I've never been too pleased with the results when I've roasted or rotisseried wild ducks. The breast comes out great, but the legs and thighs have the consistency of fan belts. Other times I've just breasted the birds and ignored the rest. Well, last weekend I had four nice mallards to deal with and I decided to try smoking the legs and thighs.

I cut off the feet and left the legs and thighs together. They were skinned, but a few bits of skin left on add a little crispiness. I rubbed them with a mix of salt, black pepper, chili powder, ground cumin, oregano and some red pepper flakes and refrigerated them overnight.

Next day I smoked them for about an hour. I use my gas grill with one side on and the other off. A foil pouch of wood pellets goes on the hot side and the legs went on a rack on the cold side.

After smoking the meet pulls up on the bone a little and they were still pretty tough, but tasted good. The exposed bone makes a nice handle.

Before serving, I put them in a single layer in a small baking dish with about half an inch of beer, covered the dish tight with foil and baked them for an hour in the oven at 350F. That tenderized the meat and left a nice sauce in the bottom of the pan.

The neighborhood food critics all raved about them.

John, I save my duck legs until I'm going to deep fry something (fish, backstrap,etc) and I coat them with whatever I am using and drop them in the grease about 5-6 at a time. They are ready fast so I pull them out when they are done and drop 5-6 more in. These little delicacies give me something to do while the second batch of fish is cooking.

Today would have been a great day to be on a duck pond.

Alan

Smoking them sounds good too!

Alan