A thrifty Gascon stew built from the parts of duck or goose left over once the breast and confit legs are taken — wings, necks, gizzards, sometimes the heart and the meaty carcass — simmered long in a dark roux-thickened sauce with vegetables until the tough cuts fall tender. The name comes from the Occitan ali-cuèit, "cooked wings." It is country food: nothing of the bird is wasted, and the gelatinous cuts make their own rich gravy.
Alicot is the cuisine of the duck- and goose-rearing belt of Gascony, where households fatten birds for foie gras and confit and are left with a pile of trimmings to feed the family. Recipes vary house to house and have no single registered standard, but the principle is constant across Gers, the Landes and the Lot-et-Garonne: braise the cheap cuts low and slow. It is the everyday counterpart to the region's famous confit — the same bird, the parts that do not go into the jar.
Sticky-lipped and deeply savoury — the gizzards turn meltingly soft, the wings and neck give up gelatin so the sauce coats a spoon, and the gravy is dark from the roux and the duck fat. Served with the braising vegetables, with potatoes sautéed in duck fat, or over pasta in the local style. Rustic and heavy; this is cold-weather, midday-meal eating.
Wings, necks and gizzards are full of collagen and connective tissue; a long, gentle braise — two hours or more — hydrolyses that collagen into gelatin, tenderising the cuts and thickening the sauce at the same time. A dark roux of flour cooked in duck fat both deepens the colour and binds the liquid, while the rendered fat carries flavour. Rushing the simmer leaves gizzards rubbery and the sauce thin.
Variations
Made with goose (alicot d'oie) where geese are reared, or with duck (alicot de canard). Some cooks add salsify, turnips, chestnuts or cèpes; others finish it on a base of fresh pasta in the manner of a sauce. A leaner version skips the roux and relies on the gizzards' own gelatin. It belongs to the same wider family as the long-cooked giblet stews of southwest France.
On the Palate
Where Alicot sits in the French flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
5 steps · 40 min active + 1 hour 50 min waiting
- 115 min
Trim duck or goose wings, necks, gizzards and carcass pieces; season with salt and pepper.
- 210 min
Brown the pieces in duck fat in a heavy pot until well coloured, then set aside.
Watch outBrown the pieces well before they come out — that deep color is the flavor and the fond that will build the sauce; pale meat gives a thin, dull braise.
- 38 min
Make a dark roux in the same fat with a little flour, then sweat onion, carrot and garlic.
- 45 min
Return the pieces, add white wine and stock to cover, with a bouquet garni, and bring to a bare simmer.
- 5120 min
Braise gently, partly covered, for about 2 hours until the gizzards are tender and the sauce has thickened; adjust seasoning and serve.
Watch outHold it at a bare simmer for the full two hours — rush the heat and the gizzards stay rubbery and the sauce never thickens.
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