Confit de canard Recipe (Duck Confit)

With crispy skin and melt-in-your-mouth tender meat, this confit de canard recipe is truly amazing! Making this dish is easier than you might think. Just follow our detailed step-by-step guide, and you won't have any trouble.

I love eating duck! A roasted duck that my mother-in-law occasionally makes for us, pan-fried duck breasts with braised German red cabbage and crispy cast-iron skillet potatoes, roasted duck legs, duck leg ragu... And I think I order something with duck every time we go to a Chinese restaurant.

So, I know my way with duck. But this recipe for confit de canard, or French duck confit, is the best way to eat duck. No kidding! That fall-off-the-bone tender meat and that slightly salty crispy skin - it is just incredible!

What is confit de canard?

Duck confit (tab opens in a new tab) or confit de canard is a French dish originating in Gascony. (Think D'Artagnan and Alexander Dumas; I must have read The Three Musketeers about 20 times when I was a child.)

Confit is a century-old way of preserving meat in fat and it is not only typical for France, but for other parts of the world as well. I still remember the huge jars full of pork pieces and lard that my grandmother would keep in the pantry.

Try another French duck recipe, this incredible Duck in Orange Sauce.

Recipe ingredients

Duck legs, which are the lower leg and the thigh of the bird. Traditionally, the recipe was made using the whole duck, but nowadays, using only the legs is a more common way. I suppose it has to do with the fact that the other duck parts are not as meaty as the legs are, and you want that tender meat, as much of it as you can get.

Duck fat is now commonly available in grocery stores. You will need quite a lot (enough to cover the meat in the pot 2.7 lbs/ 1.2 kg), but don't worry; you will not waste it. After making duck confit, melt it again, transfer it to a jar, and use it in other recipes. You can even freeze it in smaller portions for up to 6 months. Alternatively, you can use goose fat.

Spices: Coarse salt, thyme, black peppercorns, and juniper berries.

How to make confit de canard?

Cure the duck legs before cooking

The duck legs need to be cured prior to cooking. Allowing them to sit overnight after you have rubbed them with a mixture of salt and dried herbs imparts more flavor to the meat and skin.

Step #1: Crush salt, peppercorns, and juniper berries in a mortar and pestle or in a small food processor. Add thyme.

Step #2: Trim the excess fat from the underside of the duck legs.

Cook the duck legs in fat

Step #5: Place the cured, washed, and dried duck legs in a large Dutch oven, large enough to hold them all snugly without leaving too much space between them.

Step #6: Melt the fat in a jug saucepan.

How to fry the legs?

You can fry and serve the duck leg confit immediately or later. To serve them immediately, remove them from the fat, let them drain well on some kitchen paper, and fry them as instructed in the recipe.

Step #9: If you want to serve the duck confit later, let the Dutch oven cool completely at room temperature. Then, cover it and place it in the refrigerator. The fat will preserve the meat for several days.

Step #10: Remove the legs from the fat and scrape away the fat. Fry them in a cast-iron skillet, skin side down, for 5 minutes or until the skin is deeply golden and crispy. Fry them on the other side for another 5 minutes.

What to do with confit duck leftovers?

The layer of jelly at the bottom of the pot, under the fat. Keep it in a jar in the fridge for about a week. Use it to enrich sauces, stews, or soups; it will dissolve and add incredible flavor.

Leftover fat: Reheat it until liquid, then sieve it and pour it into jars once slightly cooled. Keep it refrigerated and use it for cooking.

Keep the meat submerged in fat if you want to serve it the same way. Otherwise, you can fry them and add them to salads and make noodles, rice, or potato casseroles.

Fat: Make confit potatoes or potatoes and eggs fried in duck fat.

How to serve the duck legs?

Four duck legs can generously feed four people. A leg might be too much for some, but slicing and dividing one leg at the table isn't ideal.

With a soup or appetizer before the main dish (and a dessert), four legs can feed 6-7 people. In this case, slice the duck legs in the kitchen, remove the meat from the bones, and serve it boneless.

My common sides for confit de canard are roasted potatoes and a green salad with vinaigrette. Other great ideas are Slow Cooker Roast Potatoes, Truffle Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Leeks, French-Style Green Beans, or Sweetheart Cabbage.

When calculating the nutritional information for this duck confit, I only considered 3 tablespoons of fat. Although the legs are cooked in over one kilogram of fat, most of it is leftover, making it impractical to include in the calculation.

I couldn't find reliable nutritional information from other sources to compare my calculations. The only data I found was 385 calories per portion, but this was based on dividing 4 duck legs and 4 wings into 26 portions.

Keep in mind that confit de canard is a very rich dish with more calories than a regular meal, but every calorie is worth it! This is a festive dish, not something to eat regularly.

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