Duck Breast with Apple-Pomegranate Sauce
Prep = 25 min; Inactive = 6 min; Cook = 30 min; 2 servings
Ingredients
Duck:
- 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
- 2 duck breasts, skin on
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- Salt
Sauce:
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, divided
- 1/4 cup pomegranate juice
- 1 Pink Lady apple (or other crisp, firm apple) peeled, cored, and finely diced
- 1/4 onion, finely diced
- Pinch sugar, if needed
Directions
Heat a medium saute pan over medium-high heat and add the oil.
Cut a crosshatch pattern into the skin of the duck breasts. Be careful to not cut through to the flesh.
Season the skin side with the curry and the flesh side with salt. Place in the pan, skin side down. Cook on the skin side to render of some of the fat and crisp up the skin, 5 to 7 minutes. Once the skin is crisp, flip the breasts, reduce the heat to medium, and cook on the flesh side for about 4 minutes for medium-rare. Once cooked, remove from the pan and allow the meat to rest for 5 minutes.
Make the sauce in the same pan used for the duck. (Wipe out the pan if you have burned bits on the bottom, and add some butter.) Place the pan over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon butter. Deglaze the pan with the pomegranate juice. Allow the juice to simmer and reduce by half. Turn off the heat and stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Taste and season with a pinch of sugar if the sauce tastes too tart.