Roasted stuffed chicken breast

[ethan]

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Then I am going over to a friend's place for a scotch tasting, where 8 of us bring a different bottle to taste.

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I'm jealous.

[ethan]

If you're doing more cooking these days, you might want to get some duck from Hudson Valley Foie Gras. I haven't had any of their prepared foods, but the moulard duck breasts are great - around 1lb each. I'm thinking about getting 5-10 lbs of the duck legs and making confit soon. You may be able to find it locally (I found the duck breasts at a local restaurant supply store) but if not they do ship. My lunch today was a mixed-green salad with braised duck and a red wine vinaigrette. Took maybe 20 minutes, but most of it's simple.

To cook duck breasts, you need to do a little preparation to help the fat render. Cut a cross-hatching pattern into the fat/skin side, maybe 20 cuts in each direction, without cutting into the actual meat. Season with salt and pepper, cook fat-side down over med-high heat for 12 minutes, flip and cook over high heat for about 2 minutes. Ideally you want to do this in a pan just large enough to hold the duck, otherwise the fat near the edges of the pan may burn. There's a lot of fat, and some of it will spatter when you turn the duck. I'd advise using tongs that'll keep your hands away from the pan.

Once the duck's done, pour out all but a teaspoon or so of the fat, add a little olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Slice the duck, add it to the greens, and toss with the warm vinaigrette. Sherry vinegar also works well here.

If you want you can strain the duck fat (put a paper towel in a strainer to get out the smaller particles), refrigerate it, and use it for other cooking. It beats the hell out of butter if you're making an omelette.

[Blarg]

Food part sounds nice, I could do without the Metallica.

I'd suggest trying to do the dish with some herbs next time. Rosemary is great, so is thyme. Even a little rosemary makes for a very aromatic, tasty chicken.

With or without the cheese.

I think I'd either leave the cheddar in solo, or take it out of the combo and go with the others. It seems to me cheddar is a very strong, basic taste that will largely overwhelm the subtleties of the other cheeses anyway.

I'd also suggest fresh garlic instead of powder. You'll get a much better flavor. If you don't want to bother with fresh garlic, there are small jars of crushed garlic you can get. It's tasty to throw a teaspoon of it into this or that.

[sfer]

Sounds like a better concoction for chicken thighs.

[Chobohoya]

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Sounds like a better concoction for chicken thighs.

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You might think that, but the meat on thighs is tender enough to start with, nonwithstanding the fact that it is damn hard to stuff them.

[Blarg]

Saving and freezing chicken and duck fat is definitely a great way to have a whole lot of flavor to add to soups, etc. I save bones, skin, fat whenever I cook bird stuff and toss it into stock later.

[Barrett's Last Privateer]

Potatoes roasted in duck fat. Mmmmmmmm.

[phixxx]

Why is this guy worshipped by you geeks?

[citanul]

this may be personal blasphemy or something, but you need to consider cooking something and not putting horseradish in it.

c

[Barrett's Last Privateer]

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this may be personal blasphemy or something, but you need to consider cooking something and not putting horseradish in it.

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