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Grilled Duck Breast with Green Pepper Sauce (Magret au Poivre Vert)

Ok, no tricks here. This is just my take on a very classic French way to serve duck breasts. The green pepper sauce is just very simplified to make it easy to prepare at home.

Ingredients

Conversions to European measurements can be found here!

4 duck breasts
1 jar (4oz) fresh green peppercorns
2 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon fresh squezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons olive oil
salt to taste

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Or if you have a grill fire it up. While you are waiting for the oven to heat up you can lightly slice the skin side of the duck breasts in a cross hatch pattern. (Cutting the cross hatch helps heat from the oven to penatrate into the flesh more quickly.) Coat the exterior of the breasts with olive oil. Lightly sprinkle the exterior of the duck breasts with salt. Set the prepared duck breasts aside until the oven is hot. They'll cook for 15 minutes. If you are using a grill cook the duck breasts fat side down for the same amount of time. You can flip the breast only at the very end perhaps the last 5 minutes.

Let the meat rest 5 minutes after if has cooked.

Slice the cooked duck breast into 1/2 inch slices. Plate and pour the sauce over the top.

Sauce

If you have pre-made roux in your fridge, you can make the sauce as soon as you pop the breasts into the oven. Otherwise, you'll need to make a roux. Why is this? Because roux like all thickeners must be cold if its going into hot stock. A roux recipe follows...

When you have your cooled roux ready to go start with a medium size sauce pan heated to on high. Bring the chicken stock, green peppercorns, and the lemon juice to a boil. Once the sauce is boiling toss in the roux all at once and stir until the sauce is smooth and thick.

Blonde Roux

In a small frying pan melt the butter over medium heat. When the bubbles from the melting butter subside toss in the flour. Work the butter and flour into a paste and let it cook for about 5-10 minutes. You have to keep the roux moving. Don't stop stirring! Once you start to smell a slightly nutty smell coming from the roux take it off heat. Don't worry if you are not exact in your roux timing if you take it off heat too soon you'll have a white roux if, on the other hand, you wait too long you'll have a brown roux. All of these rouxs are acceptable for this recipe so don't sweat the small stuff.

You can quickly cool the roux by spreading the paste on some tin foil and putting it in the fridge for 10 minutes or so.