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Japanese Inspired Pan Seared Duck Breast

I've been taking Karate for 4 or 5 years now, something I always wanted to do it as a little kid, but never got the chance to ... only now I'm 50. Who wasn't fascinated by Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris fighting it out in "Way of the Dragon". Truthfully, I really only started taking karate to get exercise, after all I do sit behind a computer most of my days. I got tired of going to the gym, and trying to motivate myself to work out, especially in front of strangers ... that got old pretty quick. I figured I just needed to go somewhere where they could tell me what to do and me do it. I thought I'd just go to a few classes, see if I liked it, I never really thought I'd stay in it as long as I have. I didn't join to get belts or ranks, or even to learn how to fight, but one of the perks is you learning something new about another culture. Part of the class is learning some history, along with Japanese words and phrases, although most of them are related to fighting.

Admittedly, I've never really been into Asian type cuisine, but Tami is. While trying to figure out how I wanted to cook some Duck Breast one night, Tami suggested we try going Asian with it ... since she usually gets her way, that's what we did. I grabbed pretty much all the Japanese seasonings and sauces out the pantry that I could find and threw them at this sauce. Sake, Mirin, Soy Sauce, Fish Sauce, Vegetable stock,
Rice Vinegar and fresh garlic and ginger. I combined them all in a pot and reduced it down ... what I ended up with tasted a lot like soy sauce!! Tami said it tasted like a full-bodied soy sauce, with deeper flavor, though she might have just been saying that to make me feel better. Either way, we cooked the duck in the sauce and then poured the extra sauce over the rice ... it turned out really good and was so full of flavor.

This was such a quick meal to cook. Most the time was spent waiting on the rice to cook. The duck breast cooks up pretty fast. You'll need to make sure you don't overcook it. It'll have some carry over cooking once you remove it from the heat. Allow it to rest for a few minutes before you cut into it. Once the duck has finished cooking, remove it from the skillet and continue to reduce the sauce down to pour over top the duck before serving!! Serve it with some warm sake! As an ancient Japanese proverb goes ... "Luck exists in the leftovers."

Ingredients

Soy Sauce

Pan Seared Duck

Instructions

Soy Sauce

Step #1 Combine all the sauce ingredients in saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer until reduced by half.

Step #2 Pour sauce into a measuring cup.

Step #3 Chop up some of the green onion and add it to the sauce.

Pan Seared Duck

Step #1 Add two cups of water to saucepan and bring to boil. Add 1 cup of rice and salt, cover and cook for 20 minutes. When rice is done, fluff with fork.

Step #2 Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Step #3 Score the skin side of the duck breast, ensure to only cut the fat, not the meat beneath.

Step #4 Generously salt and pepper both sides of duck.

Step #5 Add duck to cold pan, skin side down.

Step #6 Turn the heat to medium and allow the fat to start rendering.

Step #7 Continue to cook until skin is brown. About 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from skillet and set aside.

Step #8 Drain the fat from the pan and add skillet back to stove.

Step #9 Reserve about 1/4 cup of the sauce to finish your dish, but pour the rest of the sauce into skillet.

Step #10 Add duck breast back to pan, this time skin side up.

Step #11 Cook the duck breast for a few minutes, basting the whole time.

Step #12 Transfer skillet to oven and cook for another 5 minutes or so. Until internal temperature is about 135.

Step #13 In a small skillet, toast some sesame seeds on medium heat for a few minutes.

This step is optional, Japanese Seven Spice also has some sesame Seeds in it which well be adding at the end.

Step #14 Allow the duck to rest for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing it up.

Step #15 To Serve. Add rice to plate, sprinkle with a few chopped green onions. Slice the duck breast diagonally and place on plate. Drizzle rice and duck with reminder of sauce we made. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and Japanese seven spice.

Recipe Card

Japanese Inspired Pan Seared Duck Breast

Written by Jeff Davis Visit : Visit authors website

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Prep Time: 15 min - Cook Time: 20 min

Ingredients

Soy Sauce

2 cup(s) Sake

1/2 cup(s) Mirin

1/2 cup(s) Soy Sauce

1/2 cup(s) Vegetable Broth

1/2 tsp Fish Sauce

1/2 tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar

1/2 tsp Fresh Grated Ginger

2 clove(s) Garlic, grated

Pan Seared Duck

2 Duck Breast

1 cup(s) Short Grain Rice or Jasmine

2 cup(s) Water

Green Onions

White Sesame Seeds

Japanese Seven Spice

Pepper

Salt

Instructions

Soy Sauce

Step #1 - Combine all the sauce ingredients in saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer until reduced by half.

Step #2 - Pour sauce into a measuring cup.

Step #3 - Chop up some of the green onion and add it to the sauce.

Pan Seared Duck

Step #1 - Add two cups of water to saucepan and bring to boil. Add 1 cup of rice and salt, cover and cook for 20 minutes. When rice is done, fluff with fork.

Step #2 - Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Step #3 - Score the skin side of the duck breast, ensure to only cut the fat, not the meat beneath.

Step #4 - Generously salt and pepper both sides of duck.

Step #5 - Add duck to cold pan, skin side down.

Step #6 - Turn the heat to medium and allow the fat to start rendering.

Step #7 - Continue to cook until skin is brown. About 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from skillet and set aside.

Step #8 - Drain the fat from the pan and add skillet back to stove.

Step #9 - Reserve about 1/4 cup of the sauce to finish your dish, but pour the rest of the sauce into skillet.

Step #10 - Add duck breast back to pan, this time skin side up.

Step #11 - Cook the duck breast for a few minutes, basting the whole time.

Step #12 - Transfer skillet to oven and cook for another 5 minutes or so. Until internal temperature is about 135.

Step #13 - In a small skillet, toast some sesame seeds on medium heat for a few minutes. This step is optional, Japanese Seven Spice also has some sesame Seeds in it which well be adding at the end.

Step #14 - Allow the duck to rest for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing it up.

Step #15 - To Serve. Add rice to plate, sprinkle with a few chopped green onions. Slice the duck breast diagonally and place on plate. Drizzle rice and duck with reminder of sauce we made. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and Japanese seven spice.

About the Author

Jeff Davis

You may think cooking and recipes don’t have much to do with a website dedicated to hunting dogs ... but really, why do we hunt? Sure, we enjoy watching our dogs work in the field and being outdoors, but ultimately, hunting is about survival and feeding our families. We might as well try to do it well. I'm not a chef and definitely no food authority ... but I do like to eat and enjoy cooking. After searching for people willing to share their recipes on Gundog Central, without much success, I decided to try to do a few on my own, with my wife Tami's help. The recipes I share here are things I like to eat and have made here at home. I've tried to include step-by-step instructions with each meal describing exactly how I did it, but my method may not be best, if you decide to try a recipe posted here, please use whatever technique you think works best, I'm simply sharing how I did it. You'll see a lot of recipes where I've tried to make things from starch, when I could have just used store bought ingredients, simply because I wanted to learn how something was done. My goal is to continually update these recipes as I learn new things and techniques. These are my attempts at creating good, home cooked food, that I would like to eat! If I'm sharing it here, my family and I enjoyed it and I believe you will too.