Confit and deep frying are both delicious ways to cook chicken and other meats in a whole bunch of fat. But what’s the difference and why would you choose one method over another? If you want to know, you’ve come to the right article, keep reading!

So…what’s the difference between confit and deep frying?

Confit and deep frying are fat-based cooking methods. Confit is generally poultry slow cooked at low oven temperatures (200°F/93°C to 300°F/150°C) in its own fat and/or with supplementary fat such as lard. Deep frying is when poultry, meat and other foods are submerged in hot oil/fat (350°F/176°C to 375°F/190°C) and quickly fried until the outside is crispy. Vegetable oil is often used for deep frying though animal fats like tallow and lard were traditionally used.

Now you know the basic differences, let’s look at more details about confit and deep frying,  their differences and similarities, what foods you can use in each of these cooking methods and whether these two greasy cooking styles are healthy.

What is confit cooking?

Confit cooking is a method for slow cooking and preserving meat in animal fat. Meats used in confit are typically poultry and sometimes pork. Fats used in confit are duck or goose fat and/or lard. Confit meat is tender, often so tender that it falls off the bone.

Confit is a traditional French method for preserving meats. In their book, Pâté, Confit, Rillette: Recipes from the Craft of Charcuterie, Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman say, “Before refrigeration, families would put up enough confit to last throught the winter … they wouldn’t eat this confit during the upcoming winter … They would eat the confit from the previous year only once they’d put up a new batch, to ensure that they had enough food for this year and the next.”

Making confit is simple and takes no special equipment.

Basic instructions for making confit:

• Marinate your poultry for eight hours to three days with salt and other aromatics.
• Put the poultry, additional fat (as necessary) and water, stock or wine in a pot that’s small enough so everything fits snugly.
• Cook low and slow for a few hours until the fat is clear and the meat sinks to the bottom.
• Put the meat in glass jars and cover it entirely with fat to keep the air out.
• Store your confit in the fridge (if you don’t have a fridge, store your confit in a cold room that probably belongs to spiders).

[For more information on confit cooking, check out my epic article, Confit: Preserving Yummy Meats the French Way.]

What is deep frying?

Deep frying is a method for quickly cooking meats and non-meats so they’re tender and juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside. Poultry is associated with deep frying because fried chicken and chicken wings are real crowd pleasers.

“The best comfort food will always be greens, cornbread, and fried chicken.”

Maya Angelou

But really, you can deep fry most meats and many vegetables. As for meats, you can deep fry steaks, corn dogs, Scotch eggs, whole turkeys and whatever else you can think of. Deep fryers also make Brussels sprouts more appealing, turn the humble potato into French fries and put falafels on your must-eat list. There’s also a whole genre of deep frying that involves desserts and other unimaginably rich treats like deep fried macaroni and cheese and arancini (deep fried risotto).

Deep frying is simple and can be done on the stove in a couple inches of oil or in a deep fryer. You can do it safely at home but deep frying uses hot oil that can smoke or catch on fire, so it comes with an element of danger.  

Basic instructions for deep frying:

• Heat your oil/fat on the stove or in your deep fryer and use a thermometer/temperature gauge to guide you.
• Dry whatever you’re deep frying thoroughly.
• Put your food in the deep fryer gently.
• Fry the food until it’s golden brown on the outside.
• Remove your deep-fried food with a slotted spoon and enjoy!

These basic instructions don’t cover safety and if you’re inspired to start deep frying, knowing how to do it safely is essential. To get the downlow on how to deep fry safely, have a look at Caroline Stanko’s article, How to Deep Fry at Home With Confidence, on the Taste of Home website.

[I say this with love; I’ve had a grease fire from steaming chicken feet and damn, it was scary. Baking soda came to the rescue.]

Equipment needed for deep frying:

• Deep fryer or a large pot (both wide and high).
• Slotted spoon/tongs to retrieve the food or a deep-frying basket (this basket comes with the deep fryer).
• Digital thermometer.
• Lid of the pot, baking soda, salt and fire extinguisher (in case things go wrong).
• Wire rack and paper towels to put the food on once it comes out of the fryer.
• Nerves of steel, ha ha.

What’s the difference between confit and deep frying?

The differences between confit and deep frying include the purpose, equipment required, ingredients, temperatures, time and danger level.

The differences between confit and deep frying

	Confit cooking	Deep frying
The purpose	To cook meat until tender and preserve it in its own fat.	To cook meat and other food until it’s tender (or melted) on the inside and crispy on the outside.
Equipment	A pot. The oven.	Pot, stove and thermometer, or deep fryer. Slotted spoon, tongs or frying basket. Safety equipment (lid, baking soda, salt, fire extinguisher, etc.).
Cooking medium	Fat, generally duck, goose or pork fat.	Vegetable oil* (peanut, soybean, canola, grapeseed oil, etc.). Animal fat (tallow, lard).
Cooking temperatures	Low oven temperature: 200°F (93°C) to 300°F (150°C).	High oil temperature: 350°F (176°C) to 375°F (190°C).
Preservation method?	Yes.	No.
Time required	Two to six hours.	Two to 15 minutes.
Danger level	Low.	Medium if you follow instructions carefully. High if you leave your hot oil unattended or put wet food into the hot oil.

*If you use vegetable oils regularly, please watch this talk by investigative health journalist, Nina Teicholz, Vegetable Oils: The Unknown Story.

What are the similarities between confit and deep frying?

The similarities between confit and deep frying are the fat and the pot of fat.

Confit and deep frying both require enough fat so that the food can be completely submerged during the cooking process.

Plus, you can use a regular kitchen pot for both cooking methods; no fancy equipment is required (unless you consider a digital thermometer fancy).  

In terms of the results, you get tender meat with both confit and deep frying, so that’s one reason people love these two cooking methods.

What foods can you confit?

Traditional confit is made with poultry and sometimes pork. In their book, Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking & Curing, Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn say, “While pork wasn’t confited for preservation, it makes a fabulous confit … the shoulder and belly lend themselves beautifully to the confit technique.”

They also encourage their readers to expand beyond duck legs into the realm of chicken and turkey confit (but not to confit chicken breast as it gets dry and mealy). Though beef isn’t a confit meat, they also include a recipe for beef tongue confit.

While confit is mostly limited to birds and pigs, vegetable confits are becoming more common. You can make vegetable confit with tomatoes, squash and other root vegetables, fennel, onion, garlic, mushrooms, etc. They’re generally made with olive oil instead of animal fat and don’t last like traditional confit does. Michael and Brian say that onion confit and garlic confit last two to three weeks in the fridge.

What foods can you deep fry?

Now this is where it gets exciting because you can deep fry practically anything from meats, vegetables and fully prepared food like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to desserts, tequila shots and beer. (If you’re wondering, the deep-fried tequila shots are cake soaked in tequila then deep fried. But the deep-fried beer is real beer in ravioli, according to the WikiHow article, How to Cook Deep Fried Beer.)

I’m not going to list all the food you can deep fry here because the list would be practically endless. The takeaway about deep frying foods is this: If you can dream it, you can do it.

If you want the debauchery options, type “what foods can you deep fry” into your search engine and visit the articles with super click-baity titles. These articles bring you to things you shouldn’t be doing like making and eating deep-fried Cadbury eggs, cookie dough and Coca Cola cake. I leave it to you.

But to stay in the realm of real food, I suggest you read and get inspired by Rabi Abonour’s article 20 Crispy, Salty, Just-Greasy-Enough Fried Foods We Love on the Serious Eats site. That article is quite meaty so if you’re looking for deep fried veggies, check out the tutorial called Deep Fried Vegetables on the Just A Pinch site.

All that to say, deep frying is a much more versatile approach to cooking than confit (but both have their place).

Are confit and deep-frying healthy ways to cook food at home?

As I’ve said many times on this site, what’s healthy depends on what dietary ideology you follow. What the Canada Food Guide, the USDA My Plate and the American Heart Association say is quite different than what you’ll find in “alternative” health communities that follow low carb, keto, carnivore/Zero Carb ways of eating, for example.

Instead of getting into all of that, I’ll address two things about the fat used in confit and deep frying. First of all, the fat shouldn’t get absorbed into foods that are confited or deep fried (this can happen if you deep fry at a too-low temperature though). So, these foods aren’t necessarily fatty.

Secondly, fat is essential, so essential that it’s one of the three macro nutrients (fat, protein, carbohydrate). But these days, a common belief is that animal fat is bad and vegetable oil is fine. Except if you watch the Nina Teicholz video I mentioned earlier, you’ll be skeptical of industrial seed oils. [And I applaud you for that.]

If you’re making real food (meat and veg) by way of confit and deep frying, I wouldn’t worry about it. If you’re deep frying ice cream, cookie dough and Nutella, you might consider Richard Simmon’s advice and step away from all that.  

“People have been frying foods since Jesus was on this planet, and there is always going to be greasy, fried, salty, sugary food. It is up to the individual to walk in and say, ‘I don’t want those fries today.’”

Richard Simmons, founder of Sweatin’ to the Oldies

In my article, Is Forcemeat Healthy? 16 Answers According to Popular Diets, I look at 16 different dietary ideologies and their positions on eating fats and animal fats. Even though the article is about forcemeat, the main ingredients of forcemeat are meat and fat so you can use that information to help you decide whether confit and deep-fried foods fit into your food paradigm.

[This article also includes a list of low carb resources in case you want to explore this way of eating and the (positive) effects of animal products on your health. Yes, I’m totally biased towards animal products.]

And if you’re wondering about confit in particular, have a look at another one of my articles, Is Confit Cooking Healthy? The Pros, Cons & Alternatives. This one says a little about the health aspect and a lot about the pros, cons and alternatives for confit cooking.

Conclusion

Well, that’s all for now. Deep frying and confit are ways to cook your food in fat for a tender outcome. May your confit last for ages and your deep frying be safe and delicious!