27 Delectable Duck Recipes for When Chicken Won't Cut It
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Here's how to bake, braise, roast, or smoke duck for incredible entrées any day of the week.
Matt Taylor-Gross / Food Styling by Barrett Washburne
"Preparing a whole duck for dinner is an occasion — and a gesture of generosity and serious sentiment," writes award-winning cookbook author Paula Disbrowe. Whether you're taking on the whole bird, duck breast, or duck legs, we have tender, juicy recipes for serving the flavorful meat. Chefs Anne Quatrano and Paul Kahan reveal tricks for salt curing, the legendary Jacques Pépin shares his classic Duck à l'Orange recipe, and Angie Mar prepares duck three ways, including cold smoking and a silky pâté. Here are our most show-stopping, melt-in-your-mouth duck recipes.
Classic Duck Confit
Cooking duck confit may sound like something best left to restaurant chefs, but F&W Test Kitchen's Adam Dolge says the process is simple, and results in tender, delicious meat that brings pleasure with each bite.
Smoked Duck with Potatoes and Frisée
According to Paula Disbrowe, grill-roasting a duck is as easy as a chicken (particularly when you use an instant-read thermometer to gauge doneness), and the deeply flavored results are as satisfying as anything you can get in a restaurant. She calls this recipe a griller’s version of a one-dish wonder.
Peking Duck
Soy sauce, honey, Chinese five spice, and hoisin season this rich duck with incomparably crispy skin from F&W Test Kitchen's John Somerall.
Smoked Duck Breasts with Apple-Brandy Caramel
Thick, sweet duck fat caramel and tender apples make for a rich sauce that 2017 F&W Best New Chef Angie Mar pairs perfectly with smoky duck breast.
Duck Tacos
Longtime test kitchen editor and cookbook author Grace Parisi simply seasons duck breast and heats it on the stovetop before roasting and pairing with a cilantro-lime sauce that gets heat from pickled jalapeño. Shredded carrot, sliced scallion, and radish sprouts round these tacos out.
Juniper-Rubbed Roast Duck with Cherry Jus
Duck devotee Angie Mar cold smokes her duck after a prolonged salt cure so the fat picks up the whiff of sweet smoke, then slow-roasts the whole bird. Mar serves hers with a rich sauce of reduced duck broth and tart cherries as a nod to the cherry trees in the Pacific Northwest where she grew up.
Braised Duck Legs with Spaetzle and Mushroom Ragout
Inspired by German celebratory harvest meals from centuries past, 1996 F&W Best New Chef Maria Helm Sinskey trades the traditional goose leg quarters for easier-to-source duck in this comforting braised dish, served with a bed of buttery-crisp spaetzle and saucy mushrooms.
Jerk-Smoked Duck with Peach Barbecue Sauce
2019 F&W Best New Chef Bryan Furman's method of smoking the duck over a drip pan is quick and efficient, infusing the duck with intense smoky flavor in only 30 minutes without toughening the meat.
Smoked Duck with Sorghum-Glazed Alliums
Cookbook author Yewande Komolafe uses one of the oldest known grains in the world, sorghum, which researchers believe originated in northeast Africa. Like honey or molasses, sorghum syrup has an earthy sweetness, though it tends to be thinner in viscosity and a little more sour.
Soba Noodles with Crispy Duck and Hot Dipping Sauce
Cooking instructor and author Sonoko Sakai's combination of cold, chewy homemade soba noodles with steaming-hot crispy duck and dashi-enriched dipping sauce is an unparalleled delight.
Crispy Duck with Duck Dirty Rice and Peach Salad
Matt Taylor-Gross / Food Styling by Barrett Washburne
Crispy duck, savory dirty rice, and a sweet peach salad give Top Chef favorite Tiffany Derry's dish memorable flavor and texture contrast.
Spiced Duck Breasts with Mandarin Oranges and Dates
Cookbook author Andrea Slonecker seasons duck a l’orange with ras el hanout, a bold Moroccan spice blend that complements the full-flavored meat.
Duck Liver Pâté with Blackberry Conserva
The tartness and texture of the blackberry conserva is a nice contrast to Angie Mar's rich, silky pâté that you can spoon on pancakes, waffles, or ice cream.
Duck à l'Orange
Iconic chef Jacques Pépin's whole roast duck recipe incorporates orange zest, orange juice, orange segments, and Grand Marnier for layers of citrus flavor.
Four-Spice Duck Breasts with Carrots
Wine pro Richard Betts makes preparing duck easy with a quick spice blend to combine, grind, and use as a rub before cooking on the stovetop in a cast-iron skillet and finally roasting in the oven.
Roast Duck with Citrus Pan Sauce
Longtime F&W Test Kitchen supervisor Marcia Kiesel's roast duck has rich, crispy skin and is scented with lemons and oranges.
Duck Two Ways with Chickpea Crêpes and Fennel Compote
2004 F&W Best New Chef Bradford Thompson braises duck legs and glazes duck breasts in this layered dish.
Pan-Roasted Duck Breasts with Onions and Crisp Pancetta
Back in 2000, this roast duck was one of the most popular and well-reviewed dishes at Nicole's, the New York restaurant in a retail flagship from British fashion designer Nicole Farhi, helmed by chefs Annie Wayte and Anna Kovel. Their recipe stands the test of time.
Salt-Cured Duck Breasts with Fava Beans & Sweet Peas
1995 F&W Best New Chef Anne Quatrano has a simple trick for making these duck breasts juicy and flavorful: Just a few hours before pan-roasting, she rubs them with a fresh herb and salt mix, which lightly cures the meat.
Bomba di Riso (Stuffed Rice Cake) with Shredded Duck
Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Ruth Blackburn / Prop Styling by Thom Driver
At the iconic restaurant Ostreria Fratelli Pavesi in Italy's Emilia-Romagna, the three Pavesi brothers pay homage to a mid-19th-century delicacy: the molded baked rice “bomb” stuffed with a hearty filling of shredded duck and earthy porcini mushrooms.
Slow-Cooked Duck with Green Olives and Herbes de Provence
The Food & Wine Test Kitchen calls Paula Wolfert's duck recipe the most forgiving and delicious you’ll ever find. Slow-cooking duck with aromatics until it’s as tasty and tender as confit, then broiling it until the skin is shatter-crisp, plays to all of the bird’s strengths.
Pappardelle with Duck Ragù
James Beard Award-winning chef Marco Canora of Hearth in New York City calls for duck confit in his recipe for pasta with braised duck.
Rice with Duck and Apricots
2013 F&W Best New Chef George Mendes makes this signature dish with poached duck breast and homemade duck confit.
Dry-Aged Duck Breasts with Golden Beet Panzanella
1999 F&W Best New Chef Paul Kahan of The Publican in Chicago has a great trick for heightening the flavor of duck breasts: He ages them on the bone in the refrigerator for up to one week.
Peking Duck Stir-Fry
Ken Hom is and authority on Chinese stir-frying — he's written four books on the subject. So when Hom replaced chicken with meatier, richer duck breasts in a stir-fry, we knew it would be a good idea. The duck has enough flavor to stand up to the mix of chiles, garlic, and peanuts here.
Sour-Cherry-Stuffed Duck Breasts with Thyme
Maria Helm Sinskey stuffs this festive duck roast with a delicious sweet-and-sour cherry filling.
Cassoulet with Duck Confit
Chef Laurence Jossel created this stripped-down version of the classic French stew, with creamy white beans, luscious store-bought duck confit, smoky French garlic sausage, and slab bacon.
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