Duck Breast Suggestions

Hi all,

Mr. kwe recently returned from a trip to a hunting club in Maryland with some duck breasts (farm raised). I was thinking about grilling them, but after looking through cookbooks and various online resources such as Epicurious, I've only found a couple of recipes utilizing this method. This leaves me questioning as to whether or not this is a good way to cook them at all. Any thoughts on this? I'm also open to any other suggestions.

Thanks much!

Duck breasts are my favorite thing to grill. I just score the fat, sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper, and grill fat down over a hot fire until about half the fat burns off (usually not more than a minute or 2). Then I reach through the flames and flip them and put the lid on and cook for another 5-10 minutes depending on how thick the meat. This works with a weber kettle, when the fat fire, which is huge, can be put out by the lid sealing off the air supply. On a gas grill it will burn forever. I serve them rare/med rare.
-Will

Smoke em!

One of my favorite ways to cook duck breasts is to cut them up into inch and a half cubes, season, then wrap each cube in bacon, and slide onto a skewer w/ a slice of jalapeno between the pieces of meat.

Then just throw 'em on the smoker & you're in business....

In the past I have roasted a whole duck in the oven. After roasting it, carved it and sauteed it skin side down in a medium to low heat pan to make the skin crispy. Since you only have the breasts, you can probably skip the roasting part and just sautee it? I served the finished product with a raspberry, orange or apple glaze.

I am NOT a fan of Emeril, but his duck "pastrami" (duck pastrami?) is something I make often in the smoker. Here is a recent recipe which is similar to one I've been using for several years. The legendary smoking dentist, Kit Anderson, turned me on to this recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_27005,00.html

Good stuff.

Bill/SFNM

I like to rub them with an Asian 5-spice based rub and grill them onm the Weber, although it sounds like cubed duck/jalapeno/bacon kebobs are in my near future. Thanks ChiNOLA!

I love this very simple preparation from Paula Wolfert. No sauce needed but wonderful flavor.

Duck Magrets
Broiled Duck Breasts
4 Servings

1 1/2 teaspoons shallots, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon bay leaves, crumbled
1/4 teaspoon thyme leaves, crumbled
12 black peppercorns, lightly crushed
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
black pepper, freshly ground

1. 1 day before serving, trim off all excess fat from the duck breast. In a noncorrodible bowl combine the salt, shallots, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, peppercorns, and garlic.

2. Roll the duck breasts in the mixture and stack them, skin side down, in the bowl. Cover bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and let stand, refrigerated, 12-24 hours, turning breasts over once.

3. 30 minutes before serving, wipe or rinse the duck breass to remove excess seasonings and any liquid that may have exuded during the marinating time. Discard marinade and allow breasts to come to room temperature. Pat ducks dry.

4. To broil, set the broiler rack about 4 inches from heat. Score the skin and place duck breasts skin side down on broiler rack.

5. 8 or 9 minutes before serving, broil 1 minute in order to sear flesh side and melt excess skin-side fat from reflected heat. Turn breasts over and broil about 4 minutes longer. Breasts will "tighten up" and become thicker. With thumb and middle finger, pinch meat from under skin end to flesh side to test for doneness. If the flesh springs back quickly it is rare; if there is some "give" it is medium.

6. Transfer breasts to a carving board and let rest 1-2 minutes. To serve, thinly slice meat crosswise diagonally. Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper, then fan each magret out on an individual heated serving plate. Serve at once.

I've made a duck with green pipian (pumpkin seed) that's mighty tasty. It's a mexican dish, basically a green mole, lots of spices but not terribly hot. It is a complex preparation, and like many duck dishes requires rendering much of that fat before the final cooking phase.

I find that when grilling over direct heat, the fat fire causes a really not good burnt taste, even if the duck itself is not burnt. If you want to grill I would suggest doing indirect heat (push the coals all to the sides, put a bowl or something to catch the grease in the center, put the duck on the grill over the bowl).

Monday I made duck breasts in this way- put skin side down on an iron skillet. Cook over med-low heat until most of fat is rendered (15-20 mins) and meat is still raw - make sure duck is not boiling in the fat! Remove from pan, put skin side up in an oven-proof pan, pour some sort of sauce or glaze over duck (I used some rhubarb glaze a friend gave us last spring that we froze) and put into 350 degree oven until cooked through or to desired done-ness (maybe 10 mins). Make sure to save the duck fat for another purpose.

Hi all,

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all the great ideas. Not only do we have duck breasts in the freezer, but we have probably a dozen whole ducks as well. We're going to be eating this stuff for quite a while!

Kim

RevrendAndy wrote:I love this very simple preparation from Paula Wolfert. No sauce needed but wonderful flavor.

Duck Magrets

Rev,

Since you turned me on to this recipe, 8-9 years ago, I have made the magrets any number of time and I highly recommend it to all. Though the recipe calls for the broiler, I typically grill, which enhances the flavor even more, if possible.

I've also made the Duck Pastrami, at his recommendation, Bill/SFNM suggested, excellent. Though I pretty much know what duck I'm making next, ChiNOLA's bacon and jalapeno wrapped duck cubes. Wow, does that sound great!

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:Though I pretty much know what duck I'm making next, ChiNOLA's bacon and jalapeno wrapped duck cubes. Wow, does that sound great!

Gary -

These are a favorite of my tailgating gang - sometimes I'll drag the smoker out to the tailgate, and there's not enough time for smoking a shoulder or anything, so I'll run the smoker kinda hot - say, 275 or so, and crank these babies out in about an hour... They never last very long once they come out, that's for sure... Same prep works with boneless, skinless chicken thighs too (at a much lower price point)....

Gary,

Your recommendation of the Paula Wolfert recipe is high praise. What sort of grilling time do you use?

Btw, the Duck Pastrami sounded good to me too!

Kim

ChiNOLA wrote:

G Wiv wrote:Though I pretty much know what duck I'm making next, ChiNOLA's bacon and jalapeno wrapped duck cubes. Wow, does that sound great!

Gary -

These are a favorite of my tailgating gang - sometimes I'll drag the smoker out to the tailgate, and there's not enough time for smoking a shoulder or anything, so I'll run the smoker kinda hot - say, 275 or so, and crank these babies out in about an hour... They never last very long once they come out, that's for sure... Same prep works with boneless, skinless chicken thighs too (at a much lower price point)....

Do you always do these on a smoker? I was thinking they sounded like a job for a grill. Maybe one weekend, I'll try both methods side by side...strictly for chow science, mind you.

Kwe730 wrote:Gary,

Your recommendation of the Paula Wolfert recipe is high praise. What sort of grilling time do you use?

Kim,

Thanks, the Duck Magrets really are quite good.

Grill time, really hard to say as it's highly variable depending on fire, type of grill etc. I either use a Weber Kettle or Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM), though if I use the WSM I make the fire on the lower cooking grate which puts the fire about 9-inches from the duck.

This is my roundabout way of saying, I can't give you an exact time. Though I'd caution not to grill past med-rare.

Enjoy,
Gary

stevez wrote:

ChiNOLA wrote:

G Wiv wrote:Though I pretty much know what duck I'm making next, ChiNOLA's bacon and jalapeno wrapped duck cubes. Wow, does that sound great!

Gary -

These are a favorite of my tailgating gang - sometimes I'll drag the smoker out to the tailgate, and there's not enough time for smoking a shoulder or anything, so I'll run the smoker kinda hot - say, 275 or so, and crank these babies out in about an hour... They never last very long once they come out, that's for sure... Same prep works with boneless, skinless chicken thighs too (at a much lower price point)....

Do you always do these on a smoker? I was thinking they sounded like a job for a grill. Maybe one weekend, I'll try both methods side by side...strictly for chow science, mind you.

stevez -

I've only made them on the smoker - the jalapenos were added to the mix as an experiment after several years of making them w/ just the bacon & now everyone insists that they be included. The heat from the peppers gets into the smoky bacon fat coating the duck chunks & the combination just works great....

I see no reason why it wouldn't work on the grill (be careful not to burn the bacon), but you'd certainly have less smoke flavor in the mix. By all means, try the side by side & report back!