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# The Quality Chop House Confit Potatoes
- URL: https://eatlikeanadult.com/the-quality-chop-house-confit-potatoes/
- Published: 2023-01-09T17:01:27.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-30T09:42:38.000Z
- Description: Quality Chop House confit potatoes at home: wafer-thin Maris Pipers layered with duck fat, pressed overnight, then deep-fried until crisp outside and meltingly soft within. Mostly waiting, and worth every minute.
- Author: Russell Clamp
- Tags: Restaurant Recipes, #Migrated-1784917438035, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-24 18:24

These are the poshest chips you'll ever eat, and my favourite potato recipe, full stop. They take 12 to 14 hours from start to finish, but only 30 to 60 minutes of that is hands-on. The rest is the oven and the fridge doing the work. If you want to impress someone, this is how. Make them at least once in your life.

I'll be upfront: this is a departure from the healthier food I usually post. We're firmly in comfort food territory. The recipe comes from [The Quality Chop House cookbook](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quality-Chop-House-Recipes-Stories/dp/1787134482/?ref=eatlikeanadult.com). The restaurant is a gem in London if you're ever visiting, and its confit potatoes are the stuff of legend. My only change is a little less salt than the original.

Think of them as a potato terrine turned into chips. Paper-thin slices, duck fat, a long slow bake, then a night under a weight. Once they're cut and fried, you get dozens of crisp layers on the outside and a soft, almost buttery middle. I first made them for [my Hollandaise video](https://youtu.be/qBjjqbuO2Yo?ref=eatlikeanadult.com), and they're sublime dipped in it. Make the mustard dressing below at least once, though. It's what the restaurant serves with them, and it's crazy good.

### What does it mean to confit potatoes?

Confit is a French technique: food cooked slowly in fat at a low temperature. It's best known from duck confit, where the legs cook gently in their own fat until they're meltingly tender. With potatoes, the slices are coated in duck fat and baked low and slow, so they soften right through without browning or drying out. The fat also seasons every layer and helps them stick together once the block is pressed. The crunch comes at the very end, in the fryer.

### Before you start

- **Frying oil:** I use a light olive oil for frying (not a delicate extra virgin oil), rather than seed or vegetable oils, because of the [health concerns around seed and vegetable oils](https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/are-vegetable-and-seed-oils-bad?ref=eatlikeanadult.com).
- **Two tins:** Use two tins the same size if you can. You make the terrine in one, and the other sits on top to take the weight and press it evenly.
- **Straight sides:** Loaf tins with straight edges, rather than sloped ones, give you a neat rectangle to cut into even chips.
- **Rosemary version:** For rosemary confit potatoes, pick the leaves from a couple of stalks of rosemary, mince them, and mix them through the potato slices with the fat before layering.

**Serves 8** | Prep 45 mins | Cook 3 hrs 20 mins | Total 13 hrs 5 mins (including 1 hr cooling and at least 8 hrs chilling)

### Ingredients

**For the confit potatoes**

- 2.5kg (5½lb) Maris Piper potatoes (or Russet or Yukon Gold)
- 180g (6oz) duck fat
- 1 tbsp (15g) fine sea salt
- 1–1.5 litres (4–6 cups) light olive oil, for deep-frying
- Flaky sea salt, such as Maldon, to taste

**For the mustard dressing**

- 215g (7½oz) Dijon mustard
- Juice of ½ lemon
- ½ tsp cider vinegar
- 185ml (¾ cup) light olive oil or avocado oil
- Fine sea salt, to taste

You'll also need a 21 x 11cm (8¼ x 4¼in), 12cm (4¾in) deep loaf tin, ideally with a second one the same size for pressing, and baking paper (parchment paper).

### Method

**Step 1: Slice the potatoes**

1. Preheat the oven to 140°C (120°C fan) / 275°F / gas mark 1.
2. Line the loaf tin with baking paper, leaving plenty overhanging the long sides.
3. Peel the potatoes.
4. Slice them very thinly on a mandoline, about 1–2mm: thin enough to see your fingertips through, but not so thin they break up. A food processor with a slicing blade also works.
5. Transfer to a large bowl. Don't wash the slices; you want all the starch.

**Step 2: Season and layer**

1. Melt the duck fat in a small pan over a low heat.
2. Pour it over the potatoes and add the fine sea salt.
3. Toss everything together with your hands, separating the slices as you go so each one is coated.
4. Layer the slices into the tin one at a time, lying them flat. This is the labour of love part, but I find it very satisfying.
5. Work from the outside edges in, so the middle doesn't build up and leave the edges sagging.
6. Press the layers down firmly as you go, and pour any fat left in the bowl over the top.

**Step 3: Bake**

1. Cover the top with a sheet of baking paper.
2. Bake for 3 hours, until completely tender: a knife should slide through the centre with no resistance.

**Step 4: Press and chill**

1. Leave to cool at room temperature for about 1 hour.
2. Sit the second tin on top of the paper and weigh it down with a burger press or a few tins of food. If you don't have a second tin, cut a piece of card to fit inside the tin, wrap it in foil and put the weights on that.
3. Chill for at least 8 hours, ideally overnight.

**Step 5: Make the mustard dressing**

1. Whisk the Dijon mustard, lemon juice and cider vinegar together in a bowl.
2. Slowly drizzle in the light olive oil or avocado oil, whisking constantly, until thick and glossy.
3. Season with fine sea salt to taste and set aside.

**Step 6: Cut the chips**

1. Run a knife around the edges of the tin and lift the block out using the paper. Go gently; the paper will be wet and tears easily.
2. Lay the block on a chopping board and trim the edges to square it off. Keep the offcuts.
3. Cut into chips roughly 2cm (¾in) wide.

**Step 7: Fry and serve**

1. Heat the light olive oil for deep-frying to 190°C (375°F) in a large, heavy, deep pan (no more than a third full) or a deep-fat fryer.
2. Fry the chips in batches for about 4 minutes each, until deep golden, crisp and croissant-brown.
3. Drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
4. Serve hot with the mustard dressing, or with [hollandaise](https://eatlikeanadult.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-quick-easy-hollandaise-sauce/).

### Good to know

- **Make ahead:** The pressed block keeps in the fridge, wrapped, for up to 3 days before frying. The mustard dressing can be made the day before and kept covered in the fridge.
- **Offcuts:** Fry the trimmings along with the chips. They make amazing salad toppers.

### Worth the wait

Very little happens in this recipe, and that's the point. It's potatoes, fat and salt, given time and a bit of patience with the layering. What you get is a chip that's nothing like a chip: layered, crisp, soft at the heart. Make it for people you like, with the mustard dressing on the side, and watch the plate empty.

Russell