I love having a good restaurant dish just as much as I love making it successfully at home. You'd be surprised, duck confit can be done at home by anyone, as long as you have an oven! Duck confit is seen as a fancy dish when you order it outside, but once you see this recipe, you might realise it’s not as fancy as you think.

This is how you cook it without stress or mess 😌

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Restaurant-quality at home: Tender meat and crispy skin you expect at a fancy café or restaurant.
Hands-off cooking: Most of the time is spent letting the duck slowly confit and you relaxing.
Reusable duck fat: The jar of duck fat you buy isn’t a one-time thing. Use it for future confit or the crispiest roast potatoes🤎

Prep Time: 10 minutes (plus overnight dry brine)

Cook Time: 2.5 hours

Serves: 4

Ingredients

4 duck legs
Salt + Sugar in equal proportions
Fresh thyme and/or rosemary
1/2 tbsp juniper berries (optional)
Black pepper
1 bulb of garlic, smashed cloves, skin on/off is fine
Orange zest or peel (optional)
Duck fat (enough to cover legs in pot)

Method

Dry brine overnight: Pat duck legs dry with paper towel. Prepare in a bowl – equal parts salt and sugar, juniper berries and black pepper. Season duck legs generously with mixture and add herbs, garlic and orange zest/peel if using. (Note: do not worry about over-seasoning as you’ll be rubbing off the excess dry rub before cooking.)
Confit: The next day, preheat your oven to 180°C. Rub off excess dry brine (or you can rinse off), and pat legs dry again. Place legs in an oven-safe pot that can fit all of the legs without stacking. Then cover with duck fat + all the herbs, garlic and orange peel/zest that was from the dry brine, and cook in the oven for about 2 hour 15 minutes – Flip after 1 hour and then back to the original side after 1 hour. The pot should be covered the entire time.
Crisp: Carefully remove the legs, place skin-side up on an oven tray and turn up the heat to 200ºC to crisp the skin to golden!

Duck Fat

Storage & FAQ

How long can I store cooked duck confit? If you plan to use it for meal prep, skip the crisping part and store the cooked duck legs covered in duck fat in a fridge-safe container. Do this while it’s warm so the oil won’t be solid. It should last up to 5 days in the fridge!

Can I freeze duck confit? Yes! Using the above tips, store in portions in a freezer-safe bag up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before crisping.

Do I need a lot of duck fat? You need enough to fully submerge the legs during cooking, but the fat can be strained and reused many times.

Can I use chicken legs instead of duck legs? We actually have a pretty similar recipe for Chicken Confit! So yes, you can!

What if I don’t want to use duck fat? You can use extra virgin olive oil, or a mixture of duck fat + olive oil if you need enough to submerge the legs. The flavour will be different and in some cases can be more expensive to use EVOO over duck fat.