Chicken Confit

chicken
confit

#1

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 :slight_smile: ). 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


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(Alex Dipego) #2

Confit is my favorite life hack


#3

Oh, please let me know what else you do with confit!


(Alex Dipego) #4

:grin::grin::grin:

Well! I’ve been working on my own business built around confit and starting with the big 3 (beef,pork,chicken) from spicing with herbs and dry aging it for days to slow cooking for 3-5hrs in a fat of choice. I’ll take a quarter of meat off what was cooked and turn that into a rilletes and spread over a cheese crisp either of parm, Romano or Gouda.


#5

Rilletes, confit, cheese crisps…drooling right now!!! :yum:

Funny you mention rilletes…I’m thinking of making some with the left over chicken from tonight.

Are you a chef?


(Alex Dipego) #6

Currently not a chef but a restaurant manager. I’ve been working in food for 15 years and been formally trained in baking and pastry (funny enough). My dream is my own place serving thoughtfully delicious and beautiful food.

Building my business plan and recipe testing takes the brunt of my time. Soon it’ll pay off though, just pushing through.


#7

Ah ha!

I thought there was a professional restaurant insider connection! When you mentioned rillete, it got me wondering “how the heck did he know that?”

Have you ever had the duck confit rillete, with orange peel and cognac…geeeez…orgasmic!


(Alex Dipego) #8

It’s one of those things that makes me turn to the person next to me and say, “this is why I’m a good snob.”


#9

Yeah, really…well, I turn to the person next to me and say “this is why I’m a food whore” :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:


(bulkbiker) #10

Chicken wings are great cooked this way as well… and if you broil (or grill as we say this side of the pond) afterwards you can crisp up the skin too.


#11

Do you dry brine them, too?


(bulkbiker) #12

no just chuck them in the pot with the melted fat…very simple hehe
They’re really nice cook for 2-3 hours low


(Tom Seest) #13

Great write up. I might even be able to make this.


(Kathy L) #14

how do you separate the oil & water? Any trick to this?


#15

The first thing is get a ladle and scoop the top (it’s easy to do because it’s a pretty thick layer of fat). When you get close to the interface, scoop the mix oil and gravy into a glass measuring cup. Wait a minute or two to settle, and then pour top fat layer off.

Hope this helps :blush:


(Peter Demarest) #16

Just made this. There were no leftovers.


(I want abs... olutely all the bacon) #17

At a loss for words…


#18

Hahahahaha :laughing::+1:

Nice to hear that there were no leftovers.


(I want abs... olutely all the bacon) #19

@Fiorella I’m excited to try this! I’ve dry brined spatchcock turkeys, these were left in the frig uncovered for the dry brining… or so I thought! Is the dry brining the seasoning without liquid and not the air drying of the meat in the frig? Or are there different kinds of dry brining? I’m definitely a cooking “weekend warrior”, still learning flavor and techniques.


#20

Love your weekend warrior activities, soldier!

Putting in the fridge is the safe thing to do because it keeps poultry at safe temperature. The dry brine concept is to allow the salt and flavouring to penetrate the flesh, without water. Then, if you leave the poultry uncovered, it dries the skin and helps for recipes where you want to get a nice crispy skin. I find it a pain in the butt to wet brine, as the pot of water to submerge the meat is huge. I find it unnecessary, too, if you cook with lots of fat. If you end up not being shy with frying or roasting in lard, butter, bacon grease, etc, then the poultry doesn’t have a chance to go dry on you. Gone are the days when people fried their chicken on Teflon coated pans sprayed with Pam…of course that chicken would always be dry if it wasn’t wet brined. But, really not necessary for ketonians, as the poultry is allowed to swim in fat while cooking.