Pan seared duck breast with French fries
In my opinion, by far the best way to enjoy duck breast is to simply pan sear and serve medium-rare with a compound butter and french fries. This treatment lets the rich flavour of the duck take centre stage.
Servings: 4 people
Ingredients
- 4 Duck breasts skin on
- 4 tbsp salted butter softened
- 2 tbso duck fat or olive oil
- 2 tbsp soft blue cheese (optional) can be replaced with additional butter
- 1 tbsp chives very finely sliced
- frozen french fries
- flakey sea salt
Instructions
Compound Butter
- You can ofcourse make whatever flavour compound butter you like best. My preference for this dish is a butter with soft blue cheese (Danish Blue or even Stilton work great). However, garlic and chives or chives and parsley will also work fine.
- Combine the blue cheese and soften butter and mic through the chives. If not using blue cheese use extra butter.
- Form the butter into a log, roll the butter in plastic wrap and set aside in the fridge.
French Fries
- You could go to the trouble of making your own. But to me the whole point of this dish is to celebrate the harvest of some ducks with a fast delicious meal. So I opt for store bought frozen french fries.
- Cook the fries by your preferred method: oven, air fryer or deep frier, according to the packet instructions. Try and time this so they are ready at the same time as the duck.
Pan-seared duck breast
- Heat duck fat (or olive oil) in a heavy frying pan over medium-high heat.
- Lightly score the skin of each duck breast and season with salt.
- Add the duck breasts skin side down to the hot pan and cook for 4 minutes. Use a weight to press the breasts down if necessary to ensure the skin is fully in contact with the surface of the pan.
- Turn the breasts and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Aim for 57C/ 135F for medium, or a touch cooler for rare.
- Rest the duck for 3 minutes before slicing and plating.
- Serve with crispy French fries and topped with a quenelle of compound butter and finish with a sprinkle of flakey sea salt.
