Sous Vide Confit Chicken Leg Quarters

Yep, another recipe using the Joule.  One of the recipes in the guides that come with the Joule app is for sous vide confit turkey legs.  I've done them and they turned out very good.  The problem is that turkey leg quarters are hard to come by unless you purchase a whole turkey and take it apart yourself.  Chicken leg quarters are readily available and sized to make a good meal.  An added benefit is that leg quarters are very flavorful on their own and with the addition of a dry brine and some other things they become great.


I try to keep leg quarters in the freezer but I'd run out a few months ago.  I like having them on hand to make soup for the good wife along with using them in any other recipe.  There is a meat market in one of the nearby cities that had 40 lb cases of chicken leg quarters on sale for $19.99 so I got a case.  That 40 lb case yielded 32 pairs of leg quarters to be packaged.  Not a bad return on investment I'd say.  I kept out one set to be cooked sous vide for our supper the next evening.

Since the Joule app didn't have a pre-programmed cook for confit chicken leg quarters I had to search online for the temperature and time.  The most common I found was 165F for 8 hours.  Given that I wanted to have it for supper I had to enlist the good wife to start the cook.  I wrote down step by step instructions and she could also text me at work if she had questions.  Before I left that morning, I dry brined the leg quarters, put some sprigs of rosemary in the bag, and added a bit of olive oil then returned the bag to the refrigerator.  The dry brine I used was the same as ChefSteps recommended for the confit turkey legs, 5 parts salt and 3 parts sugar.  I used 1/2 Tbs as my "part" and ended up using a bit over a third of the total mix to brine both leg quarters.  The leftover is in a ziplock bag to be used later.

Once the leg quarters came out of the sous vide, I put them on a sheet tray with a rack in it to let air circulate all around.  Following the recipe from ChefSteps, I gently dried the chicken skin then put the leg quarters in the oven under the broiler for a few minutes to darken and crisp the skin.  It doesn't take very long so just watch the chicken through the oven window.

A tasty meal courtesy of the Joule

The good wife had wanted some broccoli and cheese sauce so I steamed some broccoli and covered it in a fresh hot cheddar and fontina cheese sauce.  We also had roasted potatoes with the meal.  The chicken leg quarters came out as good as the sous vide confit turkey legs did.  All you had to do was stick a fork in the chicken and rotate the fork and the meat came loose.  It was super flavorful and tender.

I hope you add sous vide cookery to your kitchen repertoire.


Uncle T