Duck Creole
Making a traditional Creole, whether it is made with duck, chicken, shrimp, etc., requires a fair amount of time to properly make the stocks and slowly simmer the ingredients. If I gave you the long version, most of you wouldn’t bother to cook it so it wouldn’t do much good. Here’s the simplified version that does taste great, but you can improve the flavor by making your own stock out of roasted duck parts and vegetables. The recipe calls for “Cajun spice”, but you can make your own by blending red, white and black pepper along with some onion powder, garlic powder and salt.
Duck Creole
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 cups boneless duck breast skin removed; cut across the “grain” into 1-inch strips
- 3 tablespoons Cajun spice
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup yellow onion diced
- 1 cup celery diced
- 3/4 cup green bell pepper diced
- 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 cups chicken or duck! stock or broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
- 1 1/2 cups peeled and diced tomato drained (canned O.K.)
- 2/3 cup canned tomato sauce
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 4 cups warm cooked rice
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season duck pieces with Cajun spice and add to skillet. Sear duck evenly until well browned. Remove duck from skillet. Add butter, onion, celery and bell pepper to skillet and sauté until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Return duck to skillet and add Tabasco, garlic, chicken stock, bay leaves, thyme and basil. Simmer for 1 hour, covered. Add tomato, tomato sauce and sugar. Simmer until duck is tender and sauce has thickened to your liking. I like it about the thickness of a marinara sauce. Adjust seasonings. Serve over warm rice.