When it comes to cooking duck recipes, a seared, late-season skin on duck halves is just about one of the best things you can have. There’s a reason people call rendered duck fat liquid gold. If you aren’t plucking at least a handful of those fat late-season mallards and puddle ducks, you’re either just lazy or you don’t know how to cook. Either way, it’s a shame. There is an absolute night-and-day difference between a skin-on-the-breast and a skin-off-breast, especially when you’re cooking it as a steak. I’ve watched so many people’s minds explode after they realize just how different and how much better skin on duck is. Now, that being said, there is always a place for the skin-off recipes like our duck wontons. During early-season, I like to take skinless breasts because those early ducks haven’t had a chance to pack on the fat yet. But by mid to late season, I really start to see mallards and other puddlers beefing up on calories and building up those fat reserves.
Moving onto the recipe, this is about as simple as it gets ingredient and prep-wise. All we need is some skin on mallard breasts, a little bit of oil, and, of course, our cajun garlic butter seasoning. I’m using Heath Riles: Cajun Creole Garlic Butter Rub but as for any recipe, feel free to use the rubs/seasonings you like. This cajun creole garlic butter seasoning is in my top 5 rotation for sure though. I’ve used it on everything from chicken to steak to shrimp, and it’s just a solid and savory seasoning. Additionally, for this recipe, I’ll be using the Classic Tabletop Griddle. For most steak recipes, I prefer to use a grill, but for duck specifically, I really enjoy using a flattop griddle to help that steak cook in all that beautiful duck fat as it renders out of the skin. Alright, enough jibber-jabber, time to throw on the chef hat, crack open a cold one, and whip up some of the best ducks you’ll ever try.
Ingredients
- Skin on duck breasts (I spatchcock mine with the legs on)
- Cajun creole garlic butter seasoning
- Oil
Instructions
1. First things first, let’s get that Loco Cookers Griddle heated up to between 375-400 degrees Fahrenheit. I vacuum bag my duck meat, so I’ve also had that in a bowl of cold water to thaw out and let it come up to room temperature. Duck breasts will always shrink when you cook them but if you pre-heat your cooking surface and let your meat come to room temp, you’ll see less of a drastic shrink when you put your meat on the heat. Cold meat and hot cook surfaces are not what we are after.
2. While my griddle is heating up, it’s time to prep our duck. If your plucking job wasn’t the best when you cleaned your bird, this is a chance for you to be diligent. You can pull or burn off any pin feathers or thin down feathers that may still be on the skin. Lots of people like to score the skin of a duck to help get an even cook so that the skin doesn’t shrivel up. This is a great technique to use, but I’ve found it isn’t always necessary, especially if you have any rips or tears in the skin from cleaning your birds, so do what feels right to you.
3. Now it’s time to get our seasoning on. Use a pretty liberal amount and just make sure both sides are coated well.
4. After your griddle comes up to temperature, you can add a little oil (just to coat the surface), and it’s time to get our duck on–look at that, we’re almost done.
5. Place your duck skin side down to let all of that delicious fat render out. After a few minutes, that fat should be pretty rendered out of the skin, and you should have a good crust. Time to flip these suckers over and finish this cook-off. Now unlike how a lot of people say you should cook duck, I don’t like my duck super rare. Medium rare is my jam. When you cook duck like this at the right temperature and with the skin on, it’s perfect. The fat in the skin imparts so much flavor, and this recipe is perfect for a quick weeknight dinner or the perfect weekend appetizer at a BBQ.
