Pan-Fried Duck Breast — For Few or Many Guests
Prep 1 hr 15 min Total 1 hr 15 min
Sliced duck breast © kvalifood.com
Recipe with video — In Denmark, duck is almost exclusively eaten at Christmas. That’s a shame. It’s some of the best and most flavorful meat you can get, and also one of the easiest to cook. Getting a duck breast to come out pink, for example, is much easier than doing the same with red meat.
The standard allowance is 200 g of meat per person for a dinner or celebration. A duck breast typically weighs 300 g, which is enough for about 1½ people. Three duck breasts will feed 4–5 people. Duck breast also works well when cooking for a crowd — you just handle it a bit differently. Here are two recipes, one for each situation.
Ingredients
Yields 1–2 servings per breast
Duck breast
- salt
- pepper
- thyme, preferably fresh
Directions
If you don’t need more duck breasts than fit on your pan at once, the simplest approach is to cook them straight through.
Season the breasts generously with salt, pepper, and thyme. It’s best to do this well in advance so the seasoning has time to penetrate the meat — the day before, if possible, then store in the fridge.
Start by frying the breast over medium-low heat for 20 minutes on the skin side. This renders out most of the fat and crisps up the skin.
Flip and fry for 10 minutes on the meat side.
Let the breast rest for 5–10 minutes before serving.
Slice into ½ cm thick pieces if you like, and serve 200 g (about ⅔ of a breast) per person with a little sauce.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK91SH5Ux8Y
Directions for a large number of guests
When cooking duck breast for many people, the problem is that you rarely have enough room on the pan for all of them at once. The first breasts get cold while the last ones are still cooking. And if you have guests, spending an hour in the kitchen frying meat while they sit drinking wine isn’t ideal. A little forward planning solves this — and the result is just as good.
Cut each breast into 3 equal pieces.
Season the pieces generously with salt, pepper, and thyme, rubbing it into the meat. Do this well in advance — ideally the day before — and store in the fridge. The salt also acts as a preservative.
Fry them skin side down for 10 minutes.
Fry them meat side down for 2–3 minutes.
Quickly brown all four remaining sides — just enough to get a little color.
At this point you can set the half-cooked pieces aside until you need them. You can easily do this the day before and keep them in the fridge. Cover them with oil in a small container to preserve them; sealed plastic bags work too.
When you’re ready to serve, place the pieces on a baking tray and put them in a 395°F (200°C) oven for 15 minutes.
They’ll come out ready to serve: crispy skin, pink inside.
This means you only need 5 minutes in the kitchen when guests are there, making it easy to serve a starter course first.
Food safety
Meat must not spend more than 4 hours total in the danger zone — meaning any temperature warmer than the fridge — to avoid bacterial growth.
So it’s important to take the duck pieces straight from the fridge when you sear them. Once done, pour cold oil (that has been sitting in the fridge) over them and return them to the fridge immediately.
See Also
