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Recipe 15

Wild duck with Chanterelle Cream Sauce and Boiled Potatoes

Skinless wild-duck breast seared like a lean steak, served with a savoury chanterelle cream sauce and boiled potatoes. The recipe assumes 300–400 g of sorsa breast; use temperature rather than fixed cooking time if the pieces are unusually small or thin.

Yield
2
Time
50 minutes

Complete recipe

Read from start to finish.

Before you start

Ingredients

Wild duck

  • 300–400 g skinless wild duck breasts
  • 3–4 g fine salt, approximately 1% of the meat's weight
  • Black pepper
  • 15 ml neutral oil
  • 10 g butter
  • 1 small thyme sprig, optional

Chanterelle sauce

  • 200–250 g fresh chanterelles
  • 1 shallot or small yellow onion, finely chopped
  • 1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
  • 15 g butter
  • 1 lightly crushed juniper berry, optional
  • 40 ml dry sherry or 25 ml cognac or brandy, optional
  • 100 ml unsalted chicken or game stock
  • 150 ml whipping cream
  • ½ tsp fresh thyme leaves, or a small pinch of dried thyme
  • 5 ml lemon juice, plus more if needed
  • 2 tbsp chopped chives or parsley
  • Salt and black pepper

Potatoes

  • 500–600 g potatoes
  • Salt

Recipe notes

Notes

Doneness and food safety

There is a real trade-off between the culinary target for tender sorsa and conservative official poultry guidance:

  • Pink and tender: remove the breast at 53–55°C and rest it to approximately 56–59°C. This is the common game-cookery approach, but it does not meet conservative official poultry guidance.
  • Conservative official target: cook pieces of duck or wild waterfowl to 74°C. After browning, lower the heat or transfer the breasts to a 150°C oven and remove at approximately 72°C so carryover cooking brings them to 74°C. Skinless breast will be noticeably drier at this temperature.

Use the conservative target if the meat's handling history is uncertain, it has extensive shot damage, or it is being served to someone pregnant, elderly, immunocompromised or otherwise at higher risk from foodborne illness.

Technique

  • Skinless wild duck lacks the protective fat of a domestic skin-on duck breast. Added oil, a fast sear, butter basting and accurate temperature control are therefore more useful than prolonged cooking.
  • Cook the chanterelles until their released liquid has evaporated before adding cream. Otherwise the sauce becomes watery and the mushrooms do not brown.
  • Skip marinades unless the meat has a genuinely unpleasant flavour. Good duck benefits more from advance salting and careful cooking.

9 steps

Method

Step 1 of 9

  1. Prepare the duck. Inspect the wild duck. Remove any pellets, feather fragments, silver skin and heavily bloodshot or bruised meat. Salt the breasts evenly and leave them at room temperature for 30 minutes. Very small breasts need only 15–20 minutes. Pat completely dry before cooking.

Step 2 of 9

  1. Start the potatoes. Put the potatoes in a saucepan with cold, well-salted water. Bring to a gentle boil and cook until tender, usually 15–20 minutes. Drain and let them steam-dry under the lid while everything else finishes.

Step 3 of 9

  1. Concentrate the chanterelles. Tear large chanterelles into bite-sized pieces and leave small ones whole. Put them in a wide, dry frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook for 4–7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they release their water and the liquid evaporates completely. Add about 5 g of the butter and cook for another minute, until lightly golden. Transfer the mushrooms to a plate.

Step 4 of 9

  1. Sear the duck. Wipe the pan if necessary and heat it over medium-high to high heat. Add the oil. Once hot but not smoking, add the breasts without crowding. Sear the first side for approximately 2–3 minutes without moving it. Turn and cook the second side for 1–2 minutes. Add 10 g butter and the thyme sprig during the final minute and spoon the foaming butter over the meat. Check the centre with an instant-read thermometer; see the temperature note below.

Step 5 of 9

  1. Rest the meat. Transfer the duck to a warm plate and rest it loosely covered for 7–10 minutes. Reserve all resting juices.

Step 6 of 9

  1. Build the sauce. Lower the pan to medium heat. Keep the brown fond but wipe out anything genuinely black. Add the remaining 10 g butter, shallot and optional juniper. Cook for 2–3 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and thyme and cook for 30 seconds.

Step 7 of 9

  1. Deglaze and reduce. Add the sherry or brandy, scrape the pan and reduce until nearly dry. Add the stock and reduce by roughly half, about 2–4 minutes.

Step 8 of 9

  1. Finish the sauce. Add the cream and cooked chanterelles. Simmer gently for 3–5 minutes, until the sauce coats a spoon. Stir in the sorsa's resting juices, lemon juice and herbs. Taste before adding salt, then finish with black pepper. If too thick, loosen with a tablespoon of potato water. If heavy or flat, add a few more drops of lemon rather than more salt.

Step 9 of 9

  1. Serve. Slice the duck against the grain immediately before serving. Spoon the chanterelle sauce beside and partially underneath it, leaving some browned surface exposed. Serve with the boiled potatoes, extra sauce and a dash of finger salt.

Recipe preview

9 steps

A few ingredients

  • 300–400 g skinless wild duck breasts
  • 3–4 g fine salt, approximately 1% of the meat's weight
  • Black pepper
  • 15 ml neutral oil
  • 10 g butter

The opening moves

  1. 01

    Prepare the duck. Inspect the wild duck. Remove any pellets, feather fragments, silver skin and heavily blood...

  2. 02

    Start the potatoes. Put the potatoes in a saucepan with cold, well-salted water. Bring to a gentle boil and c...

  3. 03

    Concentrate the chanterelles. Tear large chanterelles into bite-sized pieces and leave small ones whole. Put...

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