Crossword Genius

Duck without much flesh in coating of rillettes in French city (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

orleans

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'french city' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'duck without much flesh in coating of rillettes' is the wordplay.
'duck' becomes 'o' (resembles zero - 'duck' in cricket).
'without much flesh' becomes 'lean' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'coating of' suggests removing the centre (only the letters that coat the word remain).
'rillettes' with its centre removed is 'rs'.
'lean' going into 'rs' is 'rleans'.
'o'+'rleans'='ORLEANS'

'in' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for orleans that I've seen before include "French city saved by Joan of Arc" , "European city" , "It's New in Louisiana" , "material" , "historic French city" .)

I've seen this clue in The Everyman puzzle in The Observer.
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