French cuisine, by way of Nebraska: Red Wine-braised Duck Legs

Reducing red wine adds depth to these duck legs oven-braised with shallots, carrots, parsnip, garlic and thyme. Recipe below.

I ATE A LOT OF DUCK IN OMAHA. When we told friends about our plans to spend several days in Nebraska on our recent road trip, everyone told us to be prepared to eat a lot of beef. Nobody mentioned duck. The first night, I ate a duck leg in red wine that inspired this week’s recipe.

It was at La Buvette, a comfortable French wine bar, cafe and market in Omaha’s charming Old Market district. You seat yourself at one of a handful of tables, inside or on the broad sidewalk. The brick walls are lined with an impressive selection of bottles of wine for sale. So if you like what you’re drinking with dinner, you can take some with you—at retail prices, no steep restaurant markup. You can also buy cheeses, deli meats and other treats at the market counter. The duck was sublime, reminding me why we cook it so much here at Blue Kitchen.

Lunch the next day was at Saigon Surface, a sleek Vietnamese restaurant downtown. Marion and I shared two steaming bowls of pho, one of them featuring slices of duck in a fragrant broth. That evening, after briefly considering a couple of other spots, we said “who are we kidding” and went back to La Buvette. I would have eaten the duck leg again if they’d had it that night. They didn’t. They did have a duck breast, so I ordered that. Also delicious. But I already knew I wanted to do something with duck legs and red wine when we got home.

Some home cooks find duck daunting, but it’s really pretty easy if you remember one thing: duck breasts cook quickly, legs take longer. Admittedly, that makes cooking a whole duck slightly more complicated, but as Marion has demonstrated here, that’s fairly straightforward too.

For this recipe, the duck legs braise in the oven for about two hours after first browning them on the stovetop. I wanted the wine sauce to make it taste as though the whole thing had cooked even longer, so I reduced the wine by half first. I can’t even remember what celebrity chef I learned this trick from, but it’s a good one.

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Red Wine-braised Duck Legs

Reducing red wine adds depth to these duck legs oven-braised with shallots, carrots, parsnip, garlic and thyme.

Course Main Course

Cuisine French

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 3 cups dry red wine
• 4 whole duck legs (about 2-1/2 to 2-3/4 pounds total)
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 good-sized shallots or medium yellow onions, peeled and quartered
• 4 large carrots, peeled and sliced into large, bite-sized chunks
• 1 parsnip, peeled and sliced (halve larger slices)
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1 rounded teaspoon dried)
• 1 cup homemade chicken stock or reduced-sodium store-bought broth plus more, as needed

Instructions

• Reduce the wine. Bring to a boil in a medium saucepan and reduce heat to a brisk simmer. Cook until reduced by half, 10 minutes or so. If you overdo the reducing, don't sweat it. Just top it off with more wine. Set aside.
• Trim excess fat from duck legs, if necessary (mine were already well trimmed), but don't throw out the fat. Season the duck legs generously with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat an oven-safe, lidded deep skillet or sauté pan large enough to comfortably hold the duck legs in a single layer over medium-high flame. Add the oil and let the pan get good and hot.
• Add the duck legs to the skillet skin side down and cook until the skin is beautifully brown, about 12 to 15 minutes. If you trimmed fat from the duck legs, add it to the pan toward the end so it can render. Turn the duck legs and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer legs to a plate and turn off the heat.
• Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350ºF. Drain all but 1 tablespoon or so of the duck fat from the pan and reserve (see Kitchen Notes). Add shallots, carrots and parsnip to the pan and gently toss to coat with duck fat. Add garlic and dried thyme (if using) to the pan, season everything with salt and pepper, and gently toss to coat. Add 1 cup each of reduced wine and chicken stock to pan, scraping up any browned bits. If you're using fresh thyme sprigs instead of the dried, add them now.
• Return duck legs to the pan, skin side up, along with any accumulated juices. The liquid in the pan should come partway up the sides of the legs, but not cover them. If it's too shallow, add a little chicken stock and wine to the pan, in equal amounts.
• Cover the pan and transfer to oven. Braise duck until completely tender, about 2 hours. Check at 45 minutes and again at 90 minutes to make sure liquid isn't cooking away (I had no such problem).
• Transfer cooked duck legs to a platter and tent with foil to keep warm. Let pan sit on the stovetop for a moment, then tilt and gently spoon off excess fat (you can discard this). If the sauce is too thin, heat over medium-high flame and reduce until it thickens to a saucy, spoon-coating consistency.
• Serve the duck. This would be delicious with garlicky mashed potatoes, puréed cauliflower, creamy polenta or puréed parsnips (Marion had this at La Buvette and will be posting some here in the near future). Place duck legs on individual serving plates along with your chosen side. Spoon the sauce over and serve.