duck fat

My favorite way to cook potatoes: boiled, smashed, then shallow-fried until golden brown and crisp. They get unbelievably crispy with a great creamy center.

Crispy Smashed Potatoes Recipe

potatoes

Kosher salt

vegetable oil (see note)

black pepper

chives, parsley, or tarragon (optional)

Place potatoes in a large pot and cover with cold water. Season heavily with salt. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook until potatoes are completely tender, about 10 minutes after a boil is achieved (poke a potato with a sharp knife or cake tester to test for doneness).Drain in a colander set in the sink and let rest for 10 minutes to dry and cool slightly. 

Working one potato at a time, place potato on cutting board and smash firmly with the bottom of a heavy skillet to a thickness of about 1/2-inch thick. Transfer to a large plate or tray as you work.

Heat 1/2 cup oil in a large non-stick or cast iron skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add as many potatoes as will fit in a single layer. Cook, shaking pan occasionally, until bottom side is deep golden brown, about 6 minutes. Carefully flip with a thin metal spatula and cook until second side is golden brown and crisp, about five minutes longer. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and allow to drain.

Continue cooking potatoes in batches, adding more oil or fat as necessary, until all potatoes are cooked. Potatoes can then be left aside until ready to serve.

To serve, adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions and preheat oven to 400°F. Spread potatoes over to large rimmed baking sheets. Transfer to oven and cook until heated through, about 6 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl, season to taste with salt and pepper, add herbs (if using), toss to distribute, transfer to a serving platter, and serve.

This impressive potato galette features crisp, potato chip-like edges and a rich and cheesy center. 

Duck Fat Potato Galette With Comté Cheese

cheddar cheese

chives

duck fat, schmaltz, or bacon fat

salt

Flaky salt (optional)

Duck Fat Potato Galette with Comté Cheese

Arrange 2 racks to divide the oven into thirds and heat the oven to 425ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Place a round plate that’s about 10-inches wide on the center of one of the sheets of parchment and trace with a dark pen or Sharpie. Flip the paper over (you should still be able to see the circle). Repeat with the other sheet of parchment. These circles will help in assembling a round galette.

Grate 3 ounces Comté cheese (about 1 loosely packed cup). Finely chop until you have 2 tablespoons fresh chives. 

Peel 1 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes. Thinly slice the potatoes with a sharp knife or mandoline into 1/8-inch thick rounds. Place the slices in a large bowl.

If solid, melt 1/4 cup duck fat. Add the duck fat, 2 teaspoons kosher salt, and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper to the potatoes and toss until evenly coated.

Divide the potatoes into 4 portions. Assemble the galettes one at a time: Working from the outside to the center, arrange 1 portion of the potatoes in an even layer inside one of the marked rounds on the parchment, overlapping the slices as needed. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup loosely packed cheese. Arrange a second portion of the potatoes over the cheese in the same way, then sprinkle with another 1/4 cup loosely packed cheese. Repeat assembling the second galette.

Bake for 15 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets between racks and from front to back. Continue baking until the potatoes are tender and the edges are deep golden brown and crisp, about 10 minutes more. Sprinkle with the chives and flaky salt if desired before cutting into wedges and serving.

How to Make Duck Confit

whole juniper berries, toasted and ground in a spice mill

duck legs, Frenched (see note)

thyme

lemon

bay leaves

garlic,

How to Make Duck Confit | Tasting Table Recipe 

This recipe is based on a traditional dish of the Ohlone tribe indigenous to California’s East Bay.

Crispy Potatoes With Bay and Scallions

lb. fingerling or other small waxy scrubbed

duck

scallions,

At Cafe Ohlone in Berkeley, CA, cofounders Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino cook traditional Ohlone food using ingredients that are almost entirely indigenous to California’s East Bay, such as hand-harvested salt and California bay laurel. This dish was traditionally prepared with foraged native Brodiaea potatoes, though Medina and Trevino use more widely available Russian banana fingerlings to give the Brodiaeas time to regenerate. Medina and Trevino say: “You can see the landscape of this area reflected in the dish: It really brings home the interconnectedness of our land, food, and culture.” For readers who don’t have access to the same ingredients, we have called for more widely available substitutes in this adapted version of their recipe.

Bon Appétit

Preheat oven to 425°. Combine potatoes, bay leaves, and a few handfuls of salt in a large pot. Pour in cold water to cover potatoes by 2". Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are fork-tender, 25–35 minutes.

Drain and transfer potatoes and bay leaves to a large rimmed baking sheet. Coat evenly with duck fat; season with salt. Roast, shaking baking sheet once or twice, until golden and beginning to crisp, 25–30 minutes. Remove from oven and mix in scallions. Return to oven and roast until scallions are softened and browned at the edges and potatoes are golden brown and crisp, 10–15 minutes. Transfer to a serving dish.

Duck fat adds incredible richness to roasted potatoes, which are layered here with fresh thyme and whole garlic cloves. If you are making this for Thanksgiving, throw the pan on the rack under the turkey when you first start roasting your bird, then reheat the potatoes at 350 degrees while your turkey rests.

Roasted Duck Fat Potatoes

baby

duck fat, melted

kosher salt,

bay leaf, torn into pieces

garlic cloves,

Heat oven to 450 degrees. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss together the potatoes, duck fat, salt and pepper. Lay thyme sprigs and bay leaves on top.

Roast for 30 minutes, then toss the garlic into the potatoes and reduce oven heat to 350 degrees. Continue to roast until potatoes are fork-tender, another 15 to 25 minutes. Remove thyme and bay leaves and serve, or let cool for up to an hour then reheat, uncovered, at 350 degrees just before serving.

Cooking is not always about simplicity and ease. Sometimes what you want in the kitchen is a project, a culinary jigsaw puzzle to solve. There is no greater one than cassoulet. I developed the recipe that follows at the shoulder of Phillipe Bertineau, the chef at Alain Ducasse’s Benoit bistro in New York City: rich and creamy, sticky with duck and pork, brightly spiced, with an astonishing depth of flavor. Feel free to tweak the list of ingredients to match what you can find in the market, but if you can manage the Tarbais beans and the duck fat for the confit, you really won’t be sorry. Start the preparation on the evening before you have a day off. A few hours of cooking the next day yields a dinner of remarkable heft and deliciousness, one that pairs well with red wine and good friends.

Cassoulet

Tarbais beans, beans

baking soda

unsmoked pork hocks, sometimes sold as ‘‘knuckles’’

pork

pig ears (optional)

duck legs

French four-spice powder, nutmeg

cardamom

coriander

nutmeg

sweet paprika

cayenne pepper

white pepper

garlic

rosemary

star anise

bouquet garni celery

pork garlic sausages

trimmed,

celery,

celery root, trimmed,

turnip,

tomato paste

Put beans in a large bowl, and cover with cold water, then add baking soda, and allow to soak overnight.

Place the pork hocks, sliced pork belly, reserved pork skin and, if using, the pig ears into a stockpot, and fill with water to cover them by several inches, then set over high heat to come to a boil. Let the meats and skin blanch for 5 to 6 minutes, then remove from the water and allow to cool. Put the slices of pork belly on a plate, then dice the pork skin and, if using, julienne the pig ears, and add these to the plate. Cover, and place in the refrigerator overnight.

Now turn to the cooled pork hocks and the duck legs. In a small bowl, combine four-spice powder with ground cardamom, ground coriander, additional nutmeg, paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Use this spice mixture to season the duck legs and the cooled pork hocks, then put them on a platter, cover and place in the refrigerator overnight.

Day 1:

Heat oven to 350. Melt the duck fat or duck fat and lard in a heavy, oven-safe pot deep enough to hold the duck legs, pork hocks and the three heads of garlic, then add the meats and the garlic to it, along with the bay leaves, thyme, rosemary and star anise, then place in the oven to simmer for approximately an hour and a half, or until both the duck and the pork are cooked tender and soft and the heads of garlic have almost collapsed. Remove the meats and the garlic from the fat, and allow to cool slightly. (Strain and reserve the perfumed duck fat for another use — more duck confit, say, or to cook potatoes. It will keep in the refrigerator, covered, for quite some time.)

Drain soaked beans. Put around 5 quarts of water in a large, heavy-bottomed pot, then add the beans, along with the bouquet garni, and bring it to a boil over high heat. Lower heat to a simmer, and cook until the beans are softening but not cooked through, approximately 30 minutes. Reserve the beans and cooking liquid separately. Discard bouquet garni.

Meanwhile, return pot to medium heat, and add to it 2 tablespoons of the reserved duck fat. When it shimmers, add the garlic sausages to the pot, and sauté until lightly browned, approximately 5 minutes, then remove and reserve. Add the diced carrots, celery, celery root, turnip and rutabaga to the pot, and sweat them slowly in the fat, stirring often, until they begin to soften, approximately 10 minutes. Add the partly cooked beans to the pot, along with the reserved diced pork skin and the ears if you’re using them, then the tomato paste, and stir to combine.

As the vegetables sweat, remove the bones from the cooled pork hocks, and squeeze the heads of garlic to release the garlic confit within. Add both to the bean pot.

Add enough of the reserved bean-cooking water to the bean pot to just cover the beans, then nestle the duck legs, the sausages and the slices of pork belly on top of the beans. Put the pot in the oven to simmer for 30 minutes to an hour, or until the beans are cooked through.

Increase oven heat to 450, and cook until the beans are bubbling and crusted around the edges and the meats are deeply crisp on top (about 10-15 minutes). Let rest 10 minutes or so before serving.

Day 2:

A classic French recipe for Duck Confit, or Confit de Canard, which are duck legs slowly cooked in duck fat until meltingly tender, and then pan fried until the skin is crispy and golden. Recipe with step-by-step photos.

Duck Confit (Confit de Canard)

sea salt

duck legs (thigh and drumstick attached) (See Kitchen Notes below)

kg (2 lb) duck fat (See Kitchen Notes below)

Generously rub sea salt onto the flesh side of the duck legs, and season with cracked pepper.

Cover with cling film and leave the duck in the fridge overnight.

To prepare the duck legs

Rinse the duck legs under running water and pat dry with kitchen paper.

Melt the duck fat in a large saucepan that will hold the duck legs in a single layer. The duck fat should be at a temperature of 100°C/212°F.

Immerse the duck in the fat, add a few bay leaves and some sprigs of thyme.

You should have enough duck fat to just cover all of the duck legs. Keep in mind that, as the duck legs are cooking, they will render fat as well.

Cook the duck on a very low heat for about 2 hours until the meat falls off the bone easily. There should be barely a bubble seen in the oil during this time. An easier way to maintain a constant temperature is to place the saucepan into the oven (without fan) at 100°C/212°F.

Check regularly to make sure that the oil is not bubbling, otherwise you will end up deep-frying and drying out the duck legs.

To test if the duck is cooked to the right texture, carefully remove one duck leg to a plate with the skin side facing down. Test with a fork to see if the meat falls away from the bone easily.

To make the Duck Confit

To serve the duck right away, heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat (with no oil as there is enough oil from the duck legs) and sear the duck legs skin-side down until golden and crispy.

Turn the duck legs over and brown the other side.

Serve with a green salad and roast potatoes.

To serve the Duck Confit

Excellent recipe! I've made duck confit twice using this recipe and it worked out perfectly each time. I could only find large duck legs which needed a slightly longer cooking time. Definitely making this recipe again!

Looks so warm and comforting! I can't WAIT to try this! Thank you for this great recipe!

Delicious! I didn't realise Duck Confit would be so easy to make at home. Everyone loved it. I served it with your roast potatoes in duck fat and a green salad. Can't wait to try more of your French recipes!

Delicious! The recipe takes a bit of planning but otherwise very easy to make. The duck was so tender the meat just fell apart with the fork. Loved it!

A celebratory meal deserves something special. At our house, <a href="https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014540-seared-rib-steak">seared steak</a> demands potatoes bathed in duck fat and roasted till their skins are crisp. This recipe multiplies out neatly and infinitely as long as you have oven space.

Duck-Fat Potatoes for Two

Coarse kosher salt

duck fat (or olive oil)

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place potatoes in a small pot and cover completely with generously salted water. Bring water to a boil and cook potatoes until fork tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and allow potatoes to rest until cool enough to touch. Using the palms of your hands, carefully smash potatoes until flat but still in one piece.

Place potatoes on a small rimmed baking sheet or pan. Drizzle with duck fat and add rosemary and garlic to pan. Generously salt and pepper potatoes. Gently toss potatoes until evenly coated with the duck fat.

Roast potatoes for 20 minutes. Flip them, then roast an additional 8 to 10 minutes. Serve warm.

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The most viewed duck fat recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine