Air Fryer Garlic Confit

This Air Fryer Garlic Confit is my new obsession! Garlic confit is so easy to make using an air fryer, and you get delicious, buttery soft roasted garlic and delicious garlicky olive oil that you can use in so many ways!

What does confit mean?

Confit simply means to "preserve" food in French. In the US, "confit" typically refers to food that has been slow cooked in fat, such as oil. You can find a lot of duck confit or pork confit in New Orleans restaurants, and those dishes are always so deliciously rich, buttery, and tender.

Garlic confit is simply garlic cloves that have been roasted in olive oil for a long time. Not fried, but slow roasted at a lower temperature until the garlic caramelizes and becomes buttery soft.

Traditionally, garlic confit is made in the oven or stovetop. The oven can take as long as 2 hours for the garlic to caramelize. The stovetop method is tricky because you have to always keep an eye on the oil as it simmers to make sure it doesn't get too hot. 

So that's where this air fryer garlic confit comes in! It's a much simpler way of making garlic confit.

More confit recipes to try: Cherry Tomato Confit

More homemade condiments to try: Chive Oil

Related recipe: Garlic Scape Butter

Instructions

Place your garlic cloves and thyme (or rosemary) in your baking container. Add just enough olive oil to fully cover the garlic and herbs.

Air fry at 275F for 1 hour. No need to preheat. Check on the garlic halfway through cooking, and if it is browning too much, lower the heat to 250F. The oil should be bubbling slightly during air frying but should not be deep-frying the garlic.

Once the air fryer is done, I really recommend allowing the garlic confit to cool until safe to the touch, since hot oil is HOTTT and splatters easy. If you can't wait, then use oven mitts to CAREFULLY remove the container and place it on a heat-safe trivet until completely cool. Then it's ready to use!

How to store garlic confit

Once the garlic confit cools completely, transfer it to a glass jar (you can keep or discard the herbs, up to you!), cover, and keep refrigerated for up to a month. The oil might solidify a bit in the fridge but will turn to liquid again if you let it sit at room temperature.

If you enjoyed this recipe, let me know with a comment and a star rating below. And don't forget to share it on Facebook and save it on Pinterest for later!

Print Recipe

4.87 from 15 votes

Air Fryer Garlic Confit

The air fryer is by far the fastest and easiest way to make soft, smooth, buttery, caramelized garlic confit. Read the notes for lots of ideas for how to use this air fryer garlic confit.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr

Cooldown time20 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: American, French

Diet: Gluten Free, Kosher, Vegan, Vegetarian

Servings: 10

Author: Kate

  Cook Mode: Prevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

• 2-3 heads garlic - peeled (about 20-30 cloves), use as many as you want
• ½ - 1 cup olive oil - enough to completely cover the garlic in a small oven-safe container
• sprig of fresh thyme or rosemary - optional (it looks fancy and adds an herbal aroma)

Special equipment

• Air fryer
• Ramekin or other small oven-safe container with high sides. You can even use a muffin tin and fill up 1-2 cups
• Oven mitt
• Heat-safe trivet

Instructions

• Place your garlic cloves and thyme (or rosemary) in your baking container. Add just enough olive oil to fully cover the garlic and herbs.
• Air fry at 275F for 1 hour. No need to preheat. Check on the garlic halfway through cooking, and if it is browning too much, lower the heat to 250F. The oil should be bubbling slightly during air frying but should not be deep-frying the garlic.
• Allow the container to cool until safe to touch without removing it from the air fryer, because the hot oil splatters easily and can burn you. You can open the air fryer or carefully remove the basket to let the garlic cool faster.
• Transfer the garlic and oil to a jar and keep refrigerated for up to 1 month. Make sure to use both the garlic and the garlic-infused oil. The oil delicious in salad dressings and for cooking! The oil will turn solid in the fridge, but just let it come to room temperature before using and it will become liquid again.

  See the notes below for ideas for how to use garlic confit.
• If you liked this recipe, don't forget to give it a star rating and pin it on Pinterest!

Notes

Serving ideas:

• Mash a couple of cloves of garlic confit onto your toast or on your savory scone. Sprinkle with some coarse sea salt. Mmmm!
• Mash garlic confit (plus the oil) into your mashed potatoes for a rich savory flavor!
• Spread it on toast with avocado (don't forget salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice)
• Spread it on crostini for an appetizer.
• Make garlic confit butter.
• Mash the garlic into this roasted garlic dip.
• Make sure you use the garlicky olive oil for cooking/sautéing: try flavoring hummus, tossing with roasted young potatoes, or in no-mayo potato salad!

The nutrition facts are a rough estimate for about 2 cloves of garlic coated in oil, but I obviously can't control how much or little garlicky oil you decide to use!

Nutrition

Calories: 44kcal (2%) | Carbohydrates: 2g (1%) | Protein: 0.4g (1%) | Fat: 4g (6%) | Saturated Fat: 1g (5%) | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 24mg (1%) | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 0.1g | Vitamin A: 1IU | Vitamin C: 2mg (2%) | Calcium: 11mg (1%) | Iron: 0.1mg (1%)

The nutritional information displayed is an estimate and not to be used as dietary or nutritional advice. Consult a nutritionist or dietician for nutritional info based on the exact ingredients you use.