On the last No Reservations Anthony Bourdain pan fries some duck breast for duck hunters in the Ozarks that don’t like to eat the birds they hunt. It looked simple and amazing so I tried to make it myself. Since it was on a Friday night and we were drinking I decided to blanch some asparagus to go along with it. If you didn’t know asparagus helps alleviate hangovers and protects liver cells so some fatty, crispy duck breast and asparagus definitely makes a great drinking buddy.
To blanch asparagus trim the bottoms and if you want, peel some of the stock off.
Boil for 2-3 minutes.
Then shock in ice water.
Add sea salt and pepper.
For the duck, salt and pepper both sides and let rest covered in room temperature for 30 minutes.
Place the breast skin side down on a heated pan with a little olive oil on medium heat. The pan shouldn’t be too hot because you want the fat to render, skin to get crispy and not burn. Make sure you constantly spoon out the fat from the pan so the skin gets nice and crispy. Cook for about 10 minutes.
Flip and cook for another 5 minutes.
Let rest for 5 minutes.
Slice thin at an angle.
Add asparagus.
I saw the same show with Anthony Bourdain but had forgotten exactly what he did. I followed this recipe tonight using wood ducks and it was absolutely awesome. We like duck anyway, but we were stunned at how great the flavor was cooking it this way. Our ducks had less fat than the ones the author used and all of the fat rendered out leaving a beautiful crispy skin. I’ll never cook duck any other way after trying this method.