Crispy Roasted Duck Breast

When Kevin and I were on our honeymoon we got Chef Mickey: Treasures From the Vault & Delicious New Favorites as one of our souvenirs. At the time it seemed like only a couple of the recipes we really difficult, I mean come on a recipe that has ingredients on the sides of two whole pages ain't nobody got time for that! We ended up choosing this recipe since it didn't seem too difficult ... at the time! I know I usually just add my notes throughout the recipe but since they're a little more involved this time head right to the bottom!

Crispy Roasted Duck Breast With Marquise Potatoes

Duck
6-8 lb. fresh or frozen duck*
1 tablespoon olive oil

Marquise Potatoes (Potato Cakes)
4 medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled
4 strips bacon, finely diced
1/2 C finely diced yellow onions
1 Tbsp finely chopped parsley
1 egg
1/4 C plus 1 Tbsp all purpose flour, divided
Coarse salt, freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp butter

Pomegranate Jus
1 C beef stock
1/4 C pomegranate syrup**

Directions
For duck:
1. Preheat oven to 300° F.
2. Roast duck for 25 to 35 minutes, or until medium rare. Rest until cool enough to remove breast, thighs, and legs, keeping the skin intact.

Wasn't sure it was totally done so we ended up putting it back in the over to roast after crisping the skin

3. Heat olive oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Add duck breast, skin side down, and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until skin is crispy.

Crisping the skin

4. Place thighs and drumsticks, skin side up, back in oven for 5 to 7 minutes or until skin is crispy.
5. Transfer duck to cutting board and let stand 15 minutes before carving.

For marquise potatoes (potato cakes):
1. Boil potatoes until tender, drain and cool on a perforated pan. Shred the potatoes with a box grater; set aside.***

Using my awesome Boil Over No More

2. Sauté bacon until crisp in a medium skillet. Add onions and cook until translucent.
3. Add bacon and onions to the shredded potatoes. Mix in parsley, egg, and 1 Tbsp flour. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

4. Form into eight 3-inch cakes. Dredge the cakes lightly in remaining flour, coating both sides.
5. Heat the butter in large skillet over high heat. Cook the cakes until golden brown on both sides.

For pomegranate jus:
1. Heat beef stock in small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, reduce to low heat, and let simmer for 15 minutes.
2. Pour in pomegranate syrup and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes.

Before Kevin suggested using the juice

To serve fancy like at Disney
Place 2 potato cakes on 4 plates and serve with duck breast slices, thighs and drumsticks.
Drizzle 2 Tbsp of pomegranate jus over duck and serve remaining jus on the side.

Overall this dish actually did turn out pretty delicious but it was not without it's issues 

*So I did end up getting a whole duck and I thought the butcher would cut it up like a chicken but he ended up just quartering it. That made the whole cutting off each part a little more difficult. Now that we have made this once if we were to do it again I would search harder to find just duck breasts! Thought about it at the beginning but ended up staying true to the recipe haha.

** OH MY gosh where do I start with the saga of the pomegranate syrup. Called 7 different grocery stores and none had it. Attempted to make my own off a seemingly simple Alton Brown recipe. Didn't get syrup I really just boiled off a lot of pomegranate juice. We ended up just drizzling the warm juice over the duck and it was quite tasty. Still have no idea where you can get pomegranate syrup sorry.

***Seriously wait until they're cooled. Sort of burned my hands attempting to get it done sooner and ended up with mashed potato cakes. They were still really good and I'd totally make them again but just wait until they're cool.