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Seared Duck Breast with Fig Sauce

Photo: Seared Duck Breast with Fig Sauce

TOTAL TIME: 45 min
Prep: 10 min
Inactive Prep: 5 min
Cook: 30 min
 
YIELD: 4 servings
LEVEL: Easy

ingredients

DUCK:
  • Four 6-ounce boneless duck breasts, skin scored in crosshatches, at room temperature
  • Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
    FIG SAUCE:
    • 1 shallot, minced
    • 3/4 cup dry sherry
    • 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
    • 1/4 cup fig jam
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    • Print Recipe

    Directions

    For the duck breasts: Sprinkle each duck breast liberally with salt and pepper. Heat the vegetable oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat. Add the duck skin-side down and reduce the heat to low, cooking as the fat slowly renders and the skin becomes crispy, 8 to 10 minutes.

    Once the skin is crispy and golden brown, flip and continue cooking until a thermometer reads 128 to 130 degrees F when inserted into the thickest part of the breast (for medium-rare doneness), 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate or cutting board and allow to rest about 5 minutes. It will carryover cook to about 135 degrees F. Don't tent with foil in order to ensure the duck skin will stay crispy.

    For the fig sauce: Pour off all but 1 or 2 tablespoons of fat from the skillet, reserving the excess for another use. Over medium heat, add the shallots and cook until softened. Add the sherry and reduce by half. Next, add the chicken broth, fig jam and balsamic vinegar, and continue simmering until the sauce has thickened and is syrupy, another 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper and whisk in the butter. Garnish with chopped chives.

    Serve the sauce alongside thinly sliced duck breast.

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    4

    Newest Ratings and Reviews

    Read all 5 reviews

    • on June 02, 2013

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      Good recipe except that the sauce took over 45 minutes to become syrupy!. This ruined the duck which was sitting around too long! Will do again but will use no more than half a cup of broth.

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    • on January 26, 2013

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      Great dish, Kelsey. I wasn't able to find fig jam in Ogden, so I used orange marmalade instead. It was very good, but I'll keep looking for figs. It also took much longer than 7 minutes to reduce the sauce, and the duck got kink of cold. Next time I'll make the sauce in advance with some reserved duck fat I've got. Also, I hate instant read thermometers. I used two different ones and had about a 15 degree difference between them. Anyone know of a good one?

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    • on November 13, 2012

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      The duck cooked in the cast iron skillet just the way Kelsey recommended was awesome and that alone deserved a 5. "Oh yeah...I did purchase the meat thermometer and I was a little scarred because there was blood still in the finished duck meat (wasn't sure about eating undercooked duck.However I googled it and its ok. However, they said when demand is high for a product, mass production comes into play and thats when animals begin to be raised like chickens are raised (the reason they have salmonella is due to filthy environment. So I would get this at those special markets like Fresh Market. I was disappointed with the way the fig sauce turned out though. It was runny, but Kelsey made a note: Add the sherry and reduce by half. This was tricky for me. Also, no one had Fig Jam, only Fig Preserves :(

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