This recipe makes chicken melt in your mouth and taste like butter. The original recipe comes from the famous French “duck confit”, but it works with chicken just as well. The resultant meat is so fatty, they say it can last for weeks in your fridge (but, I never have been able to test if this is true ). At the end of this recipe, I will also show you how to separate the final by-products, to make delicious herb-flavoured rendered fat (for future cooking), as well as chicken broth. Nothing goes wasted!
First take your chicken legs, salt and pepper both sides. Place in dish
Cover with film and place in refrigerator overnight (in order to “dry brine” the chicken)
After the dry brine, place the chicken in an oven proof pot
Melt some lard (or duck fat) just enough to liquify it. For five chicken legs, I used about 4 cups lard
Pour the liquid lard over the chicken. Make sure each piece of chicken is completely submerged
Add a few herbs of your choice. I used a couple sprigs of thyme, a couple sprigs sage, 4 bay leaves and a branch of rosemary
Cover pot, and place in oven preheated to 225 deg F. Cook for 3 hours
This is what it looks like cooked and out of the oven
Plating (with a bit of Dijon mustard and pickles). The chicken is so buttery, that it pairs very well with mustard and vinegary foods
The chicken is so tender it falls apart so easily, and the meat inside is buttery and soft
The perfect bite - a bit of buttery chicken, with salty/peppery skin and a dab of Dijon mustard
Here are the next steps to save all parts (no waste) to make more meals:
Here is what is left when the chicken is removed - at the top is herb-flavoured delicious fat for future cooking, and the bottom is a layer of water-based chicken gravy with herbs
Decant the top herb-flavoured fat (oil) layer and set aside (you can store in jars) and use in you cooking
Save the bones, and combine with the remainder gravy layer that was on the bottom of the fat layer
Fill the pot of bones and gravy with water, and bring to a boil for a few hours to make chicken stock (broth). Add salt as needed