Best Duck Confit in Dallas Isn't on a Menu

The defining dish for any French restaurant is duck confit. It’s the epitome of what separates French cuisine from all the rest. Duck leg, slow-roasted until it’s falling off the bone and then simmered in its own fat for a whole day, finished with a few minutes under the broiler to get a perfect cracklin-esque skin. Paired with Lyonnaise potatoes, haricots vert and a bottle of Picpoul de Pinet, it’s culinary heaven.

A proper confit de canard can’t be rushed. Many French restaurants have a three-day process for preparing it, and we’re thankful for them because we struggle with 30-minute meals let alone something that requires maintaining the motivation to cook over multiple days. But what if you could have duck confit at home in less than 30 minutes? Impossible, you say? Rien n'est impossible.

Several Dallas restaurants serve duck confit, some more successfully than others. Be skeptical if the restaurant calls itself French and doesn’t have duck confit on the menu. But it turns out the best duck confit in Dallas isn’t on a restaurant menu. It’s in your freezer (or it should be).

Wild Fork Foods has six locations in North Texas, all carrying Culver Duck Farms duck confit. Not familiar with Wild Fork? The Miami-based company commits to sourcing meat from slow-feed farms and using a blast-freeze process to seal in all the goodness so you can have restaurant-quality (or better) meat at home, all for pennies on the dollar compared to the cost of eating out. Their mission is to offer high-quality meats at reasonable prices, and to make it easy and fast to prepare those dishes.

You can buy frozen duck at Wild Fork if you want to take on the challenge of making your own duck confit. More power to you. For those who want all the joy and none of the work, grab a package of Culver Farms fully cooked duck confit instead. For less than $20, you get two respectably-sized duck legs, confit complete, in vacuum-sealed bags. All you have to do is drop them into boiling water (sous vide) for a few minutes to reheat, remove them from their package and slide under the broiler for about four minutes to get the skin crisp. Voilà! Ils sont parfaits.

You can grab mashed potatoes and pre-cooked Brussels sprouts to serve with your duck, and the whole meal is on the table in mere minutes. If you feel like that’s cheating, you could par-boil some red or white potatoes and roast them with fresh rosemary and thyme. Throw some fresh Brussels sprouts in the pan with them.

Another idea that makes for an impressive dinner is to make a duck confit shepherd's pie. Use two forks to pull the duck meat from both legs (takes about ten seconds) and place it in a casserole dish. We recommend saving the sous vide juices from the package and pouring that over the duck meat to keep it moist. Layer your pre-cooked veggies over the pulled duck (carrots, Brussels, peas, whatever you want) and then top with mashed potatoes. Bake at 375℉ for about 30 minutes to get everything nice and hot.

Je t'en prie.