An easy way to up your garlic game, this stovetop garlic confit requires just garlic cloves and olive oil and 45 minutes to 1 hour of stovetop cooking to give tender and meltingly sweet garlic cloves that can be used a variety of ways.
What is garlic confit?
To confit something in French basically means to cook it over a long period of time in order to preserve it.
Garlic confit is a method of cooking garlic very slowly in olive oil to make tender, sweet garlic cloves that can be preserved in the oil and used a variety of ways.
Why confit garlic in the first place?
Because it’s delicious! Garlic is one of my favorite things ever, but turning it into something spreadable is just next level. This gets rid of all the bitterness from garlic while preserving its beautiful flavor.
How to use garlic confit?
Also, garlic confit can be used in so many applications. I love adding it to any pasta sauce I’m making. I like spreading some on crusty bread, or adding a few cloves on a plate of steak or lamb.
This is also great mixed with some yogurt and served with rice dishes, or add some to mayo to make a great sauce to serve with something like shawarma.
Try adding some whole confit garlic cloves as a topping to your pizza ! Or serving with homemade fluffy dinner rolls.
Perhaps best of all, mix some with some creamy mashed potatoes or mashed cauliflower. Delicious!
How to make garlic confit:
Easy! Just place peeled garlic cloves in a saucepan that’s full of warm olive oil. Make sure the garlic is submerged in the oil, and cook slowly on low heat until garlic is soft and tender.
This took me 45 minutes but could take up to an hour. You aren’t looking for browned garlic, just garlic that will easily smush with a fork.
Tip: How to easily peel garlic cloves
My husband has a handy little trick that he saw online somewhere and has been using ever since. Place one head of garlic at a time in a jar, cover the lid, and shake vigorously. You want the garlic to be hitting the sides of the jar, at which point the head will break apart and the skin will come off.
It’s so handy and it really works! Here’s a video to see it in action: In the video, they break the head of garlic apart first but we don’t even bother doing that!
Storing the confit:
It will last in a clean jar, covered with the oil for up to 1 month in the fridge. Make sure you use a clean spoon when fishing out any of the cloves.
Garlic Confit
Ingredients
- 3 heads of garlic, peeled
- 1 cup olive oil
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil on medium low heat until hot, then add in all the peeled garlic cloves.
- Make sure the garlic is submerged, add a little extra olive oil if you need to. Reduce the heat to low, and cook for about 45 min-1 hour until garlic is tender when pierced with a fork.
- Remove from heat and store in a jar in the fridge with the olive oil you used in the pan for up to 1 month.
If you liked this recipe, you might like:
Roasted Garlic Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
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Love this! So easy to make and so many ways to use it!
Absolutely! We put this on everything
What a great way to make a bunch and keep in the refrigerator. I have only done garlic roasted in the oven. This is a great alternative.
It’s so simple and adds so much flavor!
This recipe for Garlic Confit is perfect for so many things and the flavor it adds is awesome. Next time I am going to make a larger batch!
Yay thanks for the feedback Heidy!
My fridge is not complete unless there is a jar of this garlic confit in it!! We use it on everything! Love it just as is scooped on some bread. I use it a lot in salad dressings and pasta. So good!
So glad to hear that Pam!
This will be on my table, stat! I’m a garlic fiend and cannot wait to dig in! Wonderful and so easy!
Thanks Patricia we really love this!!
Amazing flavour and so easy to make ! I’m a garlic addict and I think I will be making this a regular !
I’m so happy to hear that Sasha! I love how easy this is too! Thanks for taking the time to comment
you can make a great salad dressing with this too. I use the oil, you could definitely use some smashed garlic as well, although use olive oil as well because the oil itself is quite concentrated. Then, add some maple syrup for sweetness, your acid of choice, i use rice vinegar (the one for sushi rice), black pepper and this part is important, dijon mustard. It’ll make it all homogenous so you won’t have to worry about the oil and acid separating. inconveniently, i don’t have the measurements but you can personalize it to your liking.
Well thank you so much for the wonderful suggestion! I can just imagine how delicious that would be- will try it out!!!
I have high quality olive oil and olive oil that I use for everyday cooking. For this recipe would the quality of oil make a difference or does it get over powered by the garlic and/or ‘cooked up’ that I should just go with the standard everyday cooking?
I’d go with the high quality! That drizzle of oil with the softened garlic on a piece of bread would taste wonderful- I don’t think the garlic would diminish from the olive oil especially since it soaks it all up 😍