Go to the Recipe: Sous Vide Duck Breast With Ultra-Crispy Skin
I've never tried this technique, but: if you dry out your duck skin in the fridge (a la Pekin duck or perfect roasted chicken) will the skin rehydrate if you cook it sous vide?
Are you guys fully rendering the skin before cooking it in the circulator? Or literally giving it a hard sear?
Would like to know myself, hopefully Chefsteps will chime in. In the old Julia Child shows there is a very large quantity of fat on farm raised duck and when I have roasted it I took out as much body fat as possible.
I've found that rendering the skin for ~7-8 minutes (bringing the pan from cold to medium/high heat) before cooking sous vide produces a very crispy skin that does not cook into the actual meat.
Don't hard sear like you would a steak. You should sear sous vide duck slowly, starting in a cold pan over medium heat. This gives the fat a chance to render by the time the skin is crispy. The fat insulates the meat from cooking further and it turns out perfectly.
The article should have made plain that Muscovy duck breasts were used. Peking duck breasts are a whole nother animal.
Well that's interesting, I usually put my duck breast skin down in a hot pan - OK, I'll try that. Thanks
Can I pre sear the skin and bag the duck then sous vide and post sear the next day?
you can, you just need to reheat it sous vide before searing.
What do you suggest for a sauce ???
Cherry is a common sauce with duck.
Drying out the skin in the fridge works well. I also use a kitchen torch for the first sear. Easy
I tried this recipe and it came out awesome. Got Peking duck breasts from Restaurant Depot, trimmed them, scored them, seasoned with salt and pepper. Seared skin side down in an iron skillet for 2 minuets and 1 minute on the other side. Placed them in vacuum bags with some thyme sprigs and a few drops of liquid smoke. Placed them in sous vide 135 degrees for 2.5 hours. Seared skin side for two minutes, and sliced. Could not get the kale salad thing to work, instead used Arugula and spring greens with a lemon vinaigrette from Epicurious with stone ground mustard. Used the Sweet potato puree with all of the suggestions: maple syrup, cumin, butter, half and half, and salt and pepper. Everyone raved about the meal. Thanks for the recipe and suggestions.
Should the fat be discarded between sears, or should I leave the fat from the first sear to use for the second sear?
I have a whole duck that I want to cut into halves, sear, sous vide, then crisp on the grill. Any suggestions on timing for sous vide for a side of duck?
Was the skin crisp or rubbery?
leave the fat for sure and use it for the second sear
For a quick, easy sauce, you can also reduce 1 cup of port wine (or Madeira) over low-medium heat for about 15 minutes.
I love it so much cooking sous vide give a really sample way to cook as a grand chef
can i sous vide it and sear and serve it the following day?
this was fantastic! I also did slight variation and used a rub of five spice (Lebanese one time and Chinese the next) and let it marinate overnight or for a few hours. I also coated with kosher salt as well.
Any guidance on cook time for duck breasts on the bone?
Basically I’m trying to understand the duration difference between this and Joule’s Duck Confit recipe that circulates for 16 hours.
I would use the joule guide for "Perfectly cooked, crispy-skinned duck breast and add 30 min to the cook time.
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I pre-seared it before SV, and seared once before I serve and the skin didn't crisp up. it was a bit chewy. I didn't want to sear longer because I was afraid of over cooking and it looked dark brownish and I didn't want to burn in. Any tips? What am I doing wrong here? My pan was very hot before duck went in for both times. I read online some people recommend starting with a cold pan and cook it slowly, but I am not sure how that would go with an already cooked SV duck breast.
hello, is 1.30 hours not too long? Thank you
Nope. You won’t overcook in souls vide unless you leave it for 24 hours plus. Even then the internal temp will be the same but it will taste more like a braised duck than a 135 degree medium rare duck. Although it will still have an internal temp of 135. Personally I like to score, sear, chill, sear, sous vide, sear and serve. Even crispier.
Sounds like you either didn’t get the pan screaming hot, didn’t dry the skin out enough, or both.
First comment in 8 years :-) This guy is amazing; simple and complete instructions with, in this case, succulent accompaniment out of the ordinary, keep going CS
Hi! Is it possible to presear, cook sousvide , chill, store and then sear again before serving? Have you ever tried this way? Or in that case it would be better to cook sous vide without pre searing and then sear when ready to serve? Thanks!!!
Hey Mariela. We do like pre-searing before cooking sous vide, thats actually the method I use in this recipe. But your question about chilling leads me to assume you're asking if this is the most efficient method of cooking if reheating later on. Am I correct in assuming that? If I was looking to prepare duck breasts in advance to serve later in the day or days later I would pre-sear the breasts and allow them to chill in the fridge uncovered for about 30 min. Once cool transfer to sous vide bag. They can hold in the bag for a couple days no problem. When it come time to serve I would cook them sous vide and finish with the post-sear.
I prefer cooking them this way because if they are cooked sous vide in advance, and chilled. It will still take about 60-90 min to reheat them sous vide again before post searing.
What temps/times should we use on a Control Freak for pre-searing?
