Basic Roast Duck Breast
- Total Time
- 2 hours
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 3moulard duck breasts (magret de canard)
- 1tablespoon Chinese five-spice powder
- 2tablespoons honey
- 3tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
98 calories; 3 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 1 gram monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 5 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 4 grams sugars; 13 grams protein; 228 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Score fat on duck breast in criss-cross pattern at one-inch intervals.
- Step 2
Mix the five-spice powder, honey, soy sauce and lemon juice together in a dish, brush the mixture over both sides of the duck breasts and place the breasts in a dish. Cover and allow to marinate at least an hour at room temperature or up to 24 hours in the refrigerator, whichever is more convenient.
- Step 3
Preheat oven to 175 degrees.
- Step 4
Heat large, heavy skillet, preferably nonstick, to very hot. Remove duck breasts from marinade, reserving marinade for sauce, if desired. Place duck breasts in the skillet skin side down and sear for about two minutes, just until the skin is well browned. Remove the duck breasts from the skillet. Pour all the fat out of the skillet (reserve the fat for the sauce or other cooking, if you wish). Return the duck breasts to the skillet skin side up and cook for about a minute, just until the meat is seared.
- Step 5
Transfer the duck breasts skin side up to a baking dish that will hold them in a single layer. Place in the oven for about an hour. By this time the duck breasts will be uniformly pink throughout. They can remain in the oven as long as two hours and can sit warming even longer if the oven is turned off after two hours. The recipe can also be expanded for as many duck breasts as you need.
- Step 6
To serve, slice the duck breasts on an angle, into slices a quarter to a half-inch thick. Array on a platter and serve.
Private Notes
Comments
Excellent and easy. I poured the entire spice juices over the breasts and let sit at room temperature for about one hour. I added the duck fat (from searing) to the spice mixture, and later added about 1/4 cup of sour cherry juice and thickened it a bit by simmering for about 20 minutes. After duck is sliced for serving, I drizzled some of this thickened juice over it just before serving. Great dish to make with this? Persian Sour Cherry Rice (that's where the sour cherry juice came from).
Fahrenheit. The temperature is indeed low. But after an hour in the oven, the duck was uniformly pink, at 135-140F.
Note to all: It wasn't ruined, 'though a touch dry. Mind the heat - even in our cool oven, 175F was warmer than necessary, inner temp at 1 hour was above 145F. Oh well, it was still a hit. For the sauce, I combined marinade with rendered fat, plus a dash of cheap Balsamic vinegar and, once thickened, some red vermouth to emulsify the fat with the marinade. Yummy. I look forward to next time.
Oh, I forgot to say that I do have a warming oven and move the duck to it after it has cooked in the oven for an hour.
This is a perfect way to fix duck breasts when you only have one oven and want to serve other baked items with it. My husband can no eat turkey, so this is our go-to for Thanksgiving. If we are having a sizable group I serve it with roasted salmon.
How hot is a very hot pan?? There should be a sizzle test or something. I took instructions at face value. After 2 minutes rendering, the skin side was black & totally charred - not nice. What should be an easy step is more complicated than it seems. Caveat emptor. It's in the oven now - fingers crossed it's not ruined.
Note to all: It wasn't ruined, 'though a touch dry. Mind the heat - even in our cool oven, 175F was warmer than necessary, inner temp at 1 hour was above 145F. Oh well, it was still a hit. For the sauce, I combined marinade with rendered fat, plus a dash of cheap Balsamic vinegar and, once thickened, some red vermouth to emulsify the fat with the marinade. Yummy. I look forward to next time.