CHICKEN - Chicken Confit

By Aemelia

Ingredients

• 8 cups lukewarm water
• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 cup plus 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 boneless chicken legs (I used 8 chicken thighs)
• 2 strips smoky bacon (this is the alternative for those who don’t have a cold smoker – that’s me!)
• 5 cups rendered pork or duck fat or grapeseed oil (I used grapeseed oil)
• 2 cucumbers
• 4 cups cooked short-grain rice
• 4 slow poached eggs (recipe follows)
• 1/2 cup sliced scallions (I used chives, I know – not the same but I didn’t have any on hand)

Details

Servings 4
Adapted from trissalicious.com

Preparation

Step 1

Combine the water, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup salt in a large container with a lid and stir to dissolve. Add the chicken, cover or seal and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, no more than 6.

Remove the chicken from the brine and discard the brine. Heat the oven to 180 degree and pack the chicken snugly into a pot or other oven safe vessel – the less extra space there is , the less fat is required to submerge the chicken. Tuck the smoked bacon in the dish as well. Heat the fat/oil and pour it over the chicken. Put the chicken in the oven and cook for 50 minutes (hey it’s me here – I actually cooked it for 3 hours as after 50 minutes it didn’t look all that cooked to me). Remove from the pot oven and cool to room temperature.

Remove the bones and fry the chicken (skin side only) over medium high heat until crisp.

Portion the rice in four bowls and use the back of the spoon to create a shallow space in the middle and slide the slow poached egg into it. Divide the cucumber pickles among the bowl (recipe follows but I didn’t bother with this), nestling them together in a little mound. Add the chicken around the bowl and sprinkle with the scallions (or in my case, chives) and serve.