Chicken Confit

 

Chicken Confit or olive oil roasted chicken is the most impossibly tender, moist, and crispy-skinned chicken you’ll ever have.

Chicken Confit is the easy chicken recipe you didn’t know you needed in your life.

Salted chicken pieces are roasted in olive oil with carrots, shallots, garlic, and lemons to create the most impossibly tender chicken.

This Olive Oil-Roasted Chicken with Caramelized Carrots was the main dish of our Alison Roman Night a couple of months ago. 

All of the recipes we made that evening were “OMG, this is amazing!” along with “Which recipe was that I need to make this again!”

So, without further ado, we’re going to chat Confit Chicken or Olive Oil-Roasted Chicken. 

What do you need to make Chicken Confit?

• Chicken pieces – I did a combo of legs and thighs, but full chicken leg quarters would work too!
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• Pepper
• Lemons
• Garlic
• Fresh Thyme or Oregano
• Carrots
• Shallots
• Olive Oil

I’m going to show you how to make a small dish for two or a large braiser dish for 8. 

First, you’ll salt and pepper each individual piece of chicken.

We’re dry brining the chicken the day before we cook it.

Using paper towels , pat dry each piece of chicken, then liberally salt each piece of chicken.

Place chicken skin side up, on a rimmed baking sheet.

What is dry brining?

A dry brine actually draws the chicken’s natural moisture out of the meat. Then, the salt mixes with the chicken’s juices and is reabsorbed into the meat. This very concentrated brine breaks down the muscle proteins and connective tissue, and prevents them from squeezing the liquid out during the cooking process.

For 8 servings, place salted chicken pieces on a half sheet pan. 

Here’s what you’ll add next:

• Lemon zest
• Sliced garlic
• Thyme Sprigs
• Other fresh herbs like rosemary sprigs or oregano you’d like
• Sliced Shallots

Make sure the top of the chicken has equal distribution of herbs, garlic, and lemon zest, and everything is in a single layer.

Don’t cover it with plastic wrap or aluminum foil! You want to let air circulate around the chicken overnight.

The whole process of dry brining typed out sounds like lot of work, but I promise you it’s worth it! It makes all the difference.

You can apply this same dry-brining method to any meat that has skin on it — I love using it on my Thanksgiving Turkey!

Now, you’ll put this whole sheet tray into your fridge, UNCOVERED, for 24 hours.

The next day, you’ll see the end of the ultra-slow transformation of raw meat .

The skin will look almost transluscent, and this is what you want! This is what produces crisp-skinned succulence! YUM!

The second step of this process is the roasting/braising part.

The next day, remove the chicken from the fridge. You want the chicken to spend a good hour on the counter coming to room temperature.

Do not rinse your chicken pieces, y’all. No need!

Place them skin side up in a braising dish.

Let’s chat about braising dishes for a second…

This might be my new most favorite piece of kitchen equipment.

My lovely parents gave it to me for Christmas — and I use it almost every day.

It sits on my stovetop, and I use it to make all kinds of recipes.

This braiser is expensive! But, it’s a lifetime lasting piece, and I’m sure you will see it over and over!

If you don’t have a braiser, use a large dutch oven that is oven-proof.

So, nestle your chicken into your braiser, and tuck sliced carrots, shallots, whole cloves of garlic, and lemon slices all over. Make sure everything is all nestled in to the bottom of an enameled cast iron pot. Be sure the chicken skin-side is up!

I tucked in some extra whole garlic cloves, because I love them smeared on top of crusty bread!

For the little one, add four chicken thighs, overlapping a tinge, and top with all the same things as above. (I ran out of carrots, so I used sliced yellow onions.)

Next, drizzle plenty of oil over the entire dish to really let the chicken braise.

For the little dish, it’s about half a cup of olive oil (good olive oil!).

The big braiser took about a cup of oil.

While the chicken cooks, the chicken will produce rendered fat, which mixes with the olive oil. You want to make sure your cooking dish is tall enough that the amount of oil can double.

Yep! It’s a lot of oil, but you can save it and next time use it for all kinds of things:

• Pasta
• Making homemade croutons
• Roasting more chicken

If you’re unfamiliar with the confit method, essentially it’s cooking something for a long time in some kind of oil.

Oils you can confit in:

• Canola Oil
• Vegetable Oil
• Extra-Virgin Olive OIl

Instead of using a high heat like you would for other cooking methods, the confit process uses a medium heat or low heat, depending on just how long you want to confit. Duck confit is usually roasted for a few hours at a very low oven temperature!

I’ve never used the slow cooker for this method. But, I would suggest using it when you don’t want your protein to have crispy skin.

There isn’t enough oil to submerge the chicken parts, so the tops of the skin end up getting incredibly crispy.

You’ll roast your chicken at 325˚ oven temperatire for 55 – 65 minutes.

During the last ten minutes, feel free to baste with the schmaltzy oil and really lean into the whole olive oil-roasted chicken business.

Serve directly from the braiser (another point of love for this kitchen item!), and be sure to let your guests dip their chicken pieces back into the oil. << It might be the best part.

After dinner was complete, I saved the oil in a glass container to use later!

This reserved fat is amazing for eggs or making homemade croutons! The good thing about saving this, is you can use it again when you want to make this recipe again! if you’re worried about the onions and garlic perishing, use a slotted spoon to remove them before transferring the reserved fat to a container.

How do you know the chicken confit is cooked through?

Using an instant-read thermometer, cooking the chicken until it’s 165˚. With it sitting in oil, it’s quite impossible to overcook this chicken recipe.

What can you do with the leftovers?

If you have leftovers — pull the chicken from the bone, and toss into a big bowl of arugula with a spritz of lemon juice .

Perfect Pairings – what you can serve with this recipe:

• Parmesan Zucchini
• Mashed Potatoes
• Chopped Iceberg Salad

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