Trying Chicken Confit at Home !! (Ayaka Wakazono)

Hello everyone🐔!

In this blog post, I would like to introduce chicken confit, which I recently made myself.

In another class, we were given an assignment to write a report on the methods of cooking chicken. While talking about this assignment in the laboratory, my supervisor told me that confit is a very delicious cooking method. Based on the recipe he recommended, I decided to try making chicken confit myself. This post is a report based on that experience.

Confit is a traditional French cooking method in which not only chicken, but also other meats and fish, are slowly cooked in oil at a low temperature. Unlike deep-frying at high temperatures, this method allows the ingredients to retain their moisture while cooking, resulting in meat that is tender and rich in flavor. Below, I describe the recipe I used to make chicken confit.

How to Make Chicken Confit

1. Preparation

Prepare 600 g (8 pieces) of chicken drumettes. Rub the meat with salt equivalent to 1.5% of its weight (9 g) and a small amount of black pepper. Herbs such as rosemary or thyme can also be rubbed in at this stage, but I did not use them this time.

Slice one clove of garlic and place the slices on the surface of the chicken. Put the chicken into a zip-top bag, remove as much air as possible, seal it, and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight.

2. Submerging in Oil

After resting overnight, excess moisture will have been released from the meat. Remove this moisture thoroughly with paper towels. Arrange the chicken in the smallest possible pot and completely submerge it in salad oil.

3. Low-Temperature Cooking

Heat the pot over medium heat at first. When small bubbles begin to appear in the oil, reduce the heat to low. Maintain this temperature and cook for approximately 1.5 hours.

4. Cooling and Storage

After cooking, turn off the heat and allow the chicken to cool in the oil. Store the meat submerged in the oil.

5. Finishing

Just before serving, reheat the chicken using a gas stove or microwave, or brown the surface in a frying pan or toaster oven to finish.

Using salt at 1.5% of the meat’s weight made the confit sufficiently flavorful even without additional seasoning. The meat could be easily pulled apart with chopsticks or a fork, without the need to bite into it directly. It was not greasy, remained moist, and was extremely delicious. It also paired very well with alcohol.

However, when using a gas stove, even low heat felt slightly too strong, resulting in a temperature somewhat higher than ideal. When making confit at home, starting the heating process on a gas stove and then switching to an induction heater (IH) may help achieve a more tender result.

The large amount of oil used can be reused: it tastes good when drizzled over salads with a subtle chicken aroma, and it can also be saved for the next batch of confit. Next time, I plan to try making confit with chicken tail meat (bonjiri).

If you are interested, I encourage you to give it a try!

Ayaka Wakaozno