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Confit Duck & Scallion Wontons

If you see a bunch of nice-looking duck legs at the market and aren’t exactly sure what you would do with them, go ahead and buy eight of them and cook them slowly in oil or duck fat. Once the duck legs have had time to cook in the oil until they are fall-of-the-bone tender, you can pull the meat and discard the bones.
After adding some seasoning and aromatics, you have created a delicious filling to make confit duck & scallion wontons at home!
If you want to save half of your cooked duck legs for down the road, you can conserve them submerged in the cooled duck fat in the fridge and eat them a few weeks after they are cooked!

Ingredients

  • 8 bone-in, skin-on duck legs
  • 2 Tbsp kosher salt
  • 64oz vegetable oil or duck fat, or enough to fully cover duck legs in cooking pot
  • 1 large white onion, small dice
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 Tbsp ginger, minced
  • 1 Tbsp cooking fat from earlier
  • 10 scallions, very top green sections removed, remainder finely sliced
  • 3 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
  • 2 tsp white granulated sugar
  • 2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1 packet of wonton wrappers (50 count)
  • 2 egg yolks, whisked with 1 tsp water, for sealing wontons

Instructions

  • 24 hours before you are going to cook your duck legs, salt the duck legs all over.
  • When you are ready to cook your duck legs in oil the following day, rub off any visible salt and pat the legs dry with paper towel.
  • Preheat cooking oil or duck fat in a large pot to roughly 225F.
  • Submerge duck legs in cooking fat and cook for roughly 4 hours, or until the duck meat is falling off the bone.
  • *You can also do this in the oven if you want, just be really careful when handling your pot and taking it out of the oven.
  • When the meat is falling off the leg bones, remove duck legs from the oil and drain on paper towels.
  • Remove and discard duck skin, and pull duck meat from legs.
  • Reserve pulled duck meat in a bowl for making your wonton filling later.
  • Use 1 Tbsp of the cooking fat from earlier and heat it in a medium saute pan.
  • Add your diced onion, ginger, and garlic and cook for a few minutes until aromatic.
  • Combine the pulled duck meat with the cooked onions, ginger, and ginger.
  • Stir in the finely sliced scallions, soy sauce, rice vinegar, white granulated sugar, and 2 tsp red pepper flakes and mix to incorporate.
  • Take out your wonton wrappers.
  • Carefully spoon a small amount (roughly 2-3 tsp) of the filling into the center of the wonton.
  • *Try to avoid overfilling the wontons at this stage, as they can burst when fried.
  • Use your finger and dip it into the egg & water mixture and rub your wet finger over the exterior edges of the wonton.
  • Seal the edges of each filled wonton together, avoiding air pockets in the area around the filling, and press on the seams of the wonton edges to ensure there are no holes.
  • Heat your cooking fat from earlier to 340F, and deep-fry your wontons in batches.
  • When your wontons are fried to a beautiful golden-brown, remove using a slotted spoon or tongs and drain on paper towels.
  • Enjoy these confit duck & scallion wontons hot out of the fryer.

Notes

Be careful when cooking with this amount of hot oil.
If you are straining out your oil after cooking to use it again, make sure it is cooled to room temperature before straining it out and storing it. Handling hot oil can be very dangerous, especially if you have small children or pets around.