Perfectly cooked duck breast topped with a sweet and savory pan sauce. The tart and juicy sweetness of fresh blackberries complements the earthy and savory notes of sage, resulting in a mouthwatering and elegant sauce that is the perfect accompaniment to the natural flavor of wild duck meat. Give this fantastic sous vide duck breast recipe a try today!
Recipe Highlights
Elegant: If you're looking for an elegant duck dish, this one is sure to impress! The golden brown color of the duck skin drizzled with a rich purple sauce makes for a beautiful presentation.
Consistent Results: The sous vide cooking method is the perfect cooking method for consistent results. The water temperature keeps the meat from overcooking, and a quick sear finishes the cooking process without drying out the meat. It turns out perfectly tender and juicy every time!
Full of Flavor: The combination of blackberries and sage is the perfect complement to wild duck breasts. The ingredients reduce into a sweet and savory sauce that will leave you wanting more with each bite!
Ingredients
- Duck Breasts: This recipe uses wild skin-on duck breasts. You can use domestic duck breasts instead. You can also use skinless duck breasts and decrease the searing time. If you're looking for a duck leg recipe, try this sous vide duck confit. This recipe also works great with sandhill crane.
- Duck Fat: This recipe calls for duck fat to sear the breasts in. If you don't have duck fat available, you can use your preferred cooking fat or oil. For more ways to use duck fat, try duck fat chocolate chip cookies or duck fat pie crust!
- Blackberries: Fresh blackberries are used for this recipe, but you can also use frozen, thawed blackberries.
- Blackberry Brandy: A small amount of blackberry brandy is added to the sauce for extra blackberry flavor. You can skip this ingredient or use unflavored brandy instead.
See recipe card for quantities.
How To Make Sous Vide Duck Breasts
The sous vide cooking technique is perfect for duck breasts because it gets the meat to the perfect temperature while retaining the natural moisture in the meat. The low and slow cooking time also tenderizes the meat. A good sear after the water bath results in crispy skin while keeping the inside medium-rare. Follow the steps below for perfectly medium-rare and tender duck breasts!
- Step 1: If your duck breasts have a thick layer of fat under the skin, score the skin of each duck breast with a sharp knife in a diamond pattern. If your duck breasts do not have a layer of fat under the skin, don't worry about scoring them.
- Step 2: Season duck breasts all over with salt and pepper.
- Step 3: Place sage leaves and butter in the vacuum bag. Then, place the duck breasts in the bag in a single layer on top of the butter and sage.
- Step 4: Seal the bag with a vacuum sealer.
- Step 5: Preheat the sous vide machine to 120 degrees F. Place the sous vide bag in the preheated water bath and cook for 1 hour.
- Step 6: Remove the bag from the sous vide bath. Cut the bag open with scissors and remove the meat. Remove the sage leaves and carefully pat the meat dry with a paper towel.
- Step 7: Re-season with salt and pepper if it looks like it has lost the seasoning.
- Step 8: Preheat a cast-iron pan over high heat. Once the pan is really hot, add the duck fat and let it melt.
- Step 9: Immediately add the duck breasts, skin side down. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until the skin is crispy and golden brown.
- Step 10: Flip and cook an additional 1-2 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 125-130°F for medium-rare.
- Step 11: Remove the breasts from the pan and let them rest on a cutting board while you prepare the sauce.
- Step 12: Slice duck breasts into ½" slices.
Pro Tip
If your vacuum bags have a smooth side, place the skin on the smooth side so that the pattern doesn't change the appearance of the skin.
How To Make Blackberry Sage Sauce
This blackberry sage pan sauce is truly the best accompaniment to wild duck meat. It has everything you want in a sauce - it's tangy, sweet, savory, salty, earthy, and packed with flavor. Follow the instructions below!
- Step 1: Turn the pan heat down to medium. Add butter to the pan and swirl to coat the pan.
- Step 2: Add in shallots and sage. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until shallots are starting to soften and the sage is fragrant.
- Step 3: Add in blackberry brandy and red wine to deglaze the pan. Bring to a simmer and season with salt and pepper.
- Step 4: Stir to combine, then add in the blackberries. Gently squish the blackberries while they're cooking. Simmer for 10 minutes or until the sauce is reduced by half, stirring frequently.
- Step 5: Strain the sauce through a fine mesh strainer. Use a spoon to squish the blackberries through the strainer, leaving the seeds and skins behind.
- Step 6: The sauce should be the consistency of a thick syrup. If it is not thick enough, return the strained sauce to the pan and simmer, stirring frequently, until the desired consistency is achieved. Remove the sauce from the pan immediately, or it will continue to reduce.
Pro Tip
This sauce is also delicious with steak and meaty fish like salmon. You can cook your steak or fish in a cast iron pan, then follow the same instructions for the sauce.
Serving Suggestions
These duck breasts will be the star of any meal you serve. They make a very special meal during the holiday season or for any other special occasion. Since the duck is the star of the show, you can serve it with simple sides like roasted vegetables, grilled potatoes, or a simple green salad.
Or to take the richness up a notch, serve it with risotto or duck fat roasted potatoes. No matter how you choose to serve them, you're sure to have an elegant meal to remember!
Recipe FAQs
Duck breasts do well with sous vide cooking or searing in a cast iron pan.
Duck is more similar to red meat than it is to poultry. It has a very rich, meaty flavor and should be cooked like a steak. Wild duck typically has a stronger flavor than domestic duck, depending on the species of duck used. Some have a stronger flavor than others.
Many recipes will tell you to cook duck breasts at 135 degrees F sous vide. But, if you want to get crispy skin and a good sear after the sous vide cooking, 120 degrees F works great. This gives you 10-15 degrees of wiggle room to cook your duck the rest of the way in a cast iron pan.
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Thank you!
Annie
📖 Recipe
Sous Vide Duck Breast with Blackberry Sage Sauce
Ingredients
Duck Breasts:
- 4 duck breasts, skin-on
- 1 tablespoon salted butter
- 4-6 fresh sage leaves
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 tablespoon duck fat (or other cooking fat)
Blackberry Sage Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon salted butter
- 2 tablespoon shallots, finely diced
- 1 tablespoon fresh sage, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoon blackberry brandy (optional)
- ¾ cup red wine
- 1 ½ cup fresh blackberries
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
Duck Breasts:
- Preheat sous vide machine to 120°F.
- If your duck breasts have a thick layer of fat under the skin, score the skin of each duck breast with a sharp knife in a diamond pattern. If your duck breasts do not have a layer of fat under the skin, don't worry about scoring them.
- Season duck breasts all over with salt and pepper.
- Place sage leaves and butter in the vacuum bag then place duck breasts in the bag in a single layer on top of the butter and sage.
- Seal the bag with a vacuum sealer.
- Place the sous vide bag in the preheated water bath and cook for 1 hour.
- When the meat has about 5 minutes left in the water bath, preheat a cast iron pan over high heat. Watch it carefully so it doesn't start smoking.
- Remove the bag from the water bath. Cut the bag open with scissors and remove the meat. Remove the sage leaves and carefully pat the meat dry with a paper towel. Re-season with salt and pepper if it looks like it has lost the seasoning.
- Once the pan is really hot, add the duck fat and let it melt. Immediately add the duck breasts, skin side down.
- Cook for 1-2 minutes or until the skin is crispy and golden brown.
- Flip and cook an additional 1-2 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 125-130°F for medium-rare.
- Remove the breasts from the pan and let them rest while you prepare the sauce.
Blackberry Sage Sauce:
- Turn the heat down to medium. Add butter to the pan and swirl to coat the pan. Add in shallots and sage. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until shallots are starting to soften and the sage is fragrant.
- Add in blackberry brandy and red wine to deglaze the pan. Bring to a simmer and season with salt and pepper. Stir to combine then add in the blackberries. Gently squish the blackberries while they're cooking. Simmer for 10 minutes or until sauce is reduced by half, stirring frequently.
- Strain the sauce through a fine mesh strainer. Use a spoon to squish the blackberries through the strainer, leaving the seeds and skins behind.
- The sauce should be the consistency of a thick syrup. If it is not thick enough, return the strained sauce to the pan and simmer, stirring frequently, until the desired consistency is achieved. Remove the sauce from the pan immediately or it will continue to reduce.
- Slice duck breasts into ½" slices. Drizzle blackberry sage sauce over the top and sprinkle with sea salt, if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
- You can use skinless duck breasts instead of skin-on and decrease the searing time.
- Fresh blackberries are used for this recipe but you can also use frozen, thawed blackberries.
- You can skip the blackberry brandy or use unflavored brandy instead.
- Using a sous vide machine takes the guesswork out of sous vide cooking by keeping the water at a precise temperature, but it can be done without one. Check out this resource on sous vide cooking without a machine.
- Instead of a vacuum sealer, the water displacement method uses water to remove the air from a resealable plastic bag instead of using a vacuum bag.
- If your vacuum bags have a smooth side, place the skin on the smooth side so that the pattern doesn't change the appearance of the skin.
- This sauce is also delicious with steak and meaty fish like salmon. You can cook your steak or fish in a cast iron pan, then follow the same instructions for the sauce.
Alan in Toulouse says
Really impressed with your recipe! Love the idea of pairing blackberries and sage. Have to try that. I live in the SW of France where we have fattened ducks. I figured out that I really need to score the fat and fry a couple of minutes on both sides to render as much fat as I can before putting the breasts in the sous vide. Then I dry them and sear again as you do in your recipe. Thanks again for the inspiration. Will try this sauce in September 🙂
Annie Weisz says
Thank you so much, Alan! Your fatty ducks sound lovely but I typically only have access to wild ducks that are more lean. I hope you enjoy the sauce! 😊