Duck in the air fryer

Many of our customers have been in touch to ask for advice for cooking duck in an air fryer or slow cooker, we put our food technologist Simon on the case who has come up with a definitive guide.

Air fryers are a cost effective and healthier option to cooking many dishes, we tried several different products in our air fryer and found the best performing were the Bistro Confit, Half Aromatic Crispy Duck and Salt and Pepper Spatchcock poussin as the aif fryer really crisped up the skin and made the meat tender and succulent.

Duck breast portions

1. Preheat your air fryer to 180oC, pat the skin of the duck breast with a kitchen towel to remove excess moisture. Score the skin and season with salt and black pepper, if desired.

2. Heat a frying pan on the hob over a medium to high heat without oil. Place the breast skin side down in the hot frying pan. Cook for 5 minutes until the skin turns golden brown; turn over and seal the meat for 1 minute. Pour off excess fat regularly.

3. Place the duck breasts skin side up in your preheated air fryer for 10-12 minutes, depending on how you like your duck cooked. Leave to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Duck breast

1. Preheat your air fryer to 180oC, pat the skin of the duck breast with a kitchen towel to remove excess moisture. Score the skin and season with salt and black pepper, if desired.

2. Heat a frying pan on the hob over a medium to high heat without oil. Place the breast skin side down in the hot frying pan. Cook for 5 minutes until the skin turns golden brown; turn over and seal the meat for 1 minute. Pour off excess fat regularly.

3. Place the duck breasts skin side up in your preheated air fryer for 12-15 minutes, depending on how you like your duck cooked. Leave to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

DUCK LEGS

1. Preheat your air fryer to 160oC, pat the skin of the duck legs with a kitchen towel to remove excess moisture. Prick the skin and season with salt and black pepper, if desired.

2. Place the duck legs skin side up in your preheated air fryer for 60 minutes.

3. Rest the meat for 10 minutes and then serve.

A great recipe suggestion would be to parboil potatoes and then after 30 minutes of cooking the duck legs in the air fryer lift them out of the fryer and place on a plate. Put the par boiled potatoes into a bowl and pour the duck fat from the base of the air fryer over the potatoes. Season them with salt and mix. Place the potatoes in the bottom of the air fryer drawer and place the duck legs on top. Turn up the air fryer to 180oC and continue to cook for 20-30 minutes until the potatoes are golden and crispy.

spatchcock poussin with sea salt and pepper

1. Preheat your air fryer to 180oC. Remove the poussin from the packaging,
2. Lay the poussin flat, skin side up in the air fryer
3. Cook in the air fryer for 25 minutes, rest the meat for 10 minutes and then serve.

CRISPY AROMATIC DUCK

1. Preheat your air fryer to 200°C on crisp/air fry setting. Remove all the packaging from the duck.
2. Place the duck in the air fryer, trying to keep as flat as possible with skin facing upwards. Cook for 25 minutes
3. To serve, shred the skin and meat and heat the pancakes in the microwave inside their bag for 30 seconds (750W/Cat D) or 20 seconds (850W/Cat E). Do not heat the sauce.
4. Spread some hoisin on each pancake, then add duck. Roll and enjoy! All ovens vary in performance, this is a guide only.

bistro confit duck

1 Preheat your air fryer to 200oC. Remove from box, remove outer packaging and decant the contents of the pouch into the air fryer. To ensure golden crisp duck skin, make sure the duck is skin-side up.

2. Cook in the air fryer for 20 minutes.

3. Carefully remove the legs from air fryer and serve straight away

Slow cookers are another energy efficient way to cook, however not all of our products are suitable to cook in this way. Here is a recipe for slow cooker duck a l’orange.

Ingredients

2 Gressingham Duck Legs
1 medium white onion
3 oranges
1L chicken stock
1 tbsp corn flour
1. Remove from the packaging and pat the skin of the duck legs with a kitchen towel to remove excess moisture, prick the skin and season with salt and black pepper.
2. Heat a frying pan to medium heat and add the legs, skin side down. Cook till golden brown all over and fat has been released, 5-10 minutes. Remove excess fat and place legs into slow cooker.
3. Thinly slice the onion and fry in the pan used for the legs. Cook for 10 minutes on medium heat till soft and lightly coloured. Whist cooking the onions, zest and juice the oranges. When the onions are cooked, add 2/3 of the orange juice to the onion pan along with all the zest. Bring to the boil then pour over the legs in the slow cooker.
4. Separately bring the chicken stock to the boil and add to the slow cooker. Stir to distribute ingredients.
5. Cook on high for 4 hours with the lid on.
6. Gently remove the legs onto a baking tray and decant all of the sauce into a large pan. Bring to the boil and reduce by a quarter.
7. Colour and crisp the skin under a hot grill for about 5 minutes till coloured, being careful not to burn.
8. Once the sauce has reduced add the remaining orange juice. Separately mix the corn flour with 1tbsp water to form a paste. Whist stirring add the paste to the boiling sauce. Continue to cook for 5 minutes till thickened.
9. Serve the slow cooked duck legs with the orange sauce.