Roast Duck With Blueberry Sauce
Updated Aug. 17, 2022
- Total Time
- 4 hours 5 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1Granny Smith apple
- ½onion, peeled
- 2cups blueberries
- ½cup packed light brown sugar
- ¼cup sugar
- ½teaspoon ground star anise or 2 whole star anise
- Grated zest of 1 lime
- Grated zest of 1 orange
- ½cup white wine vinegar
- 2whole ducks, trimmed of excess fat, giblets discarded
For the Blueberry Sauce
For the Ducks
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Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare blueberry sauce: Peel, quarter and core apple. Place in a food processor with onion and finely chop. Place in a saucepan with blueberries, sugars, star anise, zests and vinegar.
- Step 2
Place mixture over high heat to bring to a boil, then simmer until pulpy and beginning to thicken, about 30 minutes. (Mixture will be quite liquid after 20 minutes, but begins to thicken by 30 minutes, and will thicken more once cold.)
- Step 3
If whole star anise were used, remove and discard them. Transfer sauce to a sterilized jar, cover and allow to cool. For best flavor, allow to rest one day before serving. (Makes 1 generous cup.)
- Step 4
Prepare ducks: Heat oven to 325 degrees. Place ducks on a rack in a roasting pan. Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours, periodically draining off fat in pan. Raise heat to 400 degrees, and roast an additional 30 minutes to crisp skin.
- Step 5
To serve, remove ducks from oven and place on a carving board. Cut each duck into four pieces. Cut away meat from rib cage, discarding rib bones. Arrange on a serving platter, crispy skin side up. Serve with blueberry sauce.
- Ground star anise is $3.50 an ounce at Adriana's Caravan in Grand Central Market: (800) 316-0820.
Private Notes
Comments
I really enjoyed making this dish. I did decrease the cooking time for the duck since I like it pink. The blueberry sauce was the real kicker. Please do not skip the sauce!
This was a hit at Thanksgiving! I personally like a well done duck, so this recipe was spot on! I did make sure to continue to pierce the skin throughout the cooking process in order to drain as much fat as possible. Bonus: This recipe, when cooked as written, resulted in approx 1 cup of beautifully rendered duck fat~!
This has become my standard method for cooking duck. The sauce is almost a chutney, and complements the rich duck perfectly.
This was fantastic. Used two opened jars of blueberry jam, and a package of frozen. Didn't have limes, so zested a satsuma and a lemon. Didn't have an apple, or anise, didn't miss it. Used onion powder! (I'm too old to be embarrassed). Used 1/4 cup white sugar, the jam had enough. The vinegar is an absolute must, and I added a dash of salt. DELISH. It does get perfectly thick when cooled, and definitely better the next day.
I make the sauce often, to go with confit duck legs or pan seared breast. The sauce freezes very well. While best made according to the recipe, in a pinch you really can use any sort of apple, frozen blueberries, and different sugar. Just be mindful of the sweetness/tartness of your substitutions and try to balance. This time I didn't want to get out the food processor, so I coarsely grated the apple and finely chopped the onion. I liked the final texture.
Since we are two light eaters, I made this with duck breast rather than roast duck. I hate things that taste like licorice and skipped the star anise all together. Very nice dish. It is important to let the sauce mellow for a day as suggested. The taste improved markedly.
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