Chef Thomas Keller’s Pan-Roasted Duck Recipe

Pan-roasting is a more gentle, slower cooking process than sautéing that allows you to crisp up the skin and render the fat of a duck breast while gently cooking the meat. To pan-roast duck breast, cook skin side down until the skin is crisp and the fat has rendered out, then briefly cook the meat side until it reaches your desired doneness. Chef Keller prefers his duck breast medium-rare. Rare duck tends to be chewy, he says, while duck prepared well done can take on a liver-y taste.

Chef Keller recommends that you always try to source fresh duck. If you’re unable to find fresh duck at your local grocery story, check ethnic grocers and local butchers or boutique grocers or online markets. Prioritize freshness and quality over breed.

The type of duck used in this recipe is Pekin, the most commonly available in the United States. Also known as Long Island duck, it is mild-flavored, meaty, and an all-around great choice. It’s also relatively easy to source. The breasts of Pekin ducks take well to pan-roasting, while their legs are better suited to braising and oven roasting.

Before pan-roasting duck breast, air-dry the breast for three days in the refrigerator, which removes moisture from the skin so that it can crisp more readily during cooking. Prior to pan-roasting, Chef Keller tempers the duck, letting it come to room temperature, and pierces the skin, which allows the fat to render faster. The faster the fat renders, the crispier the skin gets and the easier it is to control the cooking temperature.

If you don’t have a sausage pricker (a pronged tool that looks like a fork made of pushpins), carefully use a sharp knife to score the skin in parallel slashes against the grain or in a crosshatch diamond pattern. Make sure your slashes only go through the skin and fat, avoiding cutting into the meat.

Since duck breast has a thick layer of fat, you’ll want to cook the breast long enough to allow all the fat to render, but not to the point of overcooking the breast meat. Cooking duck skin side down allows you to crisp up the skin and render the fat while preventing the meat from drying out. Use your hands, a spoon, or a palette knife to move the breast around the pan. Do not use tongs, which Chef Keller says tend to squeeze and potentially damage the breast. If the skin pulls away from the pan, you can press the breast down with a weight or bacon press. And don’t toss the leftover rendered duck fat—use it as a cooking oil for roasting potatoes or sautéing mushrooms.

Chef Keller serves the duck with braised endive and a honey-orange gastrique, or sweet-and-sour sauce, a combination that he loves for its wonderfully contrasting flavors and Textures. Pan-roasted duck breast also goes well with:

• Sautéed sweet potatoes or sweet potato purée
• Puréed or mashed potatoes
• Glazed carrots
• Plum sauce and raw veggies
• Peking duck rolls: slice duck breast and serve in pancakes with hoisin sauce and thinly sliced raw cucumber and red onion
• Sautéed dark leafy greens in olive oil
• Red wine pan sauce

1. Chinese Style: Marinate duck with hoisin sauce, Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, Chinese five spice powder, garlic, and fresh ginger uncovered in the refrigerator overnight, then score and cook using your preferred method: pan-roast, grill, sear, sous vide, or oven-roast.
2. Sous Vide: Use an immersion circulator to heat a water bath to 136°F for medium rare or 144°F for medium. Prepare duck breast by poking or scoring skin, then pre-sear in a well seasoned cast-iron skillet skin side down until skin is golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add a garlic clove and thyme or other aromatics to the pan. Flip to sear the meat side, about 1 minute. Season with salt and black pepper and add breast and aromatics to a freezer bag. Let breast cook in water bath 90 minutes. When breast is cooked, sear a second time skin side down in a cast iron skillet until skin is brown, about 2 minutes, then serve, slicing against the grain.
3. Grill: Marinate duck breast with Chinese-style marinade (or try miso, soy sauce, sake, orange juice, ginger, garlic, and sesame oil) and grill skin side down until fat has rendered and skin is brown and crispy. Flip and cook meat side down until internal temperature registers 123°F.
4. Oven-roast: In a well seasoned cast-iron skillet, sear duck breasts skin side down over high heat and then transfer to a 375°F oven to finish cooking. Use this method to make Gordon Ramsay’s Five-Spice Crispy Duck Recipe With Black Cherry Glaze.

Watch Chef Keller’s pan-roasting technique: