Mandarin Duck

Fall is here, and so is fall food! At our house, that has typically meant soups and stews, as well as more pot pie and other baked dishes – things that are too hot to cook, much less eat, during a southern summer. But since moving to duck hunting country (people come to our go-to-the-middle-of-nowhere-and-turn-left home from all over the place to duck hunt!!), we’ve learned that fall means learning new ways to use duck as well.

Sometimes we just shred it and mix it in with our pulled turkey or chicken for pot pies, soups, etc. But, last fall I discovered what has become our favorite duck dish. In fact, I happened upon it quite by accident. I had defrosted duck and leftover noodles that really needed to be used. I just needed some way to make it into a saucy skillet dish. So, I grabbed the first sauce that had the right smell! (No, I don’t mean the other sauces in our fridge were bad – they just didn’t smell like they’d go with duck.) It ended up being mandarin sauce. The improvisation was a hit, and now it is a big request!

And for those of you who don’t like the gamey taste of wild duck, let me give you a hint: any sort of Oriental sauce, especially something strong and thick like teriyaki or mandarin, works wonders for flavor!

So, here you go…our favorite accidental fall recipe.

Mandarin Duck
Ingredients:
4 duck breasts, cut into bite-sized chunks
12 ounces garden rotini or egg noodles
1/3-1/2 cup Panda Express Mandarin Sauce**
1/3 cup water
2 cups frozen broccoli

-Cook rotini/egg noodles separately, according to package directions.
-Using a small amount of olive oil, cook duck chunks in a large, deep skillet until browned.
-Add noodles, sauce, water, and broccoli. Cover and continue cooking over medium heat until broccoli is tender, 6-10 minutes.

Serves 4-6

**We’ve discovered that the mandarin sauce can be hard to find. I found a recipe online, but haven’t tried it yet. I’ll go ahead and share it, just in case!

Comments

learningtable said…
I've never cooked duck, but my kids would love this with chicken.
Anne, we'd never cooked duck either before we moved out here, but as a pastor's family we are frequently blessed with wild game from our church members. So, we're learning how to use it! Yesterday we mixed pulled duck in with our pulled chicken to make a pot pie. It was pretty good!
Shari said…
Ann, this looks really good! Way to think outside the box! ;)I've never cooked a duck, but I think I might enjoy it. Is it a dark meat?
Shari, duck breast (pretty much all we use from a wild duck) is almost as dark in color as beef, but it is technically considered white meat! I look forward to hearing your impression of it if you give it a try!

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