🦆 Duck à l'orange
Duck à l'orange is a French classic of duck breast seared skin-side down until the fat renders and the skin turns crisp, then served sliced and pink with a glossy orange sauce. The sauce balances sweet and sour: caramelised sugar deglazed with vinegar and orange juice, finished with zest and a little butter. It is served with potatoes or green vegetables.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 duck breasts (about 350 g each)
- 2 oranges: juice and zest
- 30 g sugar
- 2 tbsp vinegar
- 100 ml water
- 15 g butter
- Salt and pepper
Method
- Score the duck skin, season and place skin-side down in a cold pan.
- Cook over medium heat 8–10 minutes until the skin is crisp, pour off the fat, turn and cook 3–4 minutes more; rest 5 minutes.
- In a small pan melt the sugar to a light caramel, add the vinegar, then the orange juice and water.
- Simmer until slightly syrupy, add the zest and whisk in the butter.
- Slice the duck and spoon the sauce over.
How to make it lighter
- Remove the skin after cooking: most of the fat in duck breast is in the skin.
- Skip the butter at the end, the sauce is still glossy.
- Serve with steamed vegetables rather than roast potatoes.
History
Pairing duck with bitter oranges is an old European idea, and the dish became a showpiece of French haute cuisine. Its exact origin is debated, with some accounts tracing it to Italian cooks at the French court, and it enjoyed a famous revival in mid-20th-century French restaurants.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →