French Recipe – confit De Canard

Confit de canard (meaning ‘duck confit’) is a classic French dish that is considered to be one of the finest that the country has to offer. While it is made across France, it is seen as a specialty of Gascony in the southwest of France.

The traditional recipe can take days to prepare as the meat is preserved with various herbs and spices to cure it before cooking the duck in its own fat. The cooking process if often long and slow (generally four-ten hours) to create the most wonderful melt-in-your-mouth dish.

However, we know you probably don’t want to spend days preparing a meal and as a result, we’ve got our very own quickfire recipe that will produce the same delicious meal in just a few hours!

Number of servings: 4
Preparation time: 2 hours
Cooking time: 2 hours

Ingredients

  • 4 duck legs
  • Salt and pepper
  • 4 bay leaves, roughly torn
  • 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
  • Handful thyme sprigs, roughly torn
  • 100ml white wine

Step 1
Preheat your oven to 200°.

Step 2
Rub the salt, thyme, bay leaves and garlic into the four duck legs. Place the meat in an airtight container and leave to marinade in the fridge for two hours. If you have enough time, the meat can be left like this for up to two days.

Step 3
Remove the duck from the fridge and brush off the salt, herbs and garlic. Place the duck legs (skin-side down) into a pan filled with the wine and put over a medium heat.

Step 4
As soon as the wine starts to bubble, turn the heat down to the lowest setting and cook for 2 hours. After 2 hours, the duck legs should be incredibly tender when prodded.

Step 5
The duck is now ready to eat but if you would like to crisp them up, place them back in the oven without the liquid and roast for 30-40 mins, turning halfway through, until brown and crisp.

Step 6
Serve with a light gravy, a crisp salad and some roasted golden potatoes for the ultimate luxury meal.

Enjoy!

Discover more delicious French recipes HERE.

confit de canard