Chicken Thigh Confit

 

It is no secret.  I have a food love affair with confit!  I have a fascination with some of the older cooking methods!

The process of making confit originated as a means of storing food for future use.  Keep in mind, refrigeration as we know it, has only been around for about a hundred years. 

Prior to the wide spread introduction of mechanical refrigeration, food was either kept on ice, consumed fresh or preserved.  If preserved, it was often kept in a root cellar.  This where confit was stored.

The process of making confit dates back to the 13^th century, according to some sources. This was well before the times of mass industrial farming and food production.  The time period was truly a time of “local food” and “nose to tail” cooking. 

According to Larousse Gastronomique (1988), the meat in a confit can be “pork, goose, duck or turkey”.  Regardless of the type of meat the process is the same.

Simply put, to make confit, you season the meat or poultry.  Allow it to “cure” overnight, and then cook it, in an oven, at low temperature covered in rendered fat.  Ideally the fat should be from the same species as the meat.  The long slow cooking allows for natural tenderization of the protein.

After meat was tender it was removed from heat and stored, covered in its own fat.  Stored in this manner, in a cool place, the confit is edible for months.

The oldest confit I ever had was some pork shoulder (aka Pork Butt) that was in excess of a year old.  It was totally delightful.  Think about this statement.  The meat was cooked and stored, in a refrigerator, for over a year!

Now, we have modern refrigeration and freezers for food preservation.  When we make confit, it is for the flavor and for use in other dishes. 

I have two different confit recipes that I use.  Lately, I have been using one that is very simple. 

The version of the confit recipe that I am sharing is based on a recipe by Daniel Vaughn, the BBQ Editor for Texas Monthly magazine.  It is only slightly modified.  The original version was for smoked chicken thigh confit.

Chicken Thigh Confit

Yield: 4 servings

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves or (1 tsp of dry thyme leaves)
Fat to cover the thighs when they are cooking in the oven.  (I usually do not have access to Schmaltz, so I use Lard as needed.)

I buy commercial, commodity chicken thighs.  They tend to run large, eight ounces or more.  The measurements listed above work for these.  You can alter the amount of the dry ingredients as needed to suit your situation.

Try the recipe as written and then modify the salt content as desired.  Once you add the salt you cannot remove it.  Depending on the size of the thighs you may or may not find them to be slightly salty.

Season the thighs the night before you plan on cooking the confit. After, they are seasoned I store the thighs overnight in a single layer.  I typically use a zip lock bag but any impervious container that can be covered may be used.  I like using zip lock bags because I can easily flip the thighs over, during the night.

The next day, when I am ready to cook, I preheat the oven to 250°.  I lay the chicken thighs out in a single layer in an oven proof pan, that is just large enough to hold them in a single layer.

  The pan must be deep enough to fold a sufficient amount of fat (to cover the thighs) while they are cooking.  If you pan is too big and you have lots of empty space it will require excess fat.

I put the pan in the preheated oven and let it cook.  I check the chicken for tenderness at half hour intervals after 2 ½ hours.  The batch in these pictures took approximately 3 ¾ hours to get as tender as I wanted.

When the thighs are tender, they are ready to eat or you can chill them as I do.  Either way you want to minimally crisp the skin in a hot pan before consuming.  I remove the bone right before I crisp the skin and heat the flesh through.

The following pictures and commentary will guide you through the process.

 This is a double batch of the recipe above.  I have 6 thighs in the top pan and 3 in bottom pan.  The chicken was seasoned the afternoon before and spent the night in the refrigerator.

These pans are stainless steel.  I have used Pyrex casserole dishes for this dish.  Regardless of what you use, it must be oven proof and tall enough so the chicken can be completely covered with fat.  You can see there is a little extra space in the top pan.  

 This photo shows the thighs covered with fat.  The fat that is on the chicken is from my previous batch or two of confit.  The fat can be reused until it becomes too salty from having the confit cooked in it.  (It also does wonders as a cooking fat for French Fries Potatoes!!)  In the photo, the fat is opaque because it is cold.

If I am making the dish for the first time and do not have enough lard or other "animal" fat, I top off the lard with canola oil.  Canola oil is a “flavorless” oil.   

This photo shows the chicken in my oven.  You can see the fat is getting warm and is clearing. I sometimes use a sheet pan under the chicken to facilitate moving the chicken and not having to worry quite as much about spills.

 

After 3 ¾ hours the chicken was tender enough for me.  I removed it from the oven and have the pans sitting on wire racks to start cooking down.  Be sure to check the bigger pieces for tenderness.

After the chicken has cooled some, you may wish to remove the chicken to a wire rack allow it to drain.  You want any juices that the chicken is exuding to drain away.  You can see some fat and juices in a puddle at the bottom of the photo.  More about this in a moment.

 

The chicken is divided into containers by serving numbers.  Since we serve in twos, I put an even number of chicken thighs in each storage container.  I also try to keep some space between the thighs, to facilitate their removal when it is time to serve them.

The fat in this photo has been carefully poured off the pan that the confit was cooked in.  We do this carefully to leave any juices from the cooking process behind. 

We separate the juices from the fat to extend the storage time.  The flesh will not sour but the juices will over time.  Some older recipes, call for skewers to be placed on the bottom of the storage container and the protein be placed on the skewers before the fat is added.  The idea is to suspend the protein off the bottom of the container and keep it from coming in contact with any juices that may be given off during storage.

I allow the chicken to cool pretty well before putting it in the refrigerator.  If it is still slightly warm when I put it in the cooler, I put the container on wire rack and leave it uncovered.  the next morning I am good to remove the rack from the cooler and cover the storage containers. 

Properly cooked and stored, confit will keep for months in a modern refrigerator.  This makes it ideal for a quick delightful dinner.  I often serve confit on a bed of legumes or on a salad.  Both with crusty bread please!  Since I have other photos of dishes with the confit on this blog I did not include any in this article.

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I hope you have enjoyed this information.

As always, your questions or comments are welcome.

Until next time,

Bon Appetit Y’all

Leslie Bartosh