Duck Breast Parmesan

By Caroline Clough in Food on Mar 21, 2006 1:58AM

Chicagoist recently found ourselves in possession of over three pounds of wild duck meat. We'd never dealt with cooking duck before, and we weren't even sure if we liked it. And so it lingered in its vacuum-sealed plastic, in our freezer, calling out "eat me, eat me" any time we opened the door ... the sound was awful, we stopped eating ice cream because of the ducks' insistence on being consumed. But after an afternoon of research, research, and more research, we gained confidence and clarity. We decided to try making Duck Breast Parmesan a recipe found at the Ducks Unlimited web site.

This recipe is a great way to introduce yourself to cooking duck with very little hassle.
We adhered to Ducks Unlimited's recipe with very few changes. Here's how it went:

First off you need duck. We were making dinner for four, so we had about six small duck breasts.

Second off you need three bowls.

In the first bowl mix:

- 1 cup flour
- Salt and pepper to taste

(Chicagoist thought it would be fun to add a little wasabi powder to the flour mixture ... about three teaspoons ... but it was not at all noticeable in the final product ... if you are tempted by this line of culinary thought, you should probably use at least three tablespoons, if not more).

In the second bowl mix:

- 3 eggs
- 1 cup milk

In the third bowl mix:

- 1 cup finely crushed bread crumbs
- 1 cup parmesan (or romano) cheese

Wash the duck breasts under running water then allow them to dry on paper towels.
Once the duck is dry and ready, coat a heavy skillet in olive oil (about three tablespoons), and turn the heat onto medium ... having the oil at the perfect temperature was, for us, the hardest part of this meal. You want the oil to sizzle but not scorch the duck.

Then the fun begins:

- Take a breast and coat it in the flour mixture from bowl 1.
- Then dip it into the egg and milk batter of bowl 2.
- Then coat the breast in the bread/cheese mix of bowl 3.

When the oil is at its proper temperature start gently putting the breaded duck into the skillet, turning them occasionally. Cook the duck until blood no longer flows freely from the breast when you poke it with a knife or fork. Chicagoist is lucky enough to have a meat thermometer (thanks Mom!) that allowed us to gauge whether the meat was done by temperature (170 degrees) instead of by poking; we found this to be an extremely useful tool.

Serve with pasta or rice (we used rotini with a little butter, salt and pepper...though if we had more time we would have made a cilantro pesto...oooh or a wasabi cilantro pesto) and perhaps a salad for good measure.