Entrees/ Poultry/ Recipes

[Recipe] How to make tender duck confit

Learn step by step instructions on how to create duck confit at home. The results are tender and aromatic duck!

What is duck confit?

Duck Confit is a famous French dish that is prepared by salt curing duck and then cooking in its own fat (duck fat).

My duck confit recipe:

I have tested making duck confit on the stove top, various cures, and at various temperatures, and I am confident that this recipe creates the most succulent duck that’s tender and packed with flavour. The cure includes Chinese 5 spice powder (made of cinnamon, cloves, fennel, star anise, and Szechwan peppercorns) which goes well with duck.

The best part is that the duck can be cooked hours before serving, giving you time to prepare other dishes. I found the oven method of cooking the duck low and low resulted in more tender meat over the stove top. The skin is then placed on a pan before serving to brown and crisp the skin.

Duck confit is impressive and worth the effort.

Where to buy duck legs and duck fat in Toronto?

I highly recommend making a trip to King Cole Ducks in Newmarket as they have a huge selection of duck products. Their products can be found at local supermarkets as well. For the duck fat, many grocery stores such as Longos sells it.

For my recipe, 8 of the King Cole Duck legs were purchased from a local butcher. For the remaining 2 legs, I bought an entire duck and sectioned out the legs. Most of the duck fat for my recipe was derived from rendering duck fat from previous whole ducks I had purchased. To render the fat, make sure to remove all the meat from the skin and place the skin on a pan on medium heat. Keep scooping out the fat as it renders and pass it through a sieve to remove any sediments. I know others like to blanch the skin first before placing it on a pan or oven, but I usually skip that step.

Did you know that duck fat can be re-used? Keep it refrigerated.

Duck skin cracklings anyone?

Duck confit

Course Main Course

Cuisine French

Prep Time 1 hour

Cook Time 3 hours

Total Time 4 hours

Servings 10 people

Author Mary Tang

Ingredients

10 duck legs
12 cups of duck fat

Cure

4 tbsp of fresh thyme leaves
6 bay leaves
1 cup of kosher salt
1/4 cup of granulated sugar
2 tbsp of black pepper
2 tbsp of garlic powder
2 tbsp of ground ginger
2 tbsp of Chinese 5 spice powder

Instructions

Prepare the duck for curing. Expose the bone near the tip of the duck legs (optional).
Mix all the ingredients in the cure in a blender until the grind is fine.
Rub the cure mixture on the skin and on both sides of the duck legs.
Leave the duck to cure overnight in the fridge or up to 2 days.
On the day of cooking, rinse off the cure, and pat the duck legs dry with a paper towel.
Melt the duck fat in a pan.
Preheat the oven to 225 degrees F.
Place the duck legs snug in the roasting pan with the melted duck fat. The fat must cover all the duck legs.
Place the duck in the oven and cook for 2 hours. The meat will become very tender.
Before serving, remove the duck legs from the oil. Add duck fat in a heated pan and brown the skin.

Recipe Notes

The servings were based on one duck leg per person.

Duck confit curing spices — Making the spice blend for curing the duck

There are several ways to serve the duck. For this dish, I skipped the browning part, and ripped the meat into pieces served on top of warm pita bread.

The duck can be served with duck fat potatoes and a rhubarb chutney.

You can also skip the step of exposing the bone (Frenching the bone). Here I served the duck with an apricot chutney, Brussels sprouts and basmati rice.