Good afternoon to all readers. Duck in my family is a frequent guest on the table. We buy it from relatives who breed poultry. And recently they began to sell it in stores. Many people prepare it for the holidays, baking it with oranges. But my signature dish is duck with prunes. Many housewives will ask, how to make meat soft and tasty? Can children eat duck? I will help you answer all these questions.
Fried with a golden crust, topped with fruit and topped with bright sauces, it is eaten without leaving a trace, along with a side dish of potatoes, rice or stewed cabbage. Cooking duck is not difficult - the main thing is to marinate it in advance and put it in the oven a couple of hours before serving. It is usually served on holidays: New Year, Christmas, and in my family it also decorates the table on birthdays.
Many people fail to cook duck properly, which is why it turns out fatty or tough. I noticed that the smell, which some people don’t like, is contained in fat. So before cooking, I first trim off the excess fat and glands in the tail.
The average baking time in the oven is 1.5 hours (or more). It is better to wrap the carcass in foil and open it 10 minutes before the end of cooking. This way the meat turns out soft, crispy on top and aromatic.
In this material, I have selected for you the best recipes for cooking duck meat at home, tested by me and other housewives. The selection is suitable for both a simple family dinner and a festive feast. Let's get to know them.
Soft and juicy duck with prunes and apples in the oven
For several years now, for New Year and Christmas, I have been cooking duck in the oven, stuffed with prunes and apples. Relatives and friends speak about this dish in the most positive way. The meat turns out aromatic, soft, with a slight sourness, which suits it so well.
The main secret of excellent taste is that the meat must be marinated for at least a day.
To prepare, take:
- 1 duck (approximately 1500-2000 kg);
- 2 apples;
- 100 g pitted prunes;
- ½ tsp. cinnamon;
- 100 ml apple juice;
- 50 ml cognac;
- salt, pepper - to taste.
How to cook:
1. First prepare the bird. Rinse it thoroughly with running water, remove any remaining feathers, trim off excess fat and skin in the neck area and dry with paper towels. The bird has glands in its tail, which are also best removed.
2. Then mix salt and pepper and rub outside and inside. Leave it to marinate overnight or even a day in a cool place. A couple of hours before cooking, remove the duck.
3. Prepare the apples. Wash them, cut them into large slices, removing the core and stem. Soak prunes in hot water for 5-10 minutes, rinse and dry with paper towels. Mix apples, prunes and cinnamon.
4. In a separate bowl, mix apple juice and cognac.
5. Place the duck in a baking dish and stuff it with apples and prunes. Pour about ½ part of the apple marinade for the duck inside. Using a silicone brush, brush the surface of the bird with half of the remaining mixture. This is done to give the dish a golden crispy crust.
6. Place the mold in the oven, heated to 180-200 degrees for 2 hours.
When frying, some of the fat will splatter inside the oven, so I recommend covering the meat with a “hat” of foil.
7. Every 20 minutes, baste the bird with any fat released during baking. As a result, you will get soft meat with a fruity aroma and a crispy, appetizing crust.
It is best to serve the finished dish slightly cooled, but not cold.
Jewish duck with prunes
This dish takes a long time to prepare – about 4.5 hours. Therefore, you should not take it on if you have very little time. Despite such a long cooking time, the dish turns out incredibly tender, the meat simply falls off the bone. Of course, this effect is quite easy to achieve with fresh poultry. But thanks to the recipe, you can cook deliciously even that duck that has been in the freezer for quite a long time.
To prepare, prepare duck, prunes (210 g), a couple of onions, butter, flour, pepper and salt.
Cut the carcass into pieces. To prepare such a dish, you can take individual pieces of duck, and not necessarily the whole carcass. Next, place the pan on the stove and add oil. Roll each piece in flour and fry in oil. The meat quickly forms a crust. Next, we take out the pieces and put them in a cauldron.
Now chop the onion. It can be pre-fried, or it can be added raw to the duck. During prolonged cooking, the onion will almost dissolve in any case.
We wash the prunes and add them to the duck. Pour boiling water into the cauldron (the water should be level with the meat), add pepper, salt, and spices. Boil the food for five minutes. Next, reduce the heat and prepare the dish. The duck should be stewed for about four hours. As a result, we will get the most tender and flavorful meat.
Duck with prunes and dried apricots baked whole in the sleeve
Did you know that in Moroccan restaurants this bird is served with sweet fruit sauces? For example, with orange or apricot, and even with raisins and honey. I didn’t believe my traveler friend until I tried this amazing combination of sweetness, fruit and duck meat.
Grocery list:
Step-by-step cooking recipe:
1. First prepare the sauce. Mix honey, mustard, soy sauce and juice of half a lemon in a separate bowl.
2. Rinse the cooled duck with water, dry with napkins and rub with salt both outside and inside. Then brush it with the resulting sauce.
3. Rinse apples, dried apricots and prunes in warm water. Remove the core from the apples and cut them into large slices. Stuff the duck with fruit.
4. Place the stuffed carcass in a sleeve along with the remaining apple slices and seal it tightly. Bake in the oven for about 2 hours at 180-200 degrees.
This dish is prepared quickly and will delight your family with soft meat. You can serve potatoes, rice or fresh vegetables as a side dish.
Secrets of cooking duck from experienced chefs
- To make the duck aromatic, without any foreign odors, cut off the butt before cooking;
- You will get a juicy duck if you put sweet and sour fresh berries in it, such as lingonberries and cranberries. For fruits, give preference to apples and oranges;
- If you cook the bird in foil, then about fifteen minutes before the end of cooking, remove it so that the duck is covered with a golden brown crust;
- During the cooking process, fat will be rendered from the duck; baste the duck carcass with it at short intervals;
- The easiest and healthiest way to cook is stewing in a slow cooker. It makes duck meat incredibly tender and retains all its nutritional properties;
- To avoid drying out the duck breast fillet, fry it quickly over high heat;
- Experienced chefs boil the carcass for about twenty minutes, and then cook according to the recipe;
- Cooking poultry in a cauldron, duck pot made of cast iron or tempered glass will make the meat tastier and more tender;
- The most important point in cooking duck meat is to achieve juiciness and good taste. Therefore, you need to accurately calculate the cooking time in the oven. It is recommended to allocate 45 minutes per kilogram of meat. plus 25 minutes for browning the carcass;
- It will take 90 minutes to cook the duck in pieces. in the oven, and about the same amount in a frying pan;
- Cooking meat in a frying pan should begin with marinating - the meat is rubbed with a mixture of oil, salt and pepper, then the pieces are fried in heated oil, filled with water and stewed until cooked, and as a side dish for this meat we recommend preparing wild, unpolished rice;
- The finished dish is served with a variety of side dishes, sauces, green salads and dry red wine.
Bon appetit!
Recipe for stewed duck pieces with prunes in a slow cooker
Stewed meat can be given even to children. It is easier to digest and, when prepared correctly, does not turn out greasy. Duck is rich in protein and is recommended for people with low hemoglobin levels.
Set of ingredients:
- 1 medium duck;
- 100 g prunes;
- 300 g onions;
- 1/3 tsp. nutmeg;
- 3 tbsp. honey;
- 6 tbsp. butter;
- 1 tsp coriander;
- 3 cloves of garlic;
- ½ tsp. cumin;
- ½ tsp. ground pepper;
- 3-4 pcs. bay leaf;
- salt - to taste.
Cooking steps with photos:
1. Prepare all ingredients before stewing. Chop the duck carcass into pieces and place in a deep bowl. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, cumin and coriander. Mix honey with melted butter. Cut the onion into half rings and the garlic into slices.
2. Mix the creamy honey mixture with the duck.
3. Place the ingredients in layers in the multicooker bowl. First, 1/3 of the chopped onion, then half of the duck mixed with spices and sauce, topped with garlic, bay leaf, half of the prunes. Then again a layer of onion, duck, garlic, bay leaf, prunes. And cover everything with the remaining third of the chopped onion.
4. In the multicooker, select the “Stew” program (approximate cooking time - 2 hours).
Serve the finished dish hot with rice, boiled potatoes or buckwheat porridge.
Duck roll with plums
There are many stereotypes around food, for example, that you should not combine meat with sweets. But we assure you that this is not so. Our advice: use dried fruits, pineapple, yogurt. Thanks to these components, an ordinary meatloaf will turn out amazingly tasty.
Ingredients:
- 60 g refined oil;
- 100 ml natural yogurt;
- 0.5 kg duck breast fillet;
- salt and pepper to taste;
- 150 g chopped canned pineapples;
- 200 g prunes;
- leeks for decorating rolls.
Cooking time required: 1 hour. Per 100 g serving: 368 kcal.
How to make rolls:
- Score the duck fillet and arrange it like a book. Beat the pulp, salt and pepper, brush with natural yoghurt and leave for 15 minutes;
- Prepare the filling: pineapple pieces, chop prunes into strips. Place the filling on the duck meat and form into a roll;
- Cut a thin ribbon from the leek stem and place it in boiling water to make it soft and elastic. Tie the roll with this ribbon;
- Fry the roll in hot oil on all sides, pour in a little pineapple juice from the can, and cover the frying pan with a lid. Simmer until fully cooked;
- Serve the roll on lettuce leaves and arrange pieces of pineapple and prunes around it.
Duck stuffed with buckwheat and prunes at home
The peculiarity of duck meat is its fat content. Therefore, when choosing a side dish, you should rely on cereals, potatoes or sour foods. The ideal combination is obtained with buckwheat, which absorbs fat and only becomes tastier. This dish is prepared quickly and without any hassle.
Prepare the following foods:
- 1 medium duck;
- ¾ cup buckwheat;
- 1 glass of water;
- 1 onion;
- 150 g pitted prunes;
- 4 cloves of garlic;
- 3 pcs. bay leaves;
- salt, pepper - to taste.
How to do:
1. First, boil the buckwheat by pouring a glass of cold, lightly salted water over it. Once all the moisture has been absorbed, you can turn off the heat and cover the pan with a lid.
2. In a frying pan with a small amount of vegetable oil, fry finely chopped onions.
3. Pour hot water over the prunes and leave for 20-30 minutes. Then rinse it and drain the water. Chop the prunes, dividing them into 4 parts.
4. Mix buckwheat with fried onions, prunes, pepper, and add a little more salt if necessary.
5. Cut the garlic into long slices and break the bay leaf into 3-4 pieces. Stuff the prepared, washed and dried duck with garlic and bay leaf. Using a knife, you can make punctures in the skin and insert garlic into the resulting depression.
6. Then rub the bird with salt and pepper, and add buckwheat, onions and prunes inside. Pinch the hole in the abdomen with toothpicks or skewers.
This dish is best cooked in a duck pot, but if you don’t have such utensils, then a small cauldron or deep baking dish will do.
7. Pour some hot water into the bottom of the duckling pan and place the duck. Cook for 2 hours in the oven with the lid on at 180-190 degrees. Then remove the lid and bake for another 20 minutes.
The aroma in the house will be such that an invitation to the table will not be needed!
Duck in orange juice
A festive dish like duck with prunes goes well with rice, salads, and other cereals. You can cook it in a cauldron or in a frying pan.
To do this, take: a duck carcass, orange juice (a glass), the same amount of prunes, spices, salt, butter, three onions.
Before cooking, the duck must be cut into portions. If the meat has already been frozen, you can pre-marinate it for a couple of hours in soy sauce. Next, pour oil into the pan and fry each piece until a crust appears. The meat is cooked over high heat. Next, it is removed from the pan and transferred to a separate container.
Meanwhile, fry the onion in the remaining oil, then return the meat to the pan. Pour orange juice into it, then cover the container with a lid, add prunes and simmer for an hour. Then add spices and salt, cook for another 20 minutes.
Christmas duck with apples, oranges and prunes
The version of preparing festive duck with oranges came to us from French cuisine. The main thing is to choose a carcass that is not too fatty for this dish. One bird is enough for a company of 5-6 people. Everything is eaten: delicious crispy skin, tender meat, side dish sprinkled with juice from the bird.
For the holiday dish, prepare:
- 1 medium duck;
- 4 apples;
- 2 oranges;
- 50 g prunes;
- 50 g walnuts;
- 6 cloves of garlic;
- salt, pepper - to taste.
Cooking process with photos:
1. For this dish, it is better to remove excess fat from the neck and abdomen. Rub the outside of the bird with salt and pepper, and the inside with garlic squeezed through a press.
2. Peel the apples, remove the core and cut into slices. Peel one orange too and divide into slices. Rinse the prunes in hot water and cut them. Break the walnuts. Mix everything in a bowl.
3. Fill the carcass with fruit and nut filling, close the hole in the belly with skewers or toothpicks.
4. Place the prepared bird in a deep baking dish, cover with a lid or make a lid from foil. Roast in the oven for about 2 hours, basting with the released juices every 30 minutes.
10 minutes before cooking, pour the juice of 1 orange over the meat.
Bon appetit!
Duck stuffed with prunes and rice
It is recommended to stuff fatty poultry with rice. Moreover, the product should not be used separately, but in combination with prunes.
You will need:
- 1 duck.
Filling:
- 1 bag of steamed rice;
- 10 pieces of prunes.
Marinade:
- 40 g refined oil;
- 4 garlic cloves;
- for juice half a lemon;
- season - to taste;
- bay leaf - 2 leaves.
Cooking time: 2 hours. Calorie content of 100 g serving: 348 kcal.
How to cook:
- Boil the rice a little first;
- Preheat the oven to 200ºC;
- Prepare the dressing: in a blender bowl, whisk garlic, lemon juice, refined oil, salt and pepper. Rub the outside of the duck with the resulting mixture, and rub the inside with salt and leave for 30 minutes;
- Prepare the filling: mix rice with chopped prunes;
- Stuff the bird with the filling, sew up the belly with thread or secure with wooden toothpicks;
- To prevent the legs and wings from burning, wrap them in foil;
- Place the bird breast side up on a baking sheet, add a little water and place in the oven for 1.5 hours;
- While cooking, baste the bird frequently with any fat and juices that have been released;
- Remove the foil half an hour before the end of frying;
- Place the finished duck on an oval dish and garnish with fresh parsley sprigs.
Tips for cooking roast duck in the oven
- Buy only young duck. This can be determined by pressing on the thigh with a finger. The dent should quickly return to its original position. Also, the fat should be light in color, not yellow. This is a sign of an old bird.
- The ideal size of an individual is 1.5 kg. The meat is tender, juicy and cooks quickly.
- Do not buy poultry that is hermetically sealed. After all, no one knows what is hidden under it.
- If there are any unplucked feathers left on the bird, singe them over an open fire (over a gas burner). They can also be easily removed with tweezers.
- If the pumpkin is difficult to peel, microwave it for a few minutes. This will make the skin softer and easier to cut.
- Cut the pumpkin into medium or large pieces so that when baking it does not turn into mush.
- If you find dried prunes, soak them first in warm water for 20 minutes.
