Really Easy Goose-Fat Chicken Confit

This chicken thigh confit pairs well with mashed potatoes or polenta, something both neutral and fluffy to suck up its salt and fat.

Brined and then cooked slowly in fat, this chicken thigh needs little more than time

When I think of chicken, it’s hard to get excited. I think of dry Sunday roasts served at 5 p.m., overcooked breasts with no spice that evoke a particular, and thankfully forgotten, bland flavor of 90s suburban America. When I think of chicken confit, it’s a different story.

Confit is a French way of preserving meat by first brining it in salt, cooking it at a low heat submerged in fat and then storing it in that fat—back in the day, in an earthenware jar. Traditionally, duck was the meat of choice. It’s still a popular way of eating duck, it’s just generally stored in the refrigerator or canned.

I wanted to, of course, breathe my own culture into a meat confit recipe. I chose whole chicken legs, because chicken is the meat of my Jewish-American childhood. Breast would have been too dry and doesn’t confit well. I went for goose fat instead of another animal fat since I’ve been wanting to revive this lost—but so delicious—ingredient from traditional Ashkenazi cooking. And to lighten it all up, I diluted the goose fat with olive oil and infused it with dried herbs while cooking.

For those who aren’t familiar with goose fat, it’s lighter, a tiny bit fruitier and more complex compared to other animal fats. In Jewish cooking, it’s called schmaltz—rendered poultry fat—and in the U.S., goose fat has been largely replaced by chicken fat.

The night before serving, I brined my chicken legs in salt and some dry herbs. The next day, I rinsed them off and put them in a baking tray with my mix of goose fat, olive oil and dry herbs. I let them cook on a low heat for about four hours in the oven and served them with mashed potatoes and shallots to suck up that hot fat and salty, crusty skin.

I want more dishes like this because they look and taste elevated, but they’re not. It’s all about time: you have to leave the salt and fat alone to do the heavy lifting for you. Non-intervention is an art in itself.

If only those suburban American moms had known.

*

Serving: 1 leg per person

Ingredients:
Bone-in chicken legs
Shallots, peeled and halved (1/2 per leg)
Kosher salt
Goose fat
Olive oil
Dry herbs: bay leaves, thyme and/or rosemary

Preparation:

1. The night (or day) before, rub chicken legs generously in a mix of salt and dry herbs (I cheat here: buy the cheap ones in the plastic tube because it’s so much easier for rubbing). Generally, about 2 tsp of salt per leg will do it. The legs need to be fully covered in salt to brine them. Don’t worry about using too much, you will rinse them before cooking. Put legs back into fridge and let them sit until mealtime the next day.

2. Preheat the oven to 250F. Rinse off your chicken legs and pat dry. Lay them out on a baking tray or Dutch oven, skin side up. Start with your goose fat and cover the chicken skin, which should be about one tablespoon per leg. Move on to the olive oil, and fill up your tray/Dutch oven with the oil until the legs are just covered. Add in your dry herbs directly to the oil where there’s room so that it can infuse, along with halved shallots. Put your legs in the oven covered and leave it alone for four hours.

3. Remove from oven and serve a leg, hot and still dripping with a bit of oil, with a side that plays to its fat (I recommend something both neutral and fluffy, like mashed potatoes or polenta). Drizzle a bit of fat over like sauce. Save all of your extra fat in the refrigerator or, like I do, fill up an ice cube tray to portion it out and stick in the freezer. It will come in handy for many other dishes.