Chicken Confit with Green Olives + Kumquats (TTH)

FOR THE DRY CURE

• 1 cup kosher salt
• 2 whole star anise, finely crushed with the side of a knife [Probably better done in a mortar and pestle]
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried [dried]
• 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest or dried orange peel [former]
• 1/2 teaspoon dried lavender flowers [I did my best here in trying 3 different stores.  My third store was Christina's Spices and Specialty Foods in Inman which is the one store in Boston where if you can't find that spice/herb/rice/flour/tea/chile/pantry item here, you probably should order it online.  I guess they usually carry it, but they were all out.]
• 8 large bone-in, skin -on chicken thighs (about 2 pounds), patted dry.

Mix it all up.

Pat thighs dry with paper towels.  Layer a third of the salt on the bottom of a pan that will hold the thighs as tightly as possible.  Throw in the chicken and evenly sprinkle another third of the salt in.  Pack the last of the salt so well that the chicken is completely covered.

Cover with another plate, pan, or saran-wrapped box of kosher salt in my case.  Weigh this down with a couple heavy cans.  Throw this in the fridge for a couple hours.

FOR THE CONFIT

• 2 cups vegetable or canola oil, or as needed
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 whole star anise
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon dried lavender flowers (optional)

My pyrex isn't quite stove-top safe so I moved the operations to my dutch over where things are a bit roomier.  Pour over oil to cover the thighs you have rinsed of salt and patted dry again.  Toss the spices in and confit in a 300 degree oven for I don't know how long.  Blais doesn't tell you, but a paring knife met with no resistance at the 1 1/2 hour point.

Transfer thighs skin side up to baking sheet to drain excess oil.

Heat up 2 tablespoons of the confit fat (You can apparently strain it and use it as many times as you like for 30 days, but I don't really think I'm going to confit again so soon.).

Dip skin side down into the flour seasoned with black pepper and crisp up the skin over medium heat.

FOR THE SAUCE

• 1 1/2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 18 kumquats, thinly sliced and seeded, or 1 small tangerine, peeled and finely choppes, any seeds removed [After cooking this, I think it would be nuts to use a tangerine over kumquats, but if you need to use a tangerine to get you by...]
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pitted green olives, such as Picholine or Cerignola
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Sauce mise en place.

Toast the mustard seeds.

 
Add sugar and water and stir to dissolve.

Add kumquats and cook until they break down a bit.  Season with black pepper.  Later on, add olives.

You know, I've never been a fan of duck confit.  It's one of those hoity-toity ingredients I don't get that all foodies seems to love like foie gras that I simply can't fathom why they're interesting.

However, I do love cooking chicken thighs, it was fun to go through the confit-ing process using vegetable oil (rather than duck fat which will set you back a considerable amount unless you're rendering duck skin all the time), and...  This was insanely good.
Remarkably well-seasoned even without the lavender I failed to source.  Beautiful texture, beautiful skin, the kumquat-olive relish the perfect foil.  Great dish all around though not necessary one I'm going to cook all the time unlike the recipe in my next blog entry.