Duck Breast
Nothing beats properly fried duck breast for deeply crisp skin and tender, flavorful meat.
You can do many things with duck breast, including eating it with no accompaniments or slicing it up for a salad. Personally I think it goes best with a good sauce, as suggested here.
This approach requires sous vide, which I find provides the best texture and flavor for the meat.
Ingredients
- Duck breast (skin-on, boneless)
- Velouté Sauce
Method
Sous Vide
- Score the skin in a crosshatch pattern, cutting through the skin and most of the fat layer without cutting into the meat and season both sides with salt.
- Sous Vide at 131°F for 1 hour.
- If you aren't serving immediately, you can refrigerate or freeze at this point. Refrigerating for at least a short period is recommended as it will give you more time to get the fat to render and the skin to be crisp.
- Place the breast skin-side down in a cold pan, then set to low heat. Place a heavy weight on the breast (use another pan if need be) to ensure all the skin is in contact with the pan.
- Cook until almost all the fat under the skin is rendered out, pouring out excess fat occasionally to keep the breast from roasting.
- Once the fat has stopped rendering, up to 20 minutes, increase heat to medium-high to finish crisping for 1-2 minutes, while basting the flesh side with the fat in the pan.
- Turn off the heat and flip to the flesh side for 30 seconds to warm it up, then remove to rest for 5 minutes.
Drizzle sauce on the duck and serve sliced or whole, with some extra sauce on the side.