Your BLTs Will Never Be The Same With This Extra Ingredient

The classic BLT is a testament to the fact that you don't need a towering pile of ingredients to make a supremely satisfying sandwich. Crispy bacon adds richness and bite to fresh lettuce and juicy slices of tomato, while slices of toasted bread slathered in mayonnaise hold it all together. What more could you possibly want? The answer might be chicken skin.

We're not talking about the soggy skin that slips off your average grocery-store rotisserie chicken. We're talking about the delicate, almost candy-like outer layer that graces a crispy roast chicken. Enter the BLCCS (trend it), the poultry lover's answer to the BLT.

If you've ever tucked into a plate of shmaltz and gribenes, you already know that crispy chicken skin mimics the texture, saltiness, fattiness, and umami of its cured pork counterpart. As a bacon sub-in, chicken skin trades intense smokiness for a slightly more neutral — but no less luxurious — flavor. Once you make the switch, you may never go back.

One could conceivably make a BLCCS using the crispy remnants of a roast chicken. For the best (read: most bacon-like) results, however, consider crisping your chicken skin separately from the rest of the bird to allow for decently sized, thoroughly crackly slabs. Daily Meal's guide to re-crisping flabby chicken skin explains how to do just that, whether you're working with a broiler or a frying pan on the stovetop.

As for where to get chicken skin, there are a couple of options. You can remove the skin from a rotisserie chicken or a raw chicken yourself, but only if you're content with eating skinless chicken. Alternatively, you can ask your local butcher if they'll sell you chicken skin sans the rest of the bird. If they sell skinless breasts and thighs, there's a good chance they're willing to send you home with the discarded skin.

Using crispy chicken skin in place of bacon is certainly not the only way to take a classic BLT to new heights. From substituting plain mayonnaise for garlic aioli to adding a fried egg, the simple sandwich leaves plenty of room for experimentation. Some might even ditch the bread altogether in favor of a deconstructed BLT pasta salad moment.

When it comes to making a BLCCS even more inventive, we like to scan the produce aisle for more than just lettuce and tomato. Take, for example, the BLCCS once offered at the now-shuttered Brooklyn restaurant Esh, where "Top Chef" Season 2 winner Ilan Hall slathered ramp aioli on caraway rye. Or, for a more approachable option, consider Ina Garten's California BLT, which includes slices of avocado squeezed with lemon juice. Adding a new vegetable (or fruit, if you choose to replace your BLT tomatoes with peaches) will bring freshness to the otherwise rich and schmaltzy sandwich.