| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 2 hr 20 min |
| Prep: | 30 min |
| Inactive: | 5 min |
| Cook: | 1 hr 45 min |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 3 Muscovy duck breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Potato Rosti, recipe follows
- Blueberry Green Peppercorn Chutney, recipes follow
- 1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
- Duck fat, for frying
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1/4 cup raspberry vinegar
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
- 4 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
- 1 cup minced onion
- 1/4 cup green peppercorns *
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- With a sharp knife score the fat of the duck breasts in a criss-cross pattern. Season the duck with salt and pepper. Warm a heavy bottomed ovenproof skillet over medium heat.
- Place the duck breasts, fat side down, in the skillet to render off the fat, about 6 minutes. Reserve rendered duck fat. Turn the duck breasts over and sear for 1 minute. Turn the fat side down again and place the skillet into the oven to roast for 7 to 9 minutes, until breasts are medium rare. Let the duck breasts rest for 5 minutes then thinly slice.
- Grate the potatoes and squeeze out excess liquid using your hands. Toss the potatoes with the melted butter, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon of duck fat in a 6-inch cast iron pan over medium-high heat. Press some of the potato mixture into the hot pan to make a 1/4-inch thick cake. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until the rosti is golden brown, about 5 minutes. Flip the rosti in the pan and add more duck fat. Continue cooking until golden and crisp. Place the finished rosti onto an unlined baking sheet and continue cooking the rest of the potato mixture. Reheat rosti in a 400 degree F oven for 10 minutes.
- Combine the brown sugar, raspberry vinegar, red wine vinegar, and white wine vinegar in a medium pot. Place over medium-low heat and stir to dissolve the brown sugar. Simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add the blueberries, onion, green peppercorns, lemon juice, and ginger. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching.
- The chutney will keep for several weeks stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 6 servings |
| Calories | 1020 |
| Total Fat | 73 g |
| Saturated Fat | 27 g |
| Carbohydrates | 80 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 6 g |
| Sugar | 59 g |
| Protein | 15 g |
| Cholesterol | 130 mg |
| Sodium | 1125 mg |
Reviews
I love that there are recipes like this. So many people have no idea how to cook duck and it’s so easy. I personally love pan searing my duck. I also like using non stick, like a ceramic coated casserole or stoneware dish for crisping potatoes and other veggies because they brown so evenly and clean up is easy. Veggies shouldn’t be soggy. The more tips the better. You never know when someone has zero experience and us setting out on a new food adventure. Happy cooking everyone!
Wonderful
People who try to re-write the recipe are so annoying. As Cook who is going to take on this recipe can figure out on her/his own the tips, details and the order in which to prepare. Furthermore, potatoes (or anything else for that matter) don’t brown as well in “non-stick” pans, none of which I’d have in my kitchen anyway. Recipe is delicious prepared just as written.
I have made this twice to rave reviews. A few important notes:
** Use a teaspoon each of salt and pepper in the rosti potatoes, not a tablespoon
** Use brined green peppercorns rather than dried green peppercorns
** Order of events:
1. Make chutney first, then prepare other items while it is reducing/thickening.
2. Grate potatoes and seal in Ziploc bag to keep from browning.
3. Render duck fat and sear other side of duck breasts. Set aside.
4. Make rosti potatoes in nonstick pan or well-used cast iron pan. Set aside.
5. Put duck breasts in oven, then 5 minutes later put potatoes in oven on a baking sheet.
This dinner is superb with a spinach salad and Pinot noir.
I left out the raspberry vinegar. The sauce was delicious.
The rosti was so salty that it was almost inedible. I’m sure, as another reviewer pointed out, that it is supposed to be 1 tsp of salt, not 1 tbsp
Not sure if I did anything wrong on the chutney, but it was so inedible that I ended up not serving it. The flavor is fine, but you end up chewing on the whole green peppercorns [and yes, I got real green peppercorns from Penzey’s]
Make sure that you read through the recipe very carefully! It says that it takes 2.5 hrs, and the very first instruction is to cook the duck breast, which only takes around 15 minutes or so to cook! Instead:
1. Do the prep for the rosti– grate the potatoes, dry them, and put them in a ziploc bag (so they don’t get brown).
2. Render the duck fat.
3. Sear the other side of the duck breasts.
4. Cook the rosti, both sides.
5. Put the duck in the oven.
6. 5 minutes later, put the rosti (on a baking sheet) in.
[and, skip the chutney altogether!]
This had great flavor. The chutney was awesome. I accidentally overcooked the duck breasts, but they were still moist and flavorful. The only thing I wish is that the recipe had said what to do to keep the skins from getting soggy while they rest. I guess I should have taken the breasts out of the pan so they didn’t sit in the juices, but unfortunately I didn’t realize that until it was too late.
I want so much to give this five stars but there is a huge error in the recipe. The duck and the chutney turned out perfect (I did substitute capers for the peppercorns just because that was what was available). I can’t rave enough how delicious they were. However, the potato rosti had way, way too much salt and pepper. I think the volume should be teaspoon, not tablespoon, for the salt and pepper. I’m actually angry at wasting the delicious duck fat for something that ended up being inedible.
Great recipe. I made the chutney and it was fantastic. I didn’t have green peppercorns and substituted capers and turned out very well.
The potato fried in rendered duck fat is nice, better to not skip this. I made a chutney with apple and 10 yr old balsamic vinegar, because I didn’t have any blueberries. When you’re looking for something different it’s worth a try. I’ll be cooking like this again. I can also see this working with smoked olive oil topped with blood orange salsa, and I will try this recipe with the blueberry. I know how that will taste…it’ll be great. Again I was impressed enough to give it a nod..