By Nigella Lawson
- Total Time
- 4 hours 5 minutes
- Rating
- 5(114)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Featured in: AT MY TABLE; A Fancy Meal for Friends, Simply
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Ingredients
Yield:4 servings
- 1Granny Smith apple
- ½onion, peeled
- 2cups blueberries
- ½cup packed light brown sugar
- ¼cup sugar
- ½teaspoon ground star anise or 2 whole star anise
- Grated zest of 1 lime
- Grated zest of 1 orange
- ½cup white wine vinegar
- 2whole ducks, trimmed of excess fat, giblets discarded
For the Blueberry Sauce
For the Ducks
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Prepare blueberry sauce: Peel, quarter and core apple. Place in a food processor with onion and finely chop. Place in a saucepan with blueberries, sugars, star anise, zests and vinegar.
Step
2
Place mixture over high heat to bring to a boil, then simmer until pulpy and beginning to thicken, about 30 minutes. (Mixture will be quite liquid after 20 minutes, but begins to thicken by 30 minutes, and will thicken more once cold.)
Step
3
If whole star anise were used, remove and discard them. Transfer sauce to a sterilized jar, cover and allow to cool. For best flavor, allow to rest one day before serving. (Makes 1 generous cup.)
Step
4
Prepare ducks: Heat oven to 325 degrees. Place ducks on a rack in a roasting pan. Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours, periodically draining off fat in pan. Raise heat to 400 degrees, and roast an additional 30 minutes to crisp skin.
Step
5
To serve, remove ducks from oven and place on a carving board. Cut each duck into four pieces. Cut away meat from rib cage, discarding rib bones. Arrange on a serving platter, crispy skin side up. Serve with blueberry sauce.
- Ground star anise is $3.50 an ounce at Adriana's Caravan in Grand Central Market: (800) 316-0820.
Ratings
5
out of 5
114
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Cooking Notes
JeezyP
I really enjoyed making this dish. I did decrease the cooking time for the duck since I like it pink. The blueberry sauce was the real kicker. Please do not skip the sauce!
Rowena
This has become my standard method for cooking duck. The sauce is almost a chutney, and complements the rich duck perfectly.
PetriG
This was a hit at Thanksgiving! I personally like a well done duck, so this recipe was spot on! I did make sure to continue to pierce the skin throughout the cooking process in order to drain as much fat as possible. Bonus: This recipe, when cooked as written, resulted in approx 1 cup of beautifully rendered duck fat~!
renee
Wowza, was this good! I am definitely not a fan of anise, so I only added one anise star instead of two, and removed it about 10 minutes early. Glad I did, because the sauce only had a hint of that black licorice flavor—not enough to spoil the AWESOMENESS of that blueberry chutney. If you’re not a fan of anise, I would say just skip it altogether.
Jason
Sorry but this was terrible! 1/2c white wine vinegar is far, far too much acid for this. Before you ask, yes, I used white wine vinegar (not simply white vinegar) and yes, I measured properly. The vinegar assaults the nostrils even after additional cooking down and adding baking soda to counteract it; the sauce had to be discarded. I re-made it and kept it simple: blueberries, orange zest and splash of orange juice, 1.5 tbsp apple cider vinegar, and brown + white sugar. The result was amazing!
Walter
This will result in a duck with a breast cooked well. Not good! Make the sauce and pull the breasts off the duck and cook them no more than medium rare. The legs are fine well done but the breast? Nah-uh! Nice sauce recipe, though.
rrlawgirl
Made with dust breast, and did not have star anis so subbed Chinese 5 spice. Sauce is very good and might use leftovers with potato pancakes.
dianne
Since we are two light eaters, I made this with duck breast rather than roast duck. I hate things that taste like licorice and skipped the star anise all together. Very nice dish. It is important to let the sauce mellow for a day as suggested. The taste improved markedly.
Jason
Sorry but this was terrible! 1/2c white wine vinegar is far, far too much acid for this. Before you ask, yes, I used white wine vinegar (not simply white vinegar) and yes, I measured properly. The vinegar assaults the nostrils even after additional cooking down and adding baking soda to counteract it; the sauce had to be discarded. I re-made it and kept it simple: blueberries, orange zest and splash of orange juice, 1.5 tbsp apple cider vinegar, and brown + white sugar. The result was amazing!
Phoebe
It's possible your white wine vinegar was quite acidic - I had the sauce bubbling away on the stove when I read this review and though, oh no, I missed the 'wine' part and used regular vinegar. But when I checked the labels I see that my white wine vinegar is 6% acid while the ordinary vinegar is only 5%. 1% can make a big difference - the one we use for killing weeds in the garden is 7%! For me the recipe made (almost) as written turned out very well.
Keith
Bird tuned our perfectly, moist meat with super crispy cracklin. Anise was a big strong for my personal taste, but others grooved on it.
Janet
Excellent. As others have said, more like a chutney. The taste of the star anise (I also only used 1) mellowed as the sauce/chutney sat. Would be good with charcuterie or with cheeses too.
renee
Wowza, was this good! I am definitely not a fan of anise, so I only added one anise star instead of two, and removed it about 10 minutes early. Glad I did, because the sauce only had a hint of that black licorice flavor—not enough to spoil the AWESOMENESS of that blueberry chutney. If you’re not a fan of anise, I would say just skip it altogether.
rrlawgirl
Made with dust breast, and did not have star anis so subbed Chinese 5 spice. Sauce is very good and might use leftovers with potato pancakes.
PetriG
This was a hit at Thanksgiving! I personally like a well done duck, so this recipe was spot on! I did make sure to continue to pierce the skin throughout the cooking process in order to drain as much fat as possible. Bonus: This recipe, when cooked as written, resulted in approx 1 cup of beautifully rendered duck fat~!
JeezyP
I really enjoyed making this dish. I did decrease the cooking time for the duck since I like it pink. The blueberry sauce was the real kicker. Please do not skip the sauce!
Walter
This will result in a duck with a breast cooked well. Not good! Make the sauce and pull the breasts off the duck and cook them no more than medium rare. The legs are fine well done but the breast? Nah-uh! Nice sauce recipe, though.
Es
I've been looking for a duck sauce to complement the grilled duck we've been making in our backyard and finally I've found it. Excellent! I liked the texture, the taste, and that it could be made in advance. I used a red onion and just put the mixture in a bowl when done. It could keep in the refrigerator for several days.
Rowena
This has become my standard method for cooking duck. The sauce is almost a chutney, and complements the rich duck perfectly.
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