Southern Fried Duck Breasts

These are pan fried duck breasts with a mushroom tarragon cream sauce.

Ingredients:

 

4 duck breasts

 

Peanut oil

Olive oil

Red wine vinegar

White wine

Garlic, crushed

 

Salt, pepper, paprika, tarragon

All purpose Flour

 

Mushrooms

½ Large Onion, sweet

Butter

Garlic, sliced

 

White wine vinegar

White wine

Sherry, dry

½-1 cup cream

 

Procedure:

Marinate the duck breasts for 4-8 hours ahead of time in olive oil, peanut oil, red wine vinegar, white wine, and crushed garlic.

Combine a dredging mix of flour, salt, pepper, paprika (sweet), and tarragon.  Be liberal with the herbs and spices.

Finely chop the onion, then sweat the onion, 3-5 sliced garlic cloves, and the mushrooms at low heat in a covered skillet for 10-12 minutes, with 2 tablespoons of butter.  Add salt, pepper, and lots of tarragon.  Turn the heat up at the end of this period, and caramelize the onions.  Scrap this mixture from the pan and set aside, but don’t clean the pan.

Add peanut oil (I used refined and a few dashes of unrefined) to the skillet and turn on medium high heat.  The oil should come up to about 1/3^rd, but less than ½ the height of the duck breasts.

Dredge the duck breasts through the flour mix, coating them thoroughly, and lay into the hot oil.  Brown 6-8 minutes on each side, then remove from the oil and place into an oven pan in a 350 degree oven while you finish the rest.

Pour out all but about 2 tablespoons of oil, scraping out any large amounts of flour coating that remain.  Deglaze the pan with white wine and a little white wine vinegar, add a couple tablespoons of butter, and add the onion/mushroom/garlic mixture back in.  Pour in the cream and the sherry; bring to a boil, and then turn down to a simmer.  Taste and season, adding more herbs or spices as desired.  Reduce to desired thickness.

I plated the duck breasts, slicing off a few thin slices to lay by the rest.  We had mashed potatoes and baby butter beans.  I ladled the mushroom tarragon cream sauce over the duck breast (ok, AND the mashed potatoes).

 

Tags: Cooking, Duck, Food, North Carolina, Recipes, Southern