Last Updated on 4 years by Tim

Wintertime is duck time. While seldom served in the warmer months of the year, it remains a favorite during the cold season. Richer, gamier, and more tender than chicken, a properly cooked duck always excites.

As with all meats that have a slight gaminess to them, duck is served with a sweet and sour sauce. Duck à l’Orange might be one of the most famous French dishes, and this is the German version of this classic.

It’s traditional in Germany to serve duck or goose with potato dumplings and braised red cabbage. This dish is actually what for a great majority of Germans Christmas dinner looks like. It’s a perfect balance of textures and flavors: Rich, sweet, salty, acidic, tender, crispy, and chewy.

How to cook the duck

My recipe for orange duck calls for a whole duck. But I won’t roast it whole in the oven. Yes, that is possible, but I think there is so much more flavor and texture to gain by separating the duck into its individual parts.

The carcass and wings are used to cook a duck stock that will form the basis of the orange sauce. The legs are steamed until tender and then crisped up under the broiler. And the duck breasts are pan-roasted and served pink in the center.

You can trim all the excess fat and skin from the carcass of the body. It can then be rendered in a large frying pan over medium heat. It’s a delicious fat to keep for frying vegetables or potatoes.

How to cook the sauce

The orange sauce is incredibly easy to cook and comes together very quickly once you have cooked the duck stock from the carcass. In case you intend to do this recipe with duck breast or legs only, you can also use beef broth instead of duck stock.

Sherry wine and orange juice are simmered in a large saute pan until they are reduced by about two thirds. Sherry is a very nice wine to use for this sauce because of its sweet and fruity flavor. You can substitute it with Madeira or port wine in case you don’t have any on hand.

It’s important that you don’t leave your stove while the sherry and orange juice is reducing as the sauce can burn very easily. Burnt sugar is a pain in the ass to clean and produces horrible smelling smoke.

Once the sherry and orange juice mixture is reduced, you can add your duck stock. Leave the sauce again to reduce, this time by about half. Then you can thicken it with a cornstarch slurry. Always be conservative with how much cornstarch you add and rather leave the sauce too thin than too thick and gummy.

When seasoning the sauce, be generous with the amount of sherry vinegar you add. The sweetness from the orange and sherry needs to be balanced with acidity. Otherwise, you will end up with an awfully sweet sauce.

The final tablespoon of butter to finish the sauce should be swirled into the sauce just before serving and off the heat. The butter will give the sauce a nice shine and brighten the flavor.

How to serve the orange duck

You can do a lot of the prep work for this orange duck in advance. The duck stock can be made up to a week beforehand. The duck legs can be steamed a couple of days before, and the sauce can be made up to a week in advance as well.

When ready to serve, you then just need to pan-roast the duck breasts to your preferred level of doneness. While the duck breasts are resting after cooking, you can then heat up your sauce again and crisp up the duck legs under the broiler.

Serve the duck the traditional way with potato dumplings and braised red cabbage. It’s also delicious with pan-fried potatoes or a tangy coleslaw.

Crispy Orange Duck (‘Knusperente mit Orangensauce’)

December 18, 2019

by Tim

Cuisine German

Category Poultry Roast

Persons

4

Notes

Duck is traditionally served with German potato dumplings and braised red cabbage.

Ingredients

• 1 duck, about 5 pounds (2.3 kg) heavy
• salt, to taste
• 1 tablespoon canola oil, for pan-roasting the duck breasts

For the duck stock:

• 1 onion, halved
• 2 cloves
• 3 star anise
• 5 sprigs thyme
• peel of half an orange

For the sauce:

• 1 cup dry sherry
• 1 cup orange juice
• 2 cups duck stock
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• sherry vinegar, to taste
• salt, to taste
• 1 tablespoon butter

Instructions

Cut up the duck:

• Cut up the duck into seven pieces: two breasts, two legs, two wings, and the carcass. Trim away any excess fat and skin. You can render it in a pan over low heat to save the delicious duck fat.

Cook your duck stock:

• Place the duck carcass along with the two wings in a large stockpot. Stud the onion halves with the cloves and add them to the stockpot. Then add the star anise, thyme, and orange peel. Add enough water to just barely cover the duck carcass so that everything is submerged in water. Bring the water to a light simmer and cook the stock, covered, on the lowest possible heat for 1.5 hours. If using a pressure cooker, cook the stock on the high-pressure setting for 30 minutes while letting the pressure decrease naturally afterward. Strain the finished stock through a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth.

Cook your duck:

• Generously season the duck breasts and legs with salt on all sides. Place the duck legs on a steaming tray, skin-side down. Leave them to steam for 45-60 minutes, or until tender to your liking. Shortly before serving, pre-heat the broiler of your oven to its highest setting. Place the duck legs under the broiler for about 3-5 minutes to crisp up the skin and reheat them.
• Score the skin of the duck breasts with a sharp paring knife. Place them skin-side down in a cold saute pan along with a tablespoon of canola oil. Turn the heat up to medium and let the duck breasts slowly render their fat and crisp up the skin. Once they are cooked 90 % to your liking, turn them over and sear the other side briefly. Remove the duck breasts from the pan once they have reached your desired level of doneness. I recommend serving them pink with an internal temperature of 130 °F (54 °C). Let the duck breasts rest at least 10 minutes before slicing them for serving.

Cook the sauce:

• In a large saute pan, combine the sherry and orange juice. Bring the liquid up to a boil and reduce by two thirds. Be careful not to let the reduction burn! Once reduced, add the duck stock and reduce by half. Dissolve the cornstarch in a few tablespoons of water and begin to slowly drizzle the cornstarch slurry into your boiling sauce until it has thickened to your liking. It’s best to do this bit by bit so that you don’t accidentally turn your sauce into pudding. Season the thickened sauce to taste with salt and sherry vinegar. Be generous with the vinegar, the acidity is needed to balance the sweetness of the sauce. When ready to serve, whisk a tablespoon of butter into your hot, but not boiling, sauce.

Serve the duck:

• The traditional way to serve duck in Germany is with potato dumplings and braised red cabbage. If you want, you can cleave the meat across the bone Chinese-style and place it on a large serving plate to let diners serve themselves on the table.

Tags

duck,

orange

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