Carolina Gold Nuggets Microwave Pork Puffies Pork Rinds, Original, 5 Lb

OMG! These things are awesome! First off, let me say that these were purchased for the simple fact that I like pork skins and purchase them from the store quite frequently.. I'm not on keto, or looking for a healthy snack. that being said, I do not cook these according to the bag directions. I do not microwave, bake or air fry. I deep fry these for about 4 or 5 minutes at 350 in what I would say is maybe a 75/25 blend of peanut oil and clean filtered bacon grease. Remove from grease and onto paper towel lined tray and generously salt with some Diamond Crystal Kosher salt. I now don't ever have to buy pork skins from the store anymore. You can season these how you like. I have tried salt and vinegar seasoning on them also, but just plain kosher salt is the best to me. Everyone loves them!! Just ordered second bag. I wish they shipped quicker is my only con.

I've read a couple if different methods for microwaving these Carolina Gold Nuggets pork rinds. These methods include using a paper plate and using the Nordicware Microwave popcorn bowl. My first two batches were, in fact, tried using these two microwave methods. Neither of these two methods succeeded in giving me pork rinds that were fluffy, crunchy and properly cooked. What I ended up getting was portions that were tough, teeth cracking pieces. Some parts were fluffy, some were hard-crispy and some parts weren't cooked no matter how long I left them cooking.I have tried the Lowrey's Microwaveable pork rinds in the past which cook in what look like Microwave popcorn bags. These bags always produce fantastic, crispy, crunchy and fluffy pork rinds with no chewiness or teeth cracking pieces. The problem with Lowrey's bags is that they're pricey and heavy with salt. I bought the Carolina Gold Nuggets in hopes that I could save some money and reduce the amount of salt on them. Sure enough, they come unsalted. Unfortunately, I couldn't seem to reproduce the texture of what Lowrey's microwave pork rind bags give.At first, I thought the pork rinds were some how different from what Lowrey's uses. I found that to be wrong. Instead, what I've determined is that there's really only one way to microwave pork rinds properly... and that's in the bags that Lowrey's uses for their cooking method. Why does this method make such a big difference? Steam.When you cook on a paper plate or in a Nordicware microwave bowl, too much steam escapes. In the microwave bag, the steam doesn't escape. The steam is released from the pork rinds and it is this steam that is used to reinforce the cooking power of the microwave. The steam leaves the pork rinds even fluffier, crispier and without any hint of a rubbery texture or any hard pieces to break your teeth. This method ensures that every piece in the bag cooks fully and completely. This means getting a bag and trying this method.When packing the bag, you must make sure the pieces don't overlap, so you need to move the bag around so that the pieces lay flat inside the bag. The Lowrey's bags show you how to do this. In my microwave, the cooking time is 2 minutes to perfectly cooked pork rinds (even using Carolina Gold Nuggets) using a bag. I couldn't get anything close to this with 3 or more minutes using any other method. Using an old Lowrey's bag, the rinds come out perfect. If I cook on a paper plate or in the Nordicware popcorn bowl, they come out unevenly cooked, including break-your-teeth hard pieces. This is wasteful and unnecessary when those pieces could have fully cooked.If you've bought any Lowrey's in the past, save the bags and reuse them for the Carolina Gold Nuggets. You can reuse the bags over and over. You might even be able to reuse microwave popcorn bags. You'll just need to wipe them out after each use. I don't dare try this with a standard brown lunch bag as they're not designed for this purpose and might catch fire. The Lowrey's bags are designed for this cooking purpose. A single bag has withstood several reuses without any hint of browning (i.e., fire).These are great pork rinds when cooked properly. However, Carolina Gold Nuggets needs to sell us the same commercial microwave bags like what Lowrey's uses so we can properly cook them. I'm rating this 5 stars because the pork rinds are perfect when properly cooked. Unfortunately, we need the proper tools to make that happen. Hopefully, this helps you get better rinds out of your microwave with the Carolina Gold Nuggets. Good luck.

Amazing. Best if you have a reallystrong microwave.I use standard, takes a few minutes.Make sure each Pork chip lies flatand not on top of each other.It's a very good buy when you compute portion vs a store bag

I've been buying these for years, and they are so good! I deep fry mine in oil and occasionally add two serving spoon size scoops of bacon grease in with the oil for a hint of bacon flavor - they seem to melt like butter in my mouth. Almost all turn out well with just a few that won't puff up. These are the perfect snack for me and my dogs, as there are no carbs in them - It's fun to try out new seasonings on them (only for the ones meant for the humans) though I have added various dog friendly seasonings at times as well - nutritional yeast, parsley, dried and powdered dandelion leaves, cleavers, turmeric etc. LOVE these things - just can't go back to store bought after making them fresh at home!

I have no issues with these puffing as they should, I have a 1000w nuker, lay a double layer of paper towl down, put in a handful and spread it out so none are touching, set nuker for 2 minutes and 30 seconds and it's perfect every time. These are now my goto!

I've been ordering these for close to a decade and they're always amazing! Being almost 9 years Paleo and a nutrition specialist, even grainfree and root vegetable chips are often made unhealthy with inflammatory vegetable or seed oils. Those made in clean, healthy oils are still pretty high in carbohydrates and having metabolic syndrome due to parental negligence while I was growing up, my system can't handle the carb load. These puffies are the perfect, low-calorie, pure protein, chip replacement! 1:40 on a paper towel in the microwave results in light, airy, crispy, warm vehicles for everything from guacamole to salsa to tuna salad to a fully loaded burger, cut up to be made scoopable. YUMMY!

So I bought Carolina Gold Nuggets before and they were good. I just finished a bag of pork rinds from Silver Dollar City and they were very good. These however are not "fluffing up" like they should. So they end up pretty hard. Hard enough to potentially break a tooth. I usually air fry my pork rinds. But no matter how long I left them in the air fryer they just would not fully "fluff up". So I tried to deep fry them. Same thing. So I have a whole bag of pork rinds that are pretty well useless unless I want to break some teeth. Sad.

This is fun and interesting - a wholesome activity that everyone will enjoy. Wake up the kids and call the neighbors to witness a miracle of life: a science project at which to marvel, as weird little strips blow up into pork rinds as you peer through your microwave window. And, as you eat your healthy and delicious pork skins, you too will wonder if, perhaps, we are all Red Necks at heart.