional fat, very budget-friendly and quite healthy to use. Be sure to follow these important cautions if you choose to cook with it on a regular basis.
A recurring theme on this site is the critical importance of utilizing Traditional Fats for cooking. Avoiding industrialized factory fats that are rancid from processing and devoid of nutrients is critical to long term health. These frankenfats include margarine, spreads and vegetable oils. Is chicken fat, also called schmaltz, one of these fats?
Let’s take a look in-depth.
Is Chicken Fat Healthy?
The type of fats you choose for cooking can literally make or break your health!
This is the case regardless of other kitchen practices that may be right on target such as sourcing local and organic produce, consumption of antibiotic/steroid-free grass-fed meat, and use of freshly ground flour to prepare traditionally made baked goods.
Factory fats such as hydrogenated/partially hydrogenated oils (trans fats) are obviously unhealthy. Less obviously damaging are the heavily marketed liquid edible oils. These include soy, rice bran, corn, grapeseed, safflower, sunflower, canola, pumpkin seed oil, and others as they are modern fats only recently introduced to the human diet.
Consumption of these industrialized fats can cause cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, fertility problems, learning disabilities, growth problems, and osteoporosis. They are inflammation in a bottle! They must be vigilantly avoided to achieve maximum health and vitality. (1)
Nutrient-rich traditional fats best used for cooking include the following:
- Butter
- Ghee
- Lard from pigs outside in the sunlight (this recipe plus video shows you how to render lard at home)
- Tallow and suet from beef and lamb
- Chicken and goose fat (schmaltz), and duck fat
- Coconut, palm kernel, red palm oil, and palm oil
These traditional fats are primarily composed of saturated and monounsaturated fats. They maintain their integrity when heated, meaning they do not become denatured forming free radicals during the cooking process. This is true as long as the heat remains below the smoke point. These fats have nourished healthy cultures for millennia.
Wondering why olive oil is not on this list? This article outlines the reasons I choose not to cook with olive oil although it is great for salad dressing and is definitely a healthy traditional fat.
Chicken Fat vs Other Nourishing Fats
What many folks do not realize is that all fats are actually a combination of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats.
Polyunsaturated vegetable oils are the rancid ones full of free radicals that are used in processed foods. They are the bad fats that when consumed to excess as is the case in the Western diet, inflammation and degenerative disease is the result. Vegetable oils also contribute to a tendency to gain weight.
A common characteristic of nearly all traditional fats is that they are all very low in polyunsaturated fats. The one exception is chicken fat which is about 21% polyunsaturated (2).
This compares with a polyunsaturated fat content of the following nourishing fats. (2)
- 4% for butter and ghee
- 4% for beef tallow
- 8% for mutton tallow
- 11% for goose fat
- 12% for duck fat
- 3% for coconut oil
- 9% for palm oil
- 2.3% for palm kernel oil
Cautions using Schmaltz
If you are new to Traditional Diet and your pantry is still fairly loaded up with processed foods in the form of chips, crackers, cookies, etc – even if organic – it is best to use another traditional fat for cooking than chicken fat.
This is because eating even a moderate amount of processed foods will likely result in an excessive intake of polyunsaturates. Cooking with chicken fat will exacerbate the problem as it is the highest in polyunsaturates of all the traditional fats with the exception of sesame oil. A much better choice would be to cook with one or more of the traditional fats listed above that are very low in polyunsaturates.
On the other hand, if you have eliminated most processed foods from your diet and are eating nearly all whole, home-prepared snacks and meals at home, then cooking with schmaltz poses no problem whatsoever.
The reason? There isn’t an excessive amount of polyunsaturated fats in your diet already.
Healthful and Budget Friendly
I hope this article has not put anyone off chicken fat! That was certainly not the intention.
This wonderful traditional fat is fabulous to include in the diet. However, the caveat is the high polyunsaturated content that is not common knowledge for many people.
Instead, I hope this information motivates you to further reduce your family’s use of any remaining processed foods.
Then, you can fully enjoy and utilize the budget-friendly convenience of chicken fat with complete peace of mind.
It is so simple to gather rendered schmaltz into a jar. Simply peel it off the top of a quart of chilled homemade chicken stock! Then, use it for vegetable sautes, stir fry and other savory dishes. It keeps for weeks when refrigerated.
How to Use for Maximum Health Benefits
Think you’re ready to use chicken fat? A good rule of thumb to know for sure is to open your pantry and take a look. If you see a lot of boxes from the store, you should be doing your cooking with a traditional fat.
These fats include butter, ghee, coconut oil, tallow, lard, and suet. Palm, goose and duck fat, while a bit higher in polyunsaturates, would also be fine for cooking occasionally even if some processed foods still remain in your family’s diet.
Save the chicken fat for when you are more fully transitioned to Traditional Diet. This approach ensures that no overconsumption of polyunsaturates occurs which would keep the brakes on your journey to optimal health.
Once you get to that point, there is quite possibly no cooking fat that is easier on the budget than schmaltz!
References
(1) Principles of Healthy Diets
(2) Chicken Fat Nutrition Data
(3) Schmaltz
More Information
Selecting a Healthy Cooking Fat and Reusing it Safely
Argan Oil Benefits Health
Walnut Oil: Healthy Sub for Flax Oil
Great info as usual! Where does turkey fall? We raise pastured turkeys and I freeze the fat from roasting for cooking.
Turkey fat is up there with chicken fat at 23% polyunsaturated. http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fats-and-oils/618/2
Again, not a problem if processed foods are not a regular feature in your diet.
Hey Sarah, I feel sure that you have touched on this before, but, how about cooking with coconut oil? I really like it and do my eggs in it almost every morning. Thanks! (David, please stop being rude.)
Coconut oil is fine … cooking with virgin coconut oil is not that great in my experience though due to the coconut aroma and taste. I would suggest expeller coconut oil for cooking only.
The most important thing to keep in mind is the fat percentages can change dramatically, depending on what the animal is fed. The saturated fat in the butter of a grass fed cow is going to be higher that in the butter from a soy/flax fed cow. A grain/by products fed pig is going to have a higher percentage of polyunsaturated fat in the lard than a milk fed pig. Chicken fat is the same.
It’s why I mix coconut oil with any other fat I use…just in case. Saturated fat is so protective.
I was thinking exactly the same thing! It is very difficult to get a plump, meaty chicken that hasn’t been fed its fair share of soy and corn. Sad, but unfortunate fact. I raised foraging chickens on very little grain, but they weren’t the sort of bird I would pay $4/lb+ for! Not enough meat on them bones. True, they were layers, but still…
One point where you didn’t quite connect the dots in this post…doesn’t the high(er) PUFA content in the chicken fat mean that it shouldn’t be subjected to high heat?
One last question: A friend made me very sad by saying that the fat rendered from a baked/broiled duck shouldn’t be used to cook with, since it had been subjected to such high heat. I searched your blog at the time and I think you mentioned rendering a whole duck at low heat. But if you’re going to broil it and enjoy it, then surely you don’t throw all that wonderful fat away!!??
I don’t even save the fat from “organic” chickens unless they are mostly free ranged. You can see with an organic corn and soy chicken that the fat is a different color and there is a lot more of it. I find culling my older hens and roosters (many people give them away) is worth it, not for the meat itself but for the meat broth and bone broth you get from the bird. We have not been sick at all this winter and I attribute it to the 2x week soup from properly fed hens. Also, if your hormones are out of balance, you should avoid even the chicken fat until you have restored a balance.
What is the connection between chicken fat and hormonal imbalances. I have PCOS and do have hormonal imbalances. I do not know how to just “get them restored.” Does this mean I should never eat chicken fat? Can you please elaborate?
If you are working to restore hormonal balance naturally, you’d probably want to limit chicken fat because it’s high (as far as animal fats go) in PUFAs, which supress the thyroid and are endocrine disruptors and choose other fats instead. Do you have a ND near you who helps patients using bio-identical hormones?
I agree with you. There is a huge difference in the fat from organically raised chickens on corn/soy and free range. I don’t save the former fat anymore on the rare occasion I cook it. I cull my older hens and free roosters that people give away. You are right, they are lean, but they make fantastic meat and bone broth. (I don’t save the meat, it all goes into broth.) And the livers are so richly colored. I have no doubt from observation the fat profile of corn/soy fed chickens is high in PUFAs. Also, if you have hormonal imbalances, you should stay away from chicken fat entirely.
Good point, Irene. Sarah has simplified the question by saying to look in the pantry. But really, your current health status as well as past health history should be considered, not just what you’re putting into it.
I too culled my hens and roosters, and never let any go to waste. But the ones I buy are much plumper/meatier. There is no way that they were raised the same as mine.
Leila, with regards to the plumper/meatier birds, it is in the breed. I’m thinking even your dual purpose bird won’t give you the meat you’re accustom to from the grocery store. The Cornish Cross breed is what is commonly raised commercially. You can look for small farmers raising this same breed on pasture (and heritage meat breeds) and ask what feed they use to supplement the foraging. Or get a few chicks to raise for your own…just make sure they’re on a fryer ration and not your layer ration if you use milled feed. My husband and I just last summer started raising these birds for our local market. Like you, Irene, I noticed a difference in the amount of fat between the pasture raised birds on our pasture (supplemented with non-medicated commercial feed) and the “organic” birds purchased at the store. I barely needed to skim the fat off the broth of the pasture raised birds! I’m not sure that I would have been able to render enough to even think about cooking with it. We’re taking it the next step this year and hoping to put the pastured birds on nonGMO feed for our customers. We’re still new on this journey back to “real food” and a traditional diet, but learning so much along the way.
Jenny, do you have any references for how much the variation in the meat fat depending on what the animal is fed. thanks.
I don’t have any references on this but I’ve always felt that a chicken who lived on healthy pasture and ate a minimum of supplemental grain would have a healthier fat ratio. I will try to find some references from a woman who almost lost her life until she realized she could not eat conventionally-raised meat. When she switched to pastured meats and a Paleo diet, she recovered. Obviously, the nutritional content was very different between conventional, grain- and GMO-fed meat vs. pasture-raised meat. But I don’t have details, beyond the idea that there would be more Omega 3 fats in the latter.
I thought it was common knowledge.
Lots of addition research on how various foods or oils change the composition of the milk.
An example or cows:
http://www.agweb.com/article/oregon_state_university_study_cows_fed_flaxseed_produce_more_nutritious_dairy_products/
Of course they are going on the assumption that saturated fat is bad, so are trying to reduce it.
Any pig farmer can tell of the warnings not too feed too much soy in the ration because it makes it too soft.
Yes, I’ve seen references to this before but no actual hard data (except for grassfed beef) that shows exactly how much the type of fat varies depending on what the animal is eating.
For example, there are no studies out there at all about tallow that I can find.
I’ve looked at the article .. yes, I’ve seen the flaxseed thing before. What I’m really interested in is the polyunsaturated content of chicken fat and other animal fats and how much it varies depending on what the animal is eating. I haven’t seen anything like this anywhere. If anyone knows of this type of data, please post or email me. thanks.
Sarah,
Remember, people that eat butter are happy! We know who is not eating butter in comments above. Maybe he should! I am not trying to be ugly – just saying!
just because you cant do everything, doesnt mean you shouldnt do something…
-jason and lisa-
Wiser words were never spoken!
Hi Sara,
Question for you. I’ve been seeing conflicting opinions on olive oil. What’s your take? Good, or bad?
Olive oil is of course fine and is a very traditional fat. However, it is delicate and the beneficial phenols are compromised when this oil is heated so I choose not to cook with it. I use it for salad dressing. A good quality olive oil is not cheap so be aware that most of the olive oil in the store is not 100% olive oil and is cut with cheap polyunsaturates so be sure of where you are buying. My resources pages lists olive oils that are guaranteed pure olive oil.
Thanks Sara, that clears up the confusion.
Lol, Sarah. And does the Traditional Diet go hand-in-hand with the practice of Traditional Hypocrisy? For you’ve written several blog posts against the use of BPA plastic, but a few months ago you ran a “FREE give away” gimmick in which to increase the traffic on your blog you offered the prize of an Excalibur dehydrator, of which the entire box construction is made of BPA plastic.
Nice one! I hope the winner doesn’t have any kids in the house…
Wow looks like I have a new fan! Those posts were about BPA linings in cans which are exposed to high heat during the canning process which most certainly allows the BPA into the canned food. I use some plastic in my home and have never said all plastic is a problem and have provided guidelines for using it safely. The Excalibur functions on low heat that isn’t burning and if one is concerned about the plastic, then parchment paper can be used to line the trays if desired.
Thank you for taking the time to clarify this issue! Being only 1 year into a “Nourishing Traditions” lifestyle I was a bit confused by Sally Fallon Morell’s December statement on the topic of chicken fat. Your article, however, is very helpful and I’m happy to know I can continue to incorporate this wonderful traditional fat into my family’s diet! 🙂
I asked Sally about the basis of this post before I wrote it … to provide further clarification and she agreed that chicken fat is traditional and even though it is high in polyunsaturates is fine to eat if the processed foods are a no show in your pantry 🙂
Wait, Sarah, what’s the point of the Traditional Diet again? To develop Traditional Cancer?
In a long ago post, you were so busy railing against raw cruciferous vegetables as harmful to the thyroid (of which a link has never been found in healthy humans), and gushing about how you cook all your vegetables in butter, that you seem to have totally missed the research that found a significant positive association between the consumption of butter and the risk of thyroid cancer. Oopsie!
Source:
Francesci S, et al. (1991) “Diet and thyroid cancer: a pooled analysis of four European case-control studies.” Int J Cancer. 48(3):395-8. PMID-2040535.
Traditional cultures that consumed butter did not have thyroid problems let alone cancer. Perhaps your study was funded by your vegetable oil company friends. Likely. Pretty old study too. Given that butter especially when from cows on green grass is high in thyroid enhancing iodine, I seriously doubt the credibility of the study on which you seem to hang your entire decision whether or not to eat butter. Given how many studies are flawed and funded behind the scenes with the specific purpose to manipulate consumer behavior, it would be best to look to see if the science validates what traditional cultures have long known and observed … butter is good for you and that includes your glands.
It would be interesting to know what *kind* of butter was used in that study, also. Was it from healthy cows on clean, well-managed pasture? Was it raw or pasteurized? Were the cows given any supplemental grain or other feed? Not all butter is the same.
One study does not the truth make .. ESPECIALLY if it goes against and run counter to historical evidence like the fact that traditional cultures consuming butter did not suffer thyroid issues or thyroid cancer.
Please go away David and troll some other site. Surely there must be other ways for you to “get off” than to come onto a blog and attack all of our views here. Isn’t there a margarine lovers blog or something that would be more appropriate for you?
Wait, Sarah,
You absolutely forgot to explain to David that there is no “traditional cancer”.
My husband is from a third world country according to our standards. And he is certainly not into “health food”. He often comments when I wax rhapsodic about grass fed beef or organic veggies “Its so easy to philosophize when your belly is full”. Yet, when it comes down to the meals we actually eat, he is quick to tell me “Cook what you want–I just don’t want to get any of those modern diseases” By modern diseases he means heart disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and… Cancer.
Traditional Cancer is an oxymoron. There is no traditional cancer–only modern cancer.
Oopsie!
Here’s a much more recent study showing cruciferous vegetables are related to thyroid cancer and disorders!
Truong, T., et al. (2010). “Role of dietary iodine and cruciferous vegetables in thyroid cancer: a countrywide case-control study in New Caledonia.” Cancer Causes Control. 2010 Aug;21(8):1183-92.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20361352
Here’s another: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21528477 (2011, also quite a bit more recent than yours)
(1995) Study showing PUFAs negatively impact the thyroid, but SFAs don’t: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7738467
(2010) Traditional ghee is protective against high cholesterol and other health conditions: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3215354/
I guess you look pretty silly now. Don’t cite 20+ year old science and think you have a point, nor that those promoting a traditional diet don’t know what science is. Common mistake, but rather stupid.
Thanks Kate. Excellent information.
Surely you are not hanging your hat on the conclusion without knowing the methodology?
I don’t have a paid subscription so I can’t see it, but I’m sure you do, as it would be silly to make any claims without first knowing the following– What can you tell us about how the individual studies were conducted? How was the data gathered? What did the remainder of the diet look like in the individual studies, etc?
I’m eager to read your response.
~Huntress