With my little list of meals that I still wanted to try and cook this year, I made plans for Duck Confit on Christmas Day. So I went out and bought a whole duck. Having been shown how to butcher the bird once in person and watching several videos online, I was feeling skeptical but ready to try it on my own. On the morning of Christmas Eve, I got out the bird and tried my best to separate all of that meat from the bones.
The duck legs were meant to sit in some herbs overnight for the Confit on Christmas Day, so the legs and the wings went into a dish, then into the fridge. The breasts, requiring a different method of cooking, I decided to cook separately for lunch. Following the directions, we scored the fat and slowly cooked the meat fat side down for best temperature and flavor.
We threw in some clementine slices and a raspberry chipotle sauce as the dressing for our salad. I thought it turned out pretty good! The duck breasts were cooked over, based on all of the information I read and the medium rare it was supposed to be. But we both still really enjoyed the flavor, and I think we may have even felt better eating the meat cooked a little more than recommended.
Other than the butchering part (which I'm pretty sure I did very poorly), this was pretty darn easy. It just took some patience and attention to turn out a delicious duck breast.
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