Duck Breast with Sweet and Sour Cranberry Chutney Recipe • Steamy Kitchen Recipes Giveaways (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep duck breast moist? ›

It is very important to rest your duck before serving; this equilibrates the temperature and spreads the moisture around. You can easily make duck crackling by cutting the skin into thin strips and frying until crisp. Use this on salads or as part of your favourite duck recipe.

Just before cooking, season both sides of the duck with salt and pepper. If your ducks have a visible layer of fat underneath the skin, lay them skin-side down in a cold cast-iron pan and turn the burner to medium heat.

Just like with steak and chicken, it's important to slice the duck breast against the grain, which cuts the muscle fibers short, making the duck feel more tender when you chew it.

Serve with noodles or steamed rice and pak choi. Duck Breast, Sweet Potato & Pickled Fennel Duck and sweet potato is a loving marriage; so what could be better than a dinner that pairs the two?

Soaking ducks in various liquids is a common “cure” for the taste that seems offensive to many. Some soak duck breast in milk, wine, bourbon, salt water and probably a bunch of other stuff.

The boiling water helps pull the skin taut, making it easier to score in a crosshatch pattern. That, in turn, allows the fat to render out as everything roasts. The result is a perfectly cooked duck with pink, juicy meat and burnished, crunchy skin.

Foolproof method

Take the duck breast out of the refrigerator and leave at room temperature for approximately 15 minutes before cooking. Pat dry with a paper towel. Trim excess fat from around the duck breast. Make incisions in the skin in a crosswise pattern, without cutting into the meat.

I do not cook a duck or goose without first soaking it overnight in brine. Those of us who have discovered how much better the Thanksgiving turkey tastes after a brine bath for 24 hours know that the bird will not only cook a little faster but it will also be more moist and flavorful than an unbrined bird.

Dear Heloise: My husband and our two boys like to hunt for game birds such as duck or pheasant, but wild game often has a "gamey" flavor that I don't like. In order to get rid of that undertone of wild game, I soak the birds in buttermilk (after the feathers are removed) overnight in the refrigerator.

First, I slowly salt-cure the meat to make it tender and juicy. Next, I score and gently pre-sear the skin side of each breast, rendering plenty of valuable duck fat and guaranteeing an extra crispy final result.

What seasonings go well with duck? ›

Combine the smoked paprika, garlic powder, cumin, chili powder, five spice powder, dry mustard and some salt and pepper in a bowl. Using a sharp knife, score the skin of the duck so it has a 1/4-inch diamond pattern. Rub the spice mixture all over the duck.

Red Wine Gravy A luxurious, rich red wine gravy perfect with roast duck and all the trimmings. A zesty cranberry sauce perfect with a roast duck or with Christmas dinner. Duck and cherries, the perfect combination! Duck breast with rich cherry sauce The classic combination of duck and cherry!

Duck and pinot noir is a classic pairing because both offer moderate intensity, with pinot noir's acidity balancing out the fattiness of duck. Since duck often cooks well with fruit, the fruity notes in pinot couldn't be any better of a match. Always remember to match intensity with intensity.

Pro tip: Rest a heavy pot full of water on top of the meat to ensure that the skin remains evenly pressed against the pan. It's very important that the duck and pan are cold when I start cooking — like other poultry, duck dries out easily if even slightly overcooked.

Duck legs are traditionally 'confit', this means they are salted overnight and then submerged in duck fat and cooked slowly so they are preserved by the fat. Because the cooking method is low and slow the meat remains succulent and doesn't dry out, and the fat isn't absorbed so the meat isn't fatty.

Having super-dense plumage makes aquatic birds far more water-resistant than their terrestrial cousins, but it doesn't make them waterproof. To achieve that, aquatic birds coat their feathers with an oily substance known as preen oil, which is secreted from a gland on their rumps, above their tail feathers.

For every gallon of water, mix in 1 cup of coarse salt, like the standard kosher salt in the blue or red box. Other coarse salts work well, but finely ground table salt should be reduced to 3/4 cup per gallon of water or the brine will be too salty.