Slow-roasted duck breast with plum sauce

Tender duck breast in aromatic plum sauce with cinnamon, star anise, and cardamom. The sauce is really delicious and quick to make. The meat is quickly seared in a pan, then roasted in the oven at low temperature. Thanks to this method, it comes out tender, never rubbery, and bakes evenly. This recipe is perfect if you like well-done duck breast but you don’t want it tough and rubbery.

About the recipe

Duck breast is considered red meat, so we need to treat it like a steak. The most juicy and tender duck breast is pink in the middle – so it needs to be cooked to either medium or medium-rare.

If you do enjoy the flavor of duck’s meat but don’t like your meat medium-rare, or maybe you want to serve the meat to young children, this recipe is perfect.

Duck breast is first marinated overnight, briefly pan-seared, and then baked for a long time at low temperature. This results in a meat that is tender and not chewy and tough so you can cook your duck breast to 'well-done’ (which would not be possible when simply pan-frying it).

Baking meats at low temperature: as the food scientist Harold McGee writes in his book „On Food and Cooking„: „At low oven temperatures, below 250ºF/125ºC, the moist meat surface dries very slowly. As moisture evaporates, it actually cools the surface, so despite the oven temperature, the surface temperature of the meat may be as low as 160ºF/70ºC. This means relatively little surface browning and long cooking times, but also very gentle heating of the interior, minimal moisture loss, relatively uniform doneness within the meat, and a large window of time in which the meat is properly done.”

This recipe will work best with large duck breasts that weigh about 14-16 oz (400-450g). If you have small duck breasts (eg about 7 oz/200g) or you don’t feel like turning on the oven, you can also prepare the duck only in a pan, but I would not recommend cooking the meat above 'medium’ (140°F (60°C)).

If you like this recipe, you may also like this stir-fry recipe with plum sauce: Chicken with vegetables and noodles in Chinese plum sauce. You could also try my recipe for whole roast duck.

Ingredients

Here’s what you need to make this dish:

• duck breast – this recipe will work best with large duck breasts that weigh about 14-16 oz (400-450g)
• plums – any plums will work, but firm round plums (pictured) are best, don’t use very ripe plums
• jam – preferably plum jam but you can use any other similar tasting jam such as cranberry, lingonberry, red currant, or strawberry jam, it just adds flavor, sweetens the sauce and thickens it a bit
• soy sauce
• honey – sweetens and thickens the sauce
• red wine – adds flavor and acidity to the sauce
• aromatic spices: cinnamon, cardamom, star anise – use whole spices for the best flavor but you could also use a small amount of ground spices

Step by step instructions

Score the skin: Using a sharp knife, score the skin in a cross-hatch pattern (try not to cut the meat).

Marinate the meat: overnight or longer, max. for 2 days. Prepare a small pot – the meat should be almost completely submerged in the marinade, you can also use a thick ziplock bag. Whisk the ingredients for the marinade (red wine, honey, soy sauce, vinegar, jam, and spices), bring them to boil then leave to cool. Add the duck breast, skin-side up, cover, and put in the fridge.

On the second day: Preheat the oven to 212°F / 100°C.

Remove the meat from the marinade, pat dry thoroughly with paper towels. 

Sear the meat: it’s best to use an oven-proof pan but if you don’t have such pan, just use a regular skillet then transfer the meat to a small baking dish.

Place the meat in a cold (!) pan, skin-side down. Turn on medium-low heat and cook for a couple of minutes or until the skin is browned and the fat rendered. Don’t cook it over too high heat, the fat needs to be rendered slowly. It’s good to weigh the meat down so that the skin that be browned uniformly – you can place a loaf pan on top of the meat and put an olive oil bottle on top to weigh it down. Turn the breast on the other side and cook briefly, until the meat is browned. Leave a tablespoon of fat in the pan and discard the rest.

Bake: Place the duck breast in a small baking dish (I used a 20 cm/8-inch oven-safe pan). Pour in the marinade. Cut the plums in half, remove the stones, arrange them around the meat. Place the dish in the oven.

Bake in a preheated oven for about 55-60 minutes or less, to your desired doneness. After this time the duck should be around 150°F (66°C). It should come to the 'well-done’ temperature (160°F/71°C) while resting.If you prefer your duck breast medium, bake it for about 45 minutes, to 60°C / 140°F. Medium-rare is 52°C / 125 °F . The baking time will depend on how long you’ve seared the meat in the pan and how big your duck breast is (it’s best to use a grill thermometer to measure the temperature!).It’s important to cook the meat to a temperature and not to time, you can measure internal temperature with an instant thermometer (stick it into the thickest part of the meat). Well-done duck breast (safe for kids to eat) should be cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 71°C / 160°F. Remember that after removing the meat from the oven, its internal temperature will continue to rise.

It’s best to use a grill thermometer with a long probe. Stick the probe into the thickest part of the meat and let the meat cook with the probe in it. The cable will go outside, through the oven door, to the appliance. Set the appliance to the temperature you plan to cook the meat to, it will beep once the meat reaches preset temperature. 

Remove the dish from the oven. Transfer the meat to a plate, cover it tightly with aluminum foil, and leave to rest for 5-10 minutes.

Prepare the sauce: If the plums are very soft, remove them from the sauce, but leave harder fruits in (very soft plums will fall apart completely while reducing the sauce). Cook the sauce for about 5 minutes over medium heat until thickened. Discard cardamom capsules, star anise, and cinnamon stick.

Serve: Cut the duck breast into thin slices against the grain, pour the sauce over, serve with cooked rice and roasted plums. Optionally, sprinkle with coriander leaves and sesame seeds.

The grain of the meat is referring to the direction the muscle fibers run within the piece of meat. Cutting against the grain means to cut through the fibers and make them shorter. 

Enjoy!

Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!