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Sous-Vide-Que Duck Confit Recipe


Sous vide and grilled duck confit
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3.52 from 33 votes
Salted and cooked in fat, duck confit is a French technique originally developed centuries ago as a means of preserving meat without refrigeration.
Serve with: a cabernet.

Course:
Dinner
,
Main Course
Cuisine:
American
,
French
difficulty scale

Makes:

Servings: 2 servings

Takes:

Prep Time: 6 hours
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Sous Vide: 1 day

Ingredients

Notes:
About the salt. Remember, kosher salt is half the concentration of table salt so if you use table salt, use half as much. Click here to read more about salt and how it works. 
About the duck fat. While local grocery stores are unlikely to sell rendered duck fat, it is readily available through various online retailers including here on Amazon.com.
Metric conversion:

These recipes were created in US Customary measurements and the conversion to metric is being done by calculations. They should be accurate, but it is possible there could be an error. If you find one, please let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page

Method

  • Prep. Season both sides of the duck legs with kosher salt. Wrap the duck legs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for six to 12 hours.
  • Prepare a sous vide immersion circulator, such as Anova Sous Vide Precision Cooker, according to the manufacturer's instructions and set the water temperature for 145°F (62.8°C).
  • Remove the duck legs from the plastic wrap, rinse, and pat dry. Place the duck legs and duck fat in a zipper-lock freezer bag or 1/2 gallon reusable sous vide bag. Carefully submerge the bag in the water bath until most of the air has been removed and then seal the bag. Once the bag is submerged, cook for 24 hours. At this point, the duck legs can be refrigerated in the fat for up to one month before proceeding with the recipe. If you opt to store them for future use, remove the bagged duck legs from the sous vide then submerge the bagged duck legs in a large container filled with a 50/50 mix of ice and water until the meat's core temperature reaches a safe range of 34-38°F (1.1-3.3°C), approximately 15 minutes, before refrigerating. 
  • Remove the duck legs from the fat, pat them dry, and season with Chinese five spice powder. Let them rest at room temperature as you prepare the grill. Refrigerate the fat for future use.
  • Fire up. Prepare a charcoal grill for 2-zone cooking by placing a chimney full of hot charcoal briquets on one side of the grill's charcoal grate in order to create direct and indirect cooking zones. Adjust the smoker or grill vents to bring the temperature to about 325°F (162.8°C) in the indirect zone and add 2 to 3 chunks of your favorite smoking wood to the charcoal for flavor. On a gas grill, adjust the temperature knobs so that one half of the grill is off (the indirect side) and the other half is heated enough to maintain a temperature of approximately 325°F (162.8°C) on the indirect side.
  • Cook. Place the duck legs in the indirect zone on the main cooking grate as far away from the heat source as possible. Set the lid on the grill with the top vent fully open and positioned directly above the duck legs in order to force the smoke over and around the meat.
  • Allow the duck legs to smoke until they reach an internal temperature of 155°F (68.3°C).
  • Place the duck legs skin side down on the hot side of the grill, and grill until the skin is brown and crisp, approximately four minutes.
  • Serve. Remove the duck legs from the grill. Serve immediately.