Duck legs on a kamado
Published 15 August 2026 · Last updated 15 August 2026 · Tested by Ben Austen · Affiliate disclosure
Four duck legs from Aldi — £4.99 a pack, two packs, so just under a tenner for the four. I’ve cooked duck before but never on the barbecue. I went in thinking confit, and that isn’t what this is. Confit is a cure and oil held at around 90°C for hours, and it doesn’t crisp the skin — you confit the legs, then crisp them separately afterwards. What I did was closer to deep frying them: the dome was at 200°C, the oil got properly hot, and the skin crisped in the oil. Where I went wrong was the oil level. I didn’t use enough to cover them, so the top of each leg sat proud of it and that part got neither — no oil to fry it, not enough dome heat to crisp it. I flipped them, which sorted it, and next time I’d just cover them properly from the start.
Key takeaways
- Cover the legs completely with oil. Anything above the oil line gets neither job done. Flipping fixed it on the day; covering them properly is what I’d do next time.
- This isn’t confit, and that’s why the skin crisps. The oil is hot enough to fry at 200°C dome, so the crisping happens in the oil — there’s no separate crisping step to do afterwards.
- A leave-in probe in a duck leg sitting in hot oil reads the oil, not the meat. Mine alarmed at 90°C fifteen minutes in, which is impossible for a leg. Seat it before the legs go in the tray, while you can still see what you’re doing — or leave it out and hand-probe at the end.
- About an hour at 200°C dome, indirect. I ran mine an hour and a quarter and they were starting to catch.
- It’s a cheap cook that rides on a fire you’ve already lit. Ten pounds of duck went on underneath a chicken that was already cooking.
At a glance
| Prep | 10 minutes |
| Cook | About 1 hour |
| Total | 1 hour 20, including the rest |
| Serves | 4 legs — I shredded mine into wraps |
| Method | Kamado, indirect, deflector in |
| Temperature | 200°C dome |
| Difficulty | Easy |
| Equipment | Kamado, deflector, foil tray, instant-read thermometer |
What you’ll need
Equipment
- Kamado and deflector. Mine’s a Big Green Egg Large.
- A foil tray, or a doubled foil boat that won’t leak. No bigger than it needs to be — smaller tray, less oil.
- Instant-read thermometer.
Ingredients
- 4 duck legs. Mine were Aldi, £4.99 a pack of two, August 2026.
- Sunflower oil, enough to cover them.
- Salt and pepper.
No cure, no herbs, no garlic. I wanted to see what the meat and the kamado did on their own first.
The cook
- I salt and pepper the legs on both sides. Nothing else goes on them.
- I sit them in the tray and pour in oil until they’re covered. Not most of the way up — covered. This is the bit I got wrong.
- If I’m using a leave-in probe, I seat it now, before the tray goes anywhere near the fire — thickest part of the thigh, in from the side, clear of the bone. Doing it blind through foil over a hot grate doesn’t work, and mine ended up in the oil.
- I set the kamado up indirect with the deflector in, let the dome settle at 200°C, sit the tray on the grate and close the lid. About an hour.
- I check by hand at the thickest part of the thigh, and I’m looking for the low 90s. I pulled mine at 94°C. An hour and a quarter was slightly long — they were starting to catch.
- I lift the legs out of the oil and rest them. They come out crisp.
What to serve it with
I didn’t eat these on the night. They came off, cooled, and went in the fridge — the chicken was dinner. Two days later I shredded the meat off the bone, chopped it small, reheated it, and made wraps: flour tortilla, hoisin, cucumber batons, spring onions, a bit of mayonnaise. Four legs made a lot of wraps.
That’s why I cook duck this way. It’s cheap meat that goes on the back of a fire you’ve already lit, and it turns into a second meal later in the week when you haven’t got time to cook one.
What I learned
Cover them properly. I used enough oil to come most of the way up the legs, and the tops that sat proud of it got neither job done — they weren’t fried and they weren’t crisped. I flipped them halfway and that fixed it, but only because it put the dry side under the oil. Use a smaller tray and cover them from the start.
This isn’t confit, and that’s the reason the skin crisps. Confit is a cure plus oil held at around 90°C for hours, and it doesn’t give you crisp skin — you crisp confited legs separately afterwards. At 200°C dome the oil gets a long way past that, so what’s actually happening is closer to deep frying, and the skin crisps in the oil. Worth knowing before you go looking for a crisping step that isn’t needed.
A probe sitting in hot oil tells you about the oil. Mine alarmed at 90°C about fifteen minutes in, which is impossible for a leg that size. The tip had ended up in the oil rather than the meat because I was trying to seat it blind, through foil, over a hot grate. Seat it before the tray goes on, or don’t bother and check by hand at the end.
An hour, not an hour and a quarter. Mine were starting to catch at 1h15.
One thing I still don’t know. My tray sat underneath the chicken, because that’s where the room was with a vertical roaster taking up the grate. So I can’t tell you whether the tops failed because they were above the oil or because they were shaded from the dome heat. Covering them properly makes the question moot, which is why it’s not in the method — but if you’re running the tray in clear space, you may find the tops behave differently to mine.
Variations
On a kettle. The same idea should work indirect with the lid on — a tray of oil doesn’t care what’s underneath it, as long as the heat is steady and not directly below. I haven’t run it on the Master-Touch yet, so I can’t tell you the timings.
Aromatics in the oil. Garlic, thyme, a strip of orange peel. I deliberately didn’t, because I wanted a baseline first. That’s the next one I’d try.
Actual confit. If you want proper confit — soft, no crisp, keeps for weeks under its own fat — that’s a cure, duck fat rather than sunflower oil, and hours at a much lower temperature. Different cook, and you’d crisp the legs afterwards in a pan.
Related
- Big Green Egg Large review — the kamado this was cooked on
- ThermoPro TP20 review — the leave-in that read the oil, and the instant-read that sorted it
- Vertical-roaster chicken on the kamado — the cook this rode along with
Frequently asked questions
Is this confit?
No. Confit is a cure and oil held around 90°C for hours, and it doesn’t crisp the skin. This is duck legs cooked submerged in oil at 200°C dome, which is closer to frying — and that’s why the skin comes out crisp without a separate step.
Do the legs have to be completely covered?
Yes, and it’s the one thing I’d tell you to get right. Anything sitting above the oil line comes out neither crisp nor soft. Flipping the legs halfway fixed mine, but only because it put the dry side under the oil. Use a smaller tray rather than less oil.
Can I use a leave-in probe?
Yes, but seat it before the tray goes on the grate, while you can still see what you’re doing. A probe tip that slips into the oil will read the oil, and mine had the oil past 90°C about fifteen minutes in.
What temperature should duck legs come off at?
Low 90s. I pulled mine at 94°C, checked by hand at the thickest part of the thigh. It’s a collagen cut, so you’re after meat that shreds rather than a precise number — going past the window means more rendered and more shreddable, not overcooked.
Can you reuse the oil?
I binned mine. You’ll see confit recipes that strain the fat and keep it, but that’s proper confit held at a low temperature — this oil spent an hour at frying heat with meat in it, which is a different thing. If you want to keep the fat, cook it as confit rather than this way.
How long do they keep?
Mine went in the fridge and got shredded into wraps two days later, reheated after chopping, and they were fine. I’d treat them like any other cooked meat — a couple of days rather than a week, because this isn’t confit and there’s no fat seal keeping the air off them.
Provenance and disclosure
I cooked this on my own Big Green Egg Large on Wednesday 12 August 2026, alongside a chicken on a vertical roaster and baked potatoes. The duck legs were bought at Aldi at my own expense — no commercial relationship, no sample, no payment. One cook, so treat the timings as my starting point rather than a settled number.
Sourced from the 12 August 2026 cook log.