When available, I like to buy Long Island duck breasts for this recipe, but if they are not available, the larger, Muscovy or moulard duck breasts work well. Conventionally, this dish is cooked skin-side down with the goal of the skin becoming very crispy and the meat staying moist. But, when cooked this way, I feel that the skin, even when nicely brown, remains fatty and tough; so I like to remove the skin prior to cooking, cut it into pieces, and cook it with water before the water evaporates and the pieces fry into delicious cracklings. This can be done ahead of time so that when you’re ready to serve, you cook the skinless breast like a piece of beef fillet medium rare and with a sweet and sour vinegar sauce, scattering the cracklings on top. I often serve a radicchio salad on the side to counteract the richness of the meat.

Duck Breasts with Vinegar Sauce and Cracklings

Category

Category name

Serves

4

Ingredients

  • 2 large duck breasts, about 1 pound each
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • 3 tablespoons duck fat, from the cracklings
  • ¼ cup red wine vinegar
  • 1 to 3 tablespoons water
  • 3 tablespoons ketchup

Method

  1. Remove the skin from the duck breasts and cut into 1-inch pieces. Place in a skillet with 1 ½ cups water and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring occasionally until the water has totally evaporated and the fat is rendered, 25 to 30 minutes. Continue to fry the cracklings until they are nicely golden-brown and very crisp, another 8 to 10 minutes. Drain the cracklings and sprinkle with salt. Reserve the fat.
  2. Cut the two duck breasts in half and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. When you are ready to cook the duck, heat 3 tablespoons of the duck fat in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the four pieces of duck and cook, turning once until they are medium rare, about 3 minutes on each side. Set aside to rest while making the sauce.
  3. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat from the skillet. Add the vinegar and bring to a boil, stirring and scraping up any brown bits remaining in the pan, until the vinegar has almost completely reduced, about 1 minute. Add the water and ketchup and return to a boil. Add salt and pepper and strain the sauce through a fine-mesh strainer if needed. Cut each piece of duck breast into 2 pieces. Arrange the duck on 4 warm plates. Pour any juices from the duck into the sauce and drizzle the sauce over the duck breasts. Sprinkle the cracklings on top and serve immediately.