Stove-Top Sous Vide Duck Recipe - Doing Sous Vide at Home with No Special Equipment

hello this is chef john from food wishes calm with stovetop sous-vide duck breast that's right we're going to use the same technique all those star chefs are using on TV and we're going to do it on the stove with no special equipment it works unbelievably well anyone can do it and produces a duck breast that is stunningly delicious ok so I have two large duck breasts boneless but you have to have the skin on okay don't worry about trimming anything it's fine as is those are about 8 ounces each nice big ones before we start we're going to have to take a really sharp knife and make really really shallow slashes through the skin do not do not cut down to the meat you only want about a sixteenth of an inch just through that top layer of fat if you think you're going to cut into the meat don't do it so after all those cuts are made we're going to salt that generously on the skin side we're going to flip it salt and pepper the other side also generously and then add some fresh thyme leaves all right time natural wood duck all right once our duck has been prepped and seasoned I'm going to put it in a heavy-duty freezer bag or you're gonna have to have one that seals really well so no dollar store specials use a really nice name-brand sealable freezer bag alright we're going to push those down into the corner as tight as they get you can seal it shut almost all the way and then we're simply going to squeeze out the air with our hands we only need enough air out of it so it doesn't float okay squeeze all the air you can out and then finish sealing it alright so that method with your hands will work if you want to get a little extra fancier you can use a drinking straw alright so just stick the straw in one end seal it almost all the way suck out the air by the way I have no idea if sucking raw duck air is dangerous so you know it's your own risk and then you can seal it okay I'm going to refrigerate that for one hour sort of a little marination period while I set up my other stuff so we're going to put those in the fridge the rest of the stuff very basic all right a large heavy pot like this Dutch oven filled with water a very accurate thermometer and I like to put a silicon hot pad at the bottom just for a little insulation I've done this without that and it totally worked but that makes me feel a little better versus having that plastic bag against the bottom probably doesn't matter bring that up to 135 okay put in the duct and you can see because we got most of the air out it sinks which also by the way I think in the olden times this would have meant the duct was a witch or something like that all right at this point we're going to set our timer for one hour and then for the next hour here's all you have to do make sure your temperature stays between 130 and 140 for me the lowest setting on my burner stays right about there okay so you might have to just you know go up a little go down a little but you need to keep it right about 135 for that hour okay now normal sous-vide machines come with circulators for this amount of meat that's not a big deal once in a while maybe I'll you know move the bag like this to sort of move the water around let's say you did a little adjustment with more heat and went up too far to throw some cold water and it'll come right back down quick okay so you're going to be surprised it's not very hard to keep that at a constant 135 all right at least it wasn't for me so the idea here is we're bringing our duck up to temperature up to the internal temperature we want really slowly really gently the water is the temperature we want the inside of the meat to be the water is at 135 we keep it in here long enough the duck gets 135 and because it happens so gently it makes for an incredible texture and a minimum loss of juice after the hour turn off the heat now you can leave it in this hot water while you get the rest of your stuff together in fact this was like 15 minutes later and it still was like it 125 now check this out since this cooks so slowly and gently very very little moisture escaped to finish we're going to crisp this skin like severely so for that we need to dry this really well make sure you pat dry the skin another application of kosher salt we're going to take a heavy-duty skillet with just a little bit of vegetable oil or grapeseed oil or something that has a pretty high smoke point just a little bit get it hot put in the duck breast skin side down let that render on medium heat for five minutes okay don't worry about it overcooking the skin the fat and the skin is going to insulate the duck breast and five minutes later you're going to turn that over for one minute and this is one of the most magnificent sights in all cooking crispy crackly duck skin and look at that is that just the most beautiful thing you've ever seen and forget about look at listen to this I'm really sorry for that alright now we're almost done slice it and you're going to find the most incredible juiciest unbelievably succulent duck meat in the history of the universe in fact let me focus this look at that it's a perfect temperature if this was at 135 when we started searing it it might be at 140 now I serve mine with a really simple peach sweet-and-sour sauce which I will demo and then oh my I'm having a hard time narrating this part because I'm just almost beside myself with how delicious this is crispy skin thin layer of that buttery duck fat underneath the crispy skin then that meat that's just beyond description and I know it looks pink and some of you are freaking out it's not done it's totally done totally save an hour at 135 according to my research plenty of time to kill anything bad all right I really hope you splurge get a couple duck breasts they're not cheap but when you use this technique I guarantee you're gonna say that was worth every penny all right I hope you give it a try this is just one of the first experiments we've done with sous-vide we're gonna do a lot more I have not been this excited about a technique in a long time go to the site tons more info there as well as the ingredients and as always enjoy

Channel: Food Wishes

Views: 724,979

Rating: 4.9339499 out of 5

Keywords: Stove, Top, Sous, Vide, Duck, Breast, Recipe, Home, Special, Equipment, game, chef, john, foodwishes, food, cooking, Allrecipes, recipe, recipes, Sous Vide Duck, how to, how to make, how to cook, make, cook, learn, Sous Vide, main dish, dinner, easy, simple, delicious

Id: TJQQPKLMwAg

Length: 6min 37sec (397 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 05 2011

Reddit Comments

[u/IAreSeriousCat]

Oooh. This is the first thing I've seen that makes me want to try duck (which I usually stay away from, because I love ducks). That looks absofuckinglutely delicious, and easy.