Duck fat roasted potatoes. Potatoes roasted in duck fat. Beautiful words indeed. A very simple tweak to a million recipes on the internet that changes everything. I don’t know of a better way to cook potatoes than in duck fat.
Butter – very tasty, olive oil and rosemary – very tasty, duck fat – freaking awesome. And there’s no excuse not to make them. Duck fat is not hard to find. Talk to your butcher.
The duck confit is done sous vide. I’d post the recipe but it’s internet standard. 167F for 12 hours. I froze these still in the vac pac, thawed them and broiled them. Once the smoke cleared and the fire alarm shut up dinner was great.
duck fat roasted potatoes
Ingredients
- Small new potatoes - from the farmer’s market is off the scale but any will do
- Duck fat
- Salt
Instructions
- Pre-heat a heavy cookie sheet (one with sides) in a 400F oven (350-425F is fine - go with whatever your oven needs to be at for anything else you are cooking).
- Boil the potatoes in well salted water until just tender - about 15 minutes.
- Drain and press lightly on each potato individually to split the skin. This is the only real work in this recipe but it makes all the difference.
- Add duck fat to pre-heated cookie sheet (enough to make sure there will be fat to baste - like a tablespoon per 10 small potatoes.
- Spoon melted fat over the potatoes. Get some in the nooks and crannies.
- Roast them for around 10 minutes. Baste again - maybe shake them up to make sure they brown evenly. Another 10 minutes, baste and shake. Another 10 minutes, baste and shake.
- When you are happy with them remove from oven, transfer to a bowl and toss with salt to taste.That’s it. It’s that easy.
duck fat roasted potatoes
Ingredients
- Small new potatoes - from the farmer’s market is off the scale but any will do
- Duck fat
- Salt
Instructions
- Pre-heat a heavy cookie sheet (one with sides) in a 400F oven (350-425F is fine - go with whatever your oven needs to be at for anything else you are cooking).
- Boil the potatoes in well salted water until just tender - about 15 minutes.
- Drain and press lightly on each potato individually to split the skin. This is the only real work in this recipe but it makes all the difference.
- Add duck fat to pre-heated cookie sheet (enough to make sure there will be fat to baste - like a tablespoon per 10 small potatoes.
- Spoon melted fat over the potatoes. Get some in the nooks and crannies.
- Roast them for around 10 minutes. Baste again - maybe shake them up to make sure they brown evenly. Another 10 minutes, baste and shake. Another 10 minutes, baste and shake.
- When you are happy with them remove from oven, transfer to a bowl and toss with salt to taste.That’s it. It’s that easy.
Braised chicken with Calabrian chilies. Delicious. And the skin stays crispy. That’s the great thing about this recipe. Tender chicken. Crispy skin.
Braising is a great way to cook. With chicken, though, the price you pay is flabby skin. Keeping the skin above the surface of the liquid keeps it from softening. Braised flavour with crunch. Delicious.
Perfectly cooked, tender chicken basted in that luscious sauce. It’s the kind of thing that can only come from delicately simmering chicken in a rich stock. A humble and yet wonderful dining experience. Comfort food.
Chicken with Calabrian chilies is better with thighs
I tend to braise thighs. Breasts work too. You can even mix them as long as you time it right (breasts go in after unless they are much bigger than the thighs).
You have to have chicken on bones with skin though – there’s no point doing this with boneless, skinless chicken.
Calabrian chilies add a bit of salty zing to this dish. There not particularly hot – so don’t worry about that. Maybe a bit hotter than BBQ potato chips. I don’t know why they aren’t the next big thing (yet) but they are really tasty.
You can infuse oil with them for a nice spicy oil that is killer on pizza or bruscetta. You can mix it into soup, a pot of white beans beans or maybe a lamb stew. Or you can use it in this dish.
You can find them at Italian grocers.
