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Roasted Duck Legs with Porter Cherry Sauce

Roasted Duck with Porter Cherry Sauce

I didn’t grow up in a cooking household. With two working parents and seven sisters it was more of a defrost and feed the masses situation. It was culinary triage every day.

I never saw a head of garlic, or a homemade cake, or real whipped cream my entire childhood. The focus was on feeding the herd of people who lived at my house, while still trying to pay the bills. Homemade fancy sunday supper wasn’t at the top of that hierarchy of needs.

Which is why meals like this mean so much to me. Being able to throw my figurative heart and soul into a meal, take a few hours doing it, and serve it to people I care about. Even if it’s on a Tuesday night.

Especially if it’s on a Tuesday night.

Roasted Duck with Porter Cherry Sauce2

Roasted Duck Legs with Porter Cherry Sauce

Ingredients
  

  • ¼ cup rendered duck fat can sub olive oil, divided
  • 4 duck legs skin on
  • salt and pepper
  • ¼ cup chopped shallots
  • 3 cloves garlic grated with a microplane
  • ½ cup porter beer
  • 10 wt oz 1 ½ cupsdark sweet cherries, fresh or frozen (such as bing)
  • ¼ tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tbs honey

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 375.
  • Heat 2 tablespoons duck fat (or olive oil) in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat.
  • Sprinkle the duck skin with salt and pepper.
  • Place the duck legs into the hot pan, skin side down, cook until skin has browned, about 6 minutes. Flip the duck legs overs.
  • Place the cast iron skillet in the oven for 1 ½ to 2 hours or until the duck reaches 165F degrees. (If you don’t have a large enough cast iron skillet, just brown the duck legs and then transfer them, skin side up, to a baking dish). You can reduce the oven to 200 and keep the duck in the oven until ready to serve for up to 1 hour. To crisp the skin back up (of it becomes soft in the oven), preheat the broiler and place the duck under the broiler for a few minutes, keeping a very close eye to make sure the duck doesn’t burn.
  • While the duck is cooking make the cherry sauce. In a pot over medium high heat add the remaining 2 tablespoons duck fat. Add the shallots and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic. Add the porter, cherries, smoked paprika, black pepper and honey. Allow to boil, stirring frequently, until thickened, about 8 minutes.
  • Spoon the sauce over the duck just prior to serving, or serve alongside.

I use this Duck Fat (affiliate link) because it’s well priced and good quality. A little goes a long way so one jar will last a while. Also, if you cook duck in duck fat, you can save the rendered fat for later use. Like these potatoes, or this Duck Confit.

I also use this Microplane (affiliate link) all the time. Perfect for grating garlic in seconds, much easier than mincing with a knife.

Roasted Duck with Porter Cherry Sauce3

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Comments


Penny March 19, 2014 um 5:29 am

This sounds absolutely delicious Jackie. The great thing is that I have some duck fat in my freezer that I brought home from France last summer. Now if I can just find the duck legs and bing cherries, I will be set to go. Thanks for another great recipe. We tried your chicken thighs with rosemary tomato beer sauce and loved it.

Reply

Marie @ Not Enough Cinnamon.com March 19, 2014 um 11:00 pm

Seven sisters? Wow, that must have been a lot of work for your parents!
This recipe looks absolutely divine. Duck is one of my favorite meat! I love that it’s both fancy AND easy. Perfect in my book!

Reply

addie | culicurious March 26, 2014 um 7:56 am

Duck is such a wonderful tasting meat – it’s my favorite poultry. Plus it’s even better paired with that delicious looking porter cherry sauce! 🙂

Reply

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