Oven Roasted Garlic Confit
Feb 05, 2025, Updated Apr 26, 2025
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Oven Roasted garlic confit is one of the best kitchen secrets you can have up your sleeve. It transforms sharp, raw garlic into soft, golden cloves with a velvet-like texture and a mellow, almost sweet flavour. In my kitchen, garlic confit is a true staple. Slow-cooking garlic in good quality olive oil with fresh herbs and aromatics creates pure magic, giving you not only luscious garlic cloves but also a rich, garlic-infused oil that will elevate everything you cook.
Love garlic confit? Check out my whole range of recipes that use garlic confit.
I find garlic confit to be one of the most beautiful things you can make. There’s something so special about watching simple ingredients slowly turn into something so rich, golden and irresistible.
Confit itself is a French cooking technique, all about cooking ingredients low and slow in a generous amount of fat. You might be most familiar with duck confit, where duck is gently cooked in its own fat. When it comes to garlic confit, the process is just as luxurious — only instead of duck fat, we use butter or a good quality extra virgin olive oil to coax the garlic into its sweet, silky best.
The beauty of garlic confit is in its versatility — you can scatter the cloves over focaccia dough, mash them into creamy mashed potatoes, whisk them into salad dressings, swirl them into pasta sauces, or even stir them through brothy soups and slow cooked roasts. And the oil is just as precious — drizzle it over roasted vegetables, finish meats and seafood with it, or use it as the base for sautéing. Once you have a jar of homemade garlic confit sitting in your fridge, you’ll wonder how you ever cooked without it.
Why You’ll Love Garlic Confit
- Incredible flavour and texture – Slow-cooked garlic turns beautifully soft, sweet, and silky, with none of the harshness of raw garlic.
- Endless versatility – Use the cloves and infused oil to transform pasta, potatoes, roasted vegetables, dressings, marinades, and more.
- Easy and rewarding – It takes just a few simple ingredients and a little patience to create a luxurious kitchen staple that lasts for weeks.
Recipe Variations
- Butter garlic confit – Swap some or all of the olive oil for butter for an even richer, creamier flavour.
- Spicy garlic confit – Add a few dried chilli flakes or a fresh chilli to the oil for a gentle, warming heat.
- Herb-infused garlic confit – Add extra herbs like thyme, rosemary, bay leaves or oregano to the oil for layers of beautiful, earthy flavour.
Ingredients
You only need a handful of ingredients to make garlic confit — at its core it’s just garlic and good olive oil, but you can build in extra flavour with salt, fresh herbs, peppercorns, chilli flakes or even a little lemon zest.
- Olive Oil: A good quality extra virgin olive oil is essential for garlic confit. Not only does it infuse the garlic with beautiful richness, but it also becomes a star ingredient itself — you’ll be drizzling this oil over everything. Choose an oil you love the taste of, because it will directly impact the final flavour.
- Garlic: Always use fresh, firm garlic bulbs rather than pre-peeled or packaged garlic. Fresh cloves have better flavour, texture, and a lower risk of bacterial contamination. Taking a few extra minutes to peel the garlic yourself makes all the difference in both taste and safety.
- Herbs and Aromatics (Optional): While not necessary, adding sprigs of thyme, rosemary, peppercorns, chilli flakes or strips of lemon zest can infuse even more depth and character into your garlic confit. They turn a simple jar of garlic and oil into something layered, aromatic, and truly special.
HOW TO Make
Making garlic confit is as simple as it is magical. All you need to do is gently simmer peeled garlic cloves in a bath of good olive oil over the lowest heat until they turn soft, golden, and incredibly tender. The key is patience — slow, gentle cooking is what transforms the garlic from sharp and pungent to sweet, mellow and spreadable.
Step 1: Peel the garlic by breaking the cloves away and placing them into a heatproof bowl. Submerge in boiling hot water for 5 minutes and drain. The skin will become loose and easy to peel away
Step 2: Peel the garlic skin off.
Step 3: Remove the top core of the garlic with a sharp knife. While these are fine to keep, they aren’t overly pleasant to eat!
Step 4: Place the garlic cloves into an oven proof dish and submerge with olive oil. Add herbs or aromatics if using.
Step 5: Bake the garlic confit at 120°C / 250°F or until the garlic is golden and soft to touch.
Step 6: Once the garlic is cooked, remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon and place into sterilised jars. Fully submerge the garlic cloves with the garlic oil and use it as a cooking oil in anything you make!
storing
There are a few very important rules to follow when storing garlic confit — and they’re not just suggestions. Garlic confit, when not stored correctly, carries a risk of Clostridium botulinum, a bacteria that can lead to botulism. But don’t let that scare you — with proper handling, garlic confit is completely safe to make and store.
- Refrigeration is essential: Once your garlic confit has cooled slightly, transfer both the garlic and the oil into clean, sterilised, airtight glass jars and place them straight into the fridge. Do not leave garlic confit at room temperature, for an extended period of time. The warm, low-oxygen environment in the oil creates ideal conditions for botulinum spores to thrive if not chilled properly.
- Shelf life and safety: While confit is a traditional preservation method, I recommend keeping your garlic confit refrigerated and using it within 2 to 3 weeks to stay on the safe side. Always use clean utensils when scooping it out, and discard it if you notice any off smells or signs of spoilage.
- Choosing your jars: You can use any sterilised glass container, but I personally love storing my garlic confit in Kilner jars. They’re sturdy, airtight, and the perfect size for keeping this golden goodness fresh and safe.
FAQ’S
I have tried every possible method out there on how to best peel garlic cloves. While you can resort to a big bag of pre-peeled garlic cloves, I always prefer to use fresh garlic.
Shake – You can place the garlic cloves into a jar, pop the lid on and shake them until the skin is removed. You need to shake the jar for a long time and you will get a sore arm!
Boiling hot water – In a glass bowl, fully submerge the garlic with boiling hot water and leave to sit for 5 minutes. The skin will loosen and will slide right off. This is my favourite technique for peeling lots of garlic!
Cold water – Place the garlic cloves into a bowl and cover with cold water. Leave them to sit for a minimum of one hour to allow the skin to loosen. It will slide right off! It’s a similar technique to using hot water however, cold water does not alter the texture of the garlic in any way.
Microwave – place the garlic into the microwave for 10 seconds and then skin should become loose. I don’t like this method as the garlic can slightly cook and also be very hot to touch!
Yes, you can freeze garlic confit. To freeze, portion the garlic cloves (and a little oil) into ice cube trays, freeze until solid, then transfer to a freezer-safe container. This makes it easy to grab small portions when needed. Frozen garlic confit can last for up to 2 months.
Garlic confit must be stored in sterilised, airtight glass jars and kept in the refrigerator immediately after cooling. Never leave garlic confit at room temperature, as this can increase the risk of botulism. When stored properly, it can last for 2 to 3 weeks in the fridge.
How to Serve GarliC coNFIT
Garlic confit is one of those magical ingredients that can be used in almost everything, and I always have a jar tucked away in my fridge ready to go. The soft, sweet cloves can be spread straight onto warm bread, mashed into butter to make garlic butter, stirred through creamy pasta, blended into a garlic and herb dip, or melted into sauces for a seafood dinner and cozy soups for an instant boost of flavour. The garlic-infused oil is just as precious. It has a beautiful garlic flavour and can be repurposed in any recipe that calls for olive oil!
I have a whole section on my website that showcases all my recipes that use garlic confit.
Have questions or want to leave a review about this recipe? Please do so below the recipe card! I always love answering your questions and hearing your feedback.
If you make this recipe, please follow me and tag me on Instagram, Tik Tok, or Pinterest so I can see your wonderful creations!
Garlic Confit
Ingredients
- 6 heads garlic
- 3 cups olive oil, extra virgin
- 6 sprigs of thyme
Instructions
- Preheat: Preheat the oven to 120°C / 250°F
- Peel garlic: Peel the garlic by breaking the cloves away and placing them into a heatproof bowl. Submerge in boiling hot water for 5 minutes and drain. The skin will become loose and easy to peel away.
- Bake: Place the garlic cloves and thyme into an ovenproof dish and fully submerge in olive oil. It's important the garlic is fully submerged in the olive oil so it does not burn. Bake for 1 – 2 hours or until the garlic has become golden and is soft to touch.
- Serve and Store: Allow the garlic confit to cool and store in an airtight container or jar for 2 – 3 weeks in the fridge.
Video
Notes
- Olive Oil: A good quality extra virgin olive oil is essential for garlic confit. Not only does it infuse the garlic with beautiful richness, but it also becomes a star ingredient itself — you’ll be drizzling this oil over everything. Choose an oil you love the taste of, because it will directly impact the final flavour.
- Garlic: Always use fresh, firm garlic bulbs rather than pre-peeled or packaged garlic. Fresh cloves have better flavour, texture, and a lower risk of bacterial contamination. Taking a few extra minutes to peel the garlic yourself makes all the difference in both taste and safety.
- Storing: Garlic confit can be stored in the fridge for 2 – 3 weeks in a sterilised glass jar. Always keep in the fridge and do not leave out at room temperature for a long period of time.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
Thanks for this! roughly how long do u keep the garlic in the oven and at what temperature? Isn’t it supposed to be a low temperature for a long time? Help a sister out with some numbers!
Hello! All cooking times and length are written in the recipe 🙂
First let me say that I love your recipes and I am a garlic lover myself! With that being said I was making the garlic confit last night and 120° C is 240 Fahrenheit I did not know this and so of course I put my oven as low as it would go cooked it for 2 hours and my garlic was still raw LOL I sat it on top of the stove overnight and this morning I put it in at 240 but my olive oil still isn’t bubbling and it’s been almost an hour what am I doing wrong?
Oh no! I am really not too sure what happened! Did you turn the oven up slightly higher? You just need to get it so the oil has a slight bubble and it should take no longer than 2 hours (that’s also for a huge batch of garlic). Sounds like there may be an issue with your oven!
It’s going to take a while at that temp and depending on your setup for the setup to bubble. Trust the process but know your equipment- if it’s not bubbling after 90 minutes crank it by 15 or 20 Fahrenheit
Can you use regular live virgin oil? How spicy is this with your brand? Looks yummy!
Extra Virgin Olive Oils works perfectly in this recipe!
Cannot wait to try this! What does the temperature need to be for the oven?
It needs to be at 120 degrees Celsius. I hope you enjoy it!
Daen
Lovely dish and amazingly versatile….when you say 120° is this in a fan assisted oven?….the post with the bruschetta with confit garlic and tomatoes made me want to cook straight away!….thank you…Brian
Thank you Brian! 140 is for a conventional oven. If you are using a fan assisted oven I would use 120 degrees celsius. I hope that helps!
Thank you for this amazing recipe!!! Greetings from Crete Greece 😊
Thank you for the lovely feedback!
Hello, I have enjoyed your videos a lot on tik tok🥰and I’ve tried the recipe
It is very awesome, thank you bery much❤️
Thank you very much! I am so glad you like the recipe 🙂
I accidentally left my garlic confit to cool to room temperature while I went out to fetch my child and run errands. I placed it in the fridge when I got back home. Could this be an issue? I’m concerned about the risk of botulism.
It should be fine! As long as it’s not left out too long 🙂
Hi, I looove garlic confit so much! 😍 Please, is there a difference when you prepare it with or without a lid though? 🤔 I’ve noticed you do it differently at times. Thank you! ❤️
It doesn’t make too much of a difference with the lid on or off!
Do I have to wait for a week or can I eat it right away?
Eat your garlic confit right away! If you have leftovers, store it in a jar with the cloves fully submerged in the olive oil for up to 2 or 3 weeks.
I did this but the olive oil had completely solidified in the fridge. Do I have to just leave the jar out on the counter to warm up before using them or is there any work around for this?
Olive oil will go solidify in cold temperature. You can leave it on the counter for 10 minutes or just throw it straight into any cooking you are using as it will melt in the heat.
Your IG account shows the garlic confit with chanterelle mushrooms – do you happen to have a recipe as to how you prepared the chanterelles?
You can buy that at your local deli or market but I will be posting a recipe on how to make them soon!
I am so excited to make this, here do I find the recipe for the baby pickled mushroom that you serve with this on Instagram?
You can buy them at a local deli or market that stocks them! I will be posting a recipe for them shortly though 🙂
Hi it looks amazing but I wanted to ask if it was possible to make it on the stove and not in the oven
My oven is broken..
Yes you can! Just make sure the burner is on the lowest heat and the olive oil is at a slight bubble.
That looks like more than 3 tablespoons of oil.
Thank you for pointing that out! It should have read 3 cups olive oil. I have now made that change.
Delicioso.
Thank you!
Is it three cups or just enough to submerge the garlic cloves?
Just as long as the garlic is fully submerged you will be fine!
I love garlic and have wanted to try this since seeing your video on Facebook! Do the garlic cloves need their “feet” removing before peeling?