Duck Breasts with Balsamic Berry Sauce

When you want to feel all fancy for your meal, but don’t have time, make this. You will look like you just attended a cooking class all weekend and they won’t know any different. Make sure you watch how long you sear your duck breast – medium to medium rare is ideal.

Print Recipe
5 from 2 votes

Duck Breasts with Balsamic Berry Sauce

Ingredients

  • 4 large duck breast fillets skin on or off
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 cup cheap red wine
  • 2 garlic cloves minced
  • 1 tablespoon plum preserves or brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves minced (optional)
  • 3 tablespoons chilled butter cut into 3 pieces
  • 1 1/2 cups fresh berries frozen will do also

Instructions

  • Season duck breasts with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add duck breasts and brown on one side. Flip over and cook for 1 minute. Add balsamic vinegar and next 3 ingredients. Remove duck breasts when just medium-rare and keep warm. Add rosemary and reduce liquid in pan to about 1/4 cup. Taste liquid and add more vinegar or plum preserves to suit your taste. Too sour? Add more preserves. Too sweet? Add more vinegar.
  • Whisk in butter until melted. Stir in berries. Slice duck and arrange on plates. Spoon sauce over.

3 Comments

  1. Tom on February 2, 2020 at 9:03 am

    5 stars
    Excellent recipe. So far I have had great success with this recipe with a wide variety of duck species, from puddlers to divers. Even a scoter!

    The recipe is a bit confusing when you first try it but it still works. I went ahead and rewrote and simplified the directions. Like adding the next “three ingredients” WTH? When you have things going in the pan the last thing you need to do is start counting down the ingredients to get to the next “three”. Wait, is that the third or fourth? 😉

    • Scott Leysath on February 2, 2020 at 11:51 am

      Glad you like the recipe, except perhaps the way it’s written 🙂

  2. Lane on February 1, 2022 at 10:11 pm

    5 stars
    We cooked this tonight. The family loved it! Quick and easy. We used wood duck and blue berries. Excellent!

Leave a Comment

Recipe Rating