How To Make Duck Rillette At Home – Quick, Easy, Delicious

In this post I’ll show you how to make duck rillette yourself. It is very easy to make and tastes heavenly on a toasted slice of bread or baguette.

The duck rillette goes great with an aperitif, picnic or dinner. 

As an alternative to the duck rillette I also have a goose rillette or pork rillette. Have a look there 🙂 . 

Here you can find the complete duck rillette recipe as a video or to read through.

Have fun and good luck making it! I would be happy if you leave me a comment if you succeeded.

Make your own Duck Rillette – What do you need to make it?

Ingredients for 500g 

• 400g duck leg or duck breast (mixed is my favorite)
• 100 g duck fat

Spices for 500g 

• 1 sprig of thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 clove of garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
• water

The equipment to make Duck Rillette

Fat seperator / Fat skimmer

Best way to divide the fat and broth in the cooking process

Glasses

To fill the duck rillette you need glasses. You can use traditional preserving jars (tumblers) or WECK jars.

Make Duck Rillette at home – Step-By-Step Instructions

Part 1: If you are using a whole duck

1. Cut and split the duck into its individual parts. 

2. Cut off the excess fat from the meat when cutting and save it. 

Part 2: 

3. Put the fat trimmings into a pot and render them at a low temperature. Make sure the temperature is not too high. We don’t want to roast the sections, we want to render the fat.

4. When all the fat has dissolved, you can remove the pieces from the pot. 

5. Now place the duck breast in the pot with the skin side down. Let them fry lightly in the fat at a constant temperature. If you are making a smaller quantity, you can add the drumsticks directly. They must be placed directly in the fat.

6. When the duck breasts have shrunk a bit, you can add the drumsticks. The duck parts should now be at least 50% covered with duck fat. If this is not the case, you can add some more fat.

7. Now add the herbs and some salt / pepper. 

8. If you do not have enough fat, add some water to the pot so that your duck legs and duck breast are completely covered.

9. Let the meat simmer on medium heat at a maximum of 90 degrees Celsius (194 °F) for 3.5 hours with the lid closed. There should be very few bubbles appearing. 

10. Check the meat with a fork. It should now be very soft. If the meat comes off the fork easily, it is done. 

11. Remove the meat and pour the broth through a sieve into a fat seperator.

12. Separate the meat from the skin and drumsticks and put it in a bowl. Be careful not to add any skin, tendons or bones to the bowl.

13. Pick the meat apart with two forks. Depending on how fine or coarse you want the duck rillette, you can pluck it more or less.

14. Gradually add 50% stock and 50% fat to the meat mixture until it has a nice mushy consistency. The mixture should be a little softer than you want it to be at the end, as the fat will still harden when cooled.

15. Pour the meat mixture into jars and cover with a layer of fat. 

16. Your duck rillette is ready 😄. Enjoy it. 

How long is the shelf life of the duck rillette?

Your duck rillette can be kept in an airtight container for approx. 4 weeks. As always, when opening: see – smell – taste!

Opened it is stored in the refrigerator for about 1 week. I can promise you, however, since it is super tasty, not so long survived. 😄