My sister and I love to eat cassoulet and decide to embark on a shared project. My job is to confit some poultry to eventually add to the beans and other goodies in the cassoulet.
I bought a frozen whole duck because I knew that I needed the additional fat to make the confit.
<insert frozen duck photo>
I watched this video to learn how to cut up the duck.
I wanted to confit two halves of the duck instead of only the legs. She demonstrates how to prepare the duck in this way at 4:40 in the video.
Then, I made a salt mixture to cure the duck.
I salted both sides of the duck and chicken legs well and covered with plastic wrap to cure for 24 hours.
While the duck cures, render the extra fat (the video shows you how to cut off the fat to render) so you have it to cover the duck while it is cooking later. I combined all the extra fat with 1/4 c of water and put it on low on the stovetop to render. It takes about an hour to fully render. The skin will shrivel into delicious crackling.
Then you need to strain the solids from the fat into a glass jar or some other vessel that can be heated and put it in the fridge for the next day. I bought an extra jar of duck fat to have enough to cover the meat.
After 24 hours, I rinsed the salt off the poultry with water and used a brush to get most of the big pieces of the rub. Then, pat dry the poultry with a paper towel.
I used the tip of a knife to poke the skin in a few places so the fat can render out. Take care to only poke the fat and not the meat. I warmed the duck fat slightly to liquify it and put a little in the bottom of my Dutch oven. Then, I nestled the duck half pieces in the bottom of the Dutch oven, skin side down. I put a few chicken legs on top also nestled in the fat. Then, I poured the rest of the fat that I rendered and the extra that I purchased over the top. I wanted to make sure all of the duck was covered and most of the chicken was covered.
I put the lid on my pan and put the poultry in a 225 degrees Fahrenheit oven to cook for 3 1/2 to 4 hours. I checked every hour to make certain that it remained submerged and at the two hour mark I turned the pieces over.
It smells so good.
At the four hour mark, I took the pot out of the oven and let the duck and chicken legs come to room temperature in the fat.
remove poultry and cover and store in fat to preserve
or if using the meat right away strain fat to keep and reuse up to two more times to make confit
