Dinner · 300 min · french

Duck Confit

This is the kind of French dinner you’ll make on repeat — duck leg quarters and kosher salt, 300 minutes, big payoff.

Ingredients

• 4 Duck leg quarters
• 0.25 cup Kosher salt
• 6 cloves Garlic
• 8 sprigs Fresh thyme
• 4 Bay leaves
• 1 tbsp Black peppercorns
• 4 cups Rendered duck fat

Steps

1. The night before, crush the garlic, thyme, bay, and peppercorns with the salt and rub it all over the duck legs. Nestle them in a dish, cover, and refrigerate 12 to 24 hours. This dry cure is doing two jobs: seasoning the meat to the bone and pulling out moisture so the fat can get in.
2. Rinse the cure off under cold water and pat the legs very dry — water is the enemy of crisp skin later. Set them snugly in a heavy pot or Dutch oven and pour over enough melted duck fat to cover completely. No peeking air pockets; the fat is both the cooking medium and the preservative.
3. Warm the pot over the lowest possible heat until the fat barely shivers — 200°F is the target, never a boil. Cook 4 to 5 hours, until a fork slides through the meat with zero resistance. If it fights you, it is not done; give it another 30 minutes.
4. Lift the legs out carefully (they will be falling apart, which is correct) and let them cool in a little of the fat. To serve: heat a skillet over medium-high, lay the legs skin-side down, and crisp 4 to 5 minutes until the skin is deep mahogany and shattering.
5. Serve over lentils or a tangle of bitter greens to cut the richness. Save every drop of the cooking fat — strained, it keeps for months in the fridge and makes the best roast potatoes of your life.

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