Duck Leg Confit
By Matthew FairmanPublished on October 18, 2022
Time
3 1⁄4 hours, plus 26 hours curing and cooling
Yield
Serves 8
Ingredients
Before You Begin
We developed this recipe with Pekin duck legs, which weigh about 10 ounces each. Larger duck legs, such as Moulard legs (that weigh about 14 ounces each), will also work here and should be tender after 2½ hours of cooking in step 3. If using Morton kosher salt, 1 ounce is 3 tablespoons. Legs cured for 48 hours will be slightly saltier and more intensely flavored than legs cured for 24 hours. Though duck fat is traditional, we found that less pricey chicken fat or lard or even vegetable oil will work nicely. This recipe can be halved easily to make four duck legs; use a large saucepan instead of the Dutch oven, and store the legs in an 8-inch square baking pan.
Instructions
- Combine salt, sugar, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves in small bowl. Arrange duck legs skin side down on cutting board. Sprinkle meat side of legs with ¼ cup of salt mixture, then sprinkle skin side with remaining salt mixture. Place duck legs skin side up in 13 by 9-inch baking pan (overlapping legs slightly as needed), cover pan tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 24 hours or up to 2 days.
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 275 degrees. Remove duck legs from pan, rinse well under cold running water, and pat dry with paper towels. Melt duck fat in large Dutch oven over medium heat. Off heat, add duck legs (skin side up), garlic, thyme sprigs, and bay leaves, making sure legs are completely submerged. Return pot to medium heat and cook until fat is just beginning to simmer, about 3 minutes.
- Cover pot; transfer to oven; and bake until paring knife inserted into thickest part of largest thigh meets very little resistance, 2 to 2½ hours. (To ensure that the oven temperature remains steady, wait at least 20 minutes before retesting if duck is not done.)
- Transfer pot to wire rack and remove lid. Let duck legs cool completely in pot, about 2 hours.
- Using spatula and tongs, carefully remove 4 duck legs from fat, letting excess fat drip back into pot, and arrange legs skin side down in cold 12-inch nonstick skillet. Cover skillet and heat over medium-low heat until skin is well browned and crisp, 6 to 10 minutes (fat will splatter considerably).
- Remove skillet from heat and let sit, covered, until splattering subsides slightly. Flip duck legs and let sit, covered, until meat is heated through, about 2 minutes. Transfer duck legs to platter. Pour off fat from skillet and repeat with remaining duck legs (second batch will brown and crisp more quickly because skillet is already hot). Serve.TO MAKE AHEAD: After cooling in step 4, transfer duck legs skin side up to clean 13 by 9-inch baking pan. Ladle duck fat through fine-mesh strainer over legs, making sure not to pick up any drippings from bottom of pot, until legs are completely submerged in fat; discard thyme sprigs and bay leaves and save garlic for another use. Store any remaining duck fat separately (see Storing and Reusing Duck Fat, page 11). Cover legs tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 1 month. To easily remove duck from solidified fat, let sit at room temperature for 1 hour or heat for 15 minutes in 350-degree oven until fat is melted.
Time
3 1⁄4 hours, plus 26 hours curing and coolingYield
Serves 8Ingredients
Ingredients
Ingredients
Why This Recipe Works
Making duck confit requires just three simple steps: curing duck legs in salt and seasonings; slow poaching them in rendered duck fat; and storing the legs in the strained, cooled fat until you're ready to serve them. We started by trimming the excess fat (which can be unpleasant to eat) from Pekin duck legs, the most common breed available for purchase in the United States. Then we cured them for 24 hours to two days in a mix of salt, sugar, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. The latter four spices make up a blend known as “quatre épices” (“four spice”). Applying two-thirds of the cure to the meat and one-third to the skin ensured that the flavors fully penetrated. Rinsing the cure from the legs kept them from being overly salty and kept the rendered fat—which can be reused multiple times—from picking up excess seasoning. A low 275-degree oven guaranteed that the confit cooked slowly, keeping it succulent and juicy. Finally, when we were ready to serve the confit, we cooked it skin side down in a nonstick skillet (covered to contain splattering) and over medium-low heat, ensuring that the delicate skin didn't stick and that it browned slowly and evenly, becoming delightfully crisp.
Before You Begin
We developed this recipe with Pekin duck legs, which weigh about 10 ounces each. Larger duck legs, such as Moulard legs (that weigh about 14 ounces each), will also work here and should be tender after 2½ hours of cooking in step 3. If using Morton kosher salt, 1 ounce is 3 tablespoons. Legs cured for 48 hours will be slightly saltier and more intensely flavored than legs cured for 24 hours. Though duck fat is traditional, we found that less pricey chicken fat or lard or even vegetable oil will work nicely. This recipe can be halved easily to make four duck legs; use a large saucepan instead of the Dutch oven, and store the legs in an 8-inch square baking pan.
Instructions
- Combine salt, sugar, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves in small bowl. Arrange duck legs skin side down on cutting board. Sprinkle meat side of legs with ¼ cup of salt mixture, then sprinkle skin side with remaining salt mixture. Place duck legs skin side up in 13 by 9-inch baking pan (overlapping legs slightly as needed), cover pan tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 24 hours or up to 2 days.
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 275 degrees. Remove duck legs from pan, rinse well under cold running water, and pat dry with paper towels. Melt duck fat in large Dutch oven over medium heat. Off heat, add duck legs (skin side up), garlic, thyme sprigs, and bay leaves, making sure legs are completely submerged. Return pot to medium heat and cook until fat is just beginning to simmer, about 3 minutes.
- Cover pot; transfer to oven; and bake until paring knife inserted into thickest part of largest thigh meets very little resistance, 2 to 2½ hours. (To ensure that the oven temperature remains steady, wait at least 20 minutes before retesting if duck is not done.)
- Transfer pot to wire rack and remove lid. Let duck legs cool completely in pot, about 2 hours.
- Using spatula and tongs, carefully remove 4 duck legs from fat, letting excess fat drip back into pot, and arrange legs skin side down in cold 12-inch nonstick skillet. Cover skillet and heat over medium-low heat until skin is well browned and crisp, 6 to 10 minutes (fat will splatter considerably).
- Remove skillet from heat and let sit, covered, until splattering subsides slightly. Flip duck legs and let sit, covered, until meat is heated through, about 2 minutes. Transfer duck legs to platter. Pour off fat from skillet and repeat with remaining duck legs (second batch will brown and crisp more quickly because skillet is already hot). Serve.TO MAKE AHEAD: After cooling in step 4, transfer duck legs skin side up to clean 13 by 9-inch baking pan. Ladle duck fat through fine-mesh strainer over legs, making sure not to pick up any drippings from bottom of pot, until legs are completely submerged in fat; discard thyme sprigs and bay leaves and save garlic for another use. Store any remaining duck fat separately (see Storing and Reusing Duck Fat, page 11). Cover legs tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 1 month. To easily remove duck from solidified fat, let sit at room temperature for 1 hour or heat for 15 minutes in 350-degree oven until fat is melted.
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