Garlic Confit Recipe

This delicious garlic confit recipe is incredibly simple to make and tastes intensely flavorful!

It's so versatile! You can use it in so many ways on crostinis, pasta, salad dressings, soups, roasted vegetables, or hummus.

The garlic slowly cooks in the oil till caramelized and tender.

This recipe only takes a few minutes to prep - especially if you buy pre-peeled garlic!

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• What is Confit?
• Storage
• Tips for Making this Recipe
• Garlic Confit

Homemade garlic confit is an easy way to upgrade a sauce, pizza, mashed potatoes, and more. The garlic does take a few hours to roast, but it's largely hands-off time, and it results in absolutely fabulous little flavor bombs.

If you are a garlic lover, one of the easiest ways to enjoy this recipe is to spread it on a slice of crusty bread.

Peeling the garlic is the hardest part of this recipe, but if you want to save time, buy pre-peeled garlic from the store.

Ingredients

You don't need much to make this fantastic confit recipe!

• Raw garlic cloves, with their skins removed
• Olive oil or another oil of your choice (you don't need to use extra virgin olive oil)
• Fresh herbs like rosemary, thyme, and oregano

See the recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Peel your heads of garlic if they are not pre-peeled.

Place garlic cloves in small, oven-safe dishes.

Cover the garlic cloves in the oil. You should use enough oil to cover all the garlic cloves. Add any fresh herbs you'd like.

Bake the garlic for 2 hours until the cloves are golden brown.

Allow the confit to come to room temperature before storing it in the refrigerator or using it immediately.

Use the garlic confit to spread on bread, in soups, salad dressings, pasta sauces, or in mashed potatoes. Enjoy your spreadable garlic cloves!

Save the extra oil - the garlic oil will keep for several months and you can use it in pasta, dressings, or as a topping for roasted vegetables.

What is Confit?

Confit is any type of ingredient slowly cooked, at a low temperature, in oil or another kind of fat. The term confit is from the french word "confire" meaning to preserve.

You may have heard of duck confit, a famous French dish where duck legs are salted and slowly cooked in their own fat.

Confit garlic follows a similar cooking process in that it is often cooked at 200 or 250 degrees F for a long period of time.

Cherries and melon are often cooked this way as well. Please note the safety warnings under that storage section as anything you cook in this method should be refrigerated.

Storage

The most important part of storing garlic confit is that it should be kept in the refrigerator and not at room temperature. Store in a Mason jar, Tupperware, or another type of glass container.

Garlic confit is low in acid and cooked at a lower temperature. Because of this, if it is stored on the countertop or at room temperature, there is a risk of food botulism. You can read more about it on the CDC website.

Tips for Making this Recipe

Cooking Tips - Depending on the size of the garlic, type of oil you are using, and type of pan you use the garlic may take a shorter or longer time to cook. Test your garlic after 1 ½ hours in the oven - if it spreads easily on a piece of bread or cracker it's done.

Reheating - The oil will solidify when you store the confit in the refrigerator. Spoon out the amount you will use and reheat it in the microwave if adding it to a sauce or dressing. If it's going into something warm like a soup, add it straight in, and it will warm up on its own.

Freezing - You can freeze garlic confit in a freezer-safe bag or ice cube tray (or in another type of airtight container) for up to 3 months.

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