What to serve with duck breast is a topic that not a lot of people have had the chance to explore, as duck is not the most common protein to use. Learn about the best pairings best served with duck breast, some ideas, and simple enough that anyone can do them.
Here are some of my favorite tips:
Make use of the duck fat
No matter how you cook the duck breast, you will end up with a lot of duck fat that was rendered. This fat is unique in its flavor and one does not really get us to use it in other normal conditions. You may use it as:
- Substitute butter instead of duck fat if you are doing mashed potatoes
- Sauté your veggies with duck fat instead of regular oil
- use the duck fat and juices to make a rice pilaf with it.
As you are exploring the same taste profile, why not make use of it?
Also, if you are thinking to make use of it later, the only thing that i have noticed is that after a couple of days it does not taste the same (as it may be related to the herbs and other fats in it) so beware!
Have a robust red wine
Anything that you do with duck, has the tendency to be on the red meat side. So always think about a nice heavy full-bodied wine. Now obviously, I am not a big wine expert and different duck dishes should be paired with different wines, but we are not that fancy here, so
- Pinot Noir just works and you can find varieties with a fair price
- Merlot as well is great but I personally am not a fan of them
- Barolo, which is on the expensive side is also a great choice
Now you can also pair it with white, just make sure that the sides that you are serving it with are on the light side
Have a nice refreshing salad
With all those sides and red wine, a nice refreshing salad is a palate cleanser. Think very simple here.
- Greens with olive oil and lemon dressing or even
- arugula with parmesan, some cherry tomatoes and balsamic.
It will be a great change of pace and make you enjoy the duck meat even more.
Have a sweet tangy sauce to go with it
I like a simple orange sauce. This is the juice of two oranges, the zest of one, 2 tablespoons of sugar and you thicken it with corn starch in the end. Read here about the orange sauce.
You can use almost any fruit that has a bit of acid to it. From strawberries to blueberries. You are making a sort of lovely simplified jam with it. I like the orange sauce as opposed to berries as it is easier to make and you do not need to strain everything from the berry seeds.
The heaviness of the duck goes wonderfully with the tanginess of this sauce. A must-have in my opinion
That’s it. I hope this answers the question of what to serve with duck breast.
