Air Fryer Duck Breast With Cherry Sauce
Air fryer duck breast with cherry sauce makes an excellent sophisticated dinner, perfect for holidays and special occasions! Enjoy with roasted veggies, fresh rolls, and these delicious truffle mashed potatoes.
I love air fryer recipes like this air fryer duck breast because they make cooking gourmet meals so much more accessible and efficient!
If you’ve never had duck before, you may be surprised to learn it tastes a lot more like pork or beef than other poultry like chicken and turkey. What sets duck breast apart, however, is the skin! When prepared correctly, it gets deliciously crispy and tastes almost like bacon.
While it’s tasty even on its own, I like to serve duck with cherry sauce. What makes my recipe different from your average cherry sauce for duck is the richness of the Demi glacé and cream!
🐷 Customize This Recipe For Dietary Preferences
Gluten-Free
Use gluten-free soy sauce or coconut aminos, gluten-free Worcestershire sauce, and double-check that the Demi glacé concentrate is GF, such as the one from Savory Choice!
Dairy-Free
Coconut cream makes a great dairy-free alternative to heavy cream. You can swap the butter out for coconut oil.
Alcohol-Free
Instead of red wine, you can use cranberry juice, pomegranate juice, orange juice, alcohol-free wine, or diluted red wine vinegar.
🥄 Why This Recipe Works
- You can get a pair of duck breasts for $15, as opposed to paying $30+ for a single breast at a restaurant!
- Duck breast makes a great dinner for one and is a unique alternative to meats like steak, turkey, and ham.
- Duck breast with cherry sauce is an elevated dish that looks amazing, yet requires minimal effort/kitchen experience.
- Using an air fryer to cook duck breast is an easy alternative for those who feel intimidated by pan-frying or don’t have access to a grill.
- A single duck breast is the perfect size to yield a sophisticated dinner for one, but you can always make more for date nights and family dinners!
- Duck breast with cherry sauce is a great dish to serve for holidays such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, and more! It’s great for anniversaries and other special occasions too.
🛒 What You Need For Air Fryer Duck Breast
🍒 Cherry Sauce Ingredients
📝 Recipe Modifications And Substitutions
- Red wine: If you keep an alcohol-free home you can use cranberry or pomegranate juice.
- Balsamic vinegar: You can also use this pomegranate syrup, but I would reduce the amount by half.
- Honey: Or maple syrup.
- Orange zest: Or lemon zest.
- Fresh herbs: I recommend using fresh rosemary and thyme but you can also use dried herbs in a pinch.
- Shallot: You can use red onion as a substitute.
- Garlic: Fresh is best but minced is fine.
- Heavy cream: Half & half or coconut cream will also work.
- Butter: Both salted and unsalted are fine, or you can use coconut oil.
- Chicken stock: Or beef stock.
- Demi glacé concentrate: I recommend using Savory Choice beef Demi glace concentrate. You can also use this Better Than Boullion beef base or 1/4 tsp of bullion powder.
- Dried cherries: I suppose fresh cherries would work just as well!
- Olive oil: You can also use avocado or coconut oil.
*See above images or recipe card for full list of ingredients.
🍗 How To Make This Recipe
Air Fryer Duck Breast
Step 1: Defrost duck breast in a bowl of cold water, then remove from package. Use skewers to poke a series of holes into the underside of the duck breast, then lightly score the skin in a criss-cross pattern with a sharp knife and pat dry.
Step 2: In a medium bowl, combine marinade ingredients then place duck breast into the mixture skin-side up, keeping skin dry. Cover bowl with saran wrap and refrigerate overnight (or a minimum of 2 hours).
Pro Tip: If too much moisture is retained, it can prevent the skin of the duck breast from getting crispy! This is why we don’t submerge the skin in the marinade and why marinating overnight is ideal so the skin has ample time to dry out.
Step 3: Place duck breast in the air fryer basket skin-side up and cook for 7 minutes at 300° F. Mix 1/2 tsp honey and 1/2 tsp olive oil and brush over the skin. Raise the temperature to 400° F and cook an additional 7-12 minutes or until duck breast has reached an internal temperature of at least 135° F.
Pro Tip: You don’t have to line the tray with foil, but I like to because it helps contain the rendered duck fat.
Cherry Sauce For Duck
Step 1: Soak dried cherries in a small bowl of chicken stock to rehydrate. Meanwhile, add oil, butter, and diced shallot to a saucepan and sauté until shallot is soft and translucent.
Step 2: Mix in cherries, stock, red wine, Demi glacé concentrate, salt, and pepper. Simmer over medium-low heat until liquid reduces by half, about 5-10 minutes, stirring often. Lower heat and incorporate the cream, simmering 3-5 minutes until thick.
Step 3: Slice duck breast and serve with cherry sauce on the side or drizzled over the top.
🍯 Other Sauces To Pair With Duck
As much as I love cherry sauce for duck, duck breast pairs well with a variety of sauces! Some great alternatives include:
- Hoisin sauce
- Oyster sauce
- Chimichurri
- Red onion chutney
- Cranberry sauce
- Honey mustard sauce
🍽️ Serving Suggestions
- Slice it up and use it to make bao buns or sandwiches.
- Serve on a bed of mashed potatoes or roasted vegetables.
- Top a bowl of hot ramen with a few slices of duck breast as an alternative to chicken or pork.
- Serve with roasted parsnips, parsnip puree, or these air fryer parsnip chips.
- Enjoy alongside this pear and blue cheese walnut salad.
- Pair with seasonal fruits such as fresh cherries, pomegranates, plums, oranges, and more!
🤷🏻♀️ Recipe FAQs
Most of the time you can buy duck breast at grocery stores such as Costco, Ralphs, Whole Foods, and Sprouts. Some other places to look are Asian grocery stores and local butcher shops.
The key to super crispy duck breast is to allow the skin to dry out! When marinating the duck breast, it’s best to submerge only the bottom half, allowing the skin side to be exposed to the air for at least an hour, if not overnight. The more moisture the skin absorbs, the less crispy it will be. You can also increase the crispiness of the skin by using a kitchen torch, broiling the duck in the oven, or rendering the fat in a pan before cooking the breast.
For medium-rare duck breast, you should aim for an internal temperature of 130-135° F. For medium, you should aim for 135-145° F. Allowing the duck breast to exceed an internal temperature of 145° F may result in overcooking which will dry out the meat.
It is generally safe to eat medium-rare duck, so long as the internal temperature is at least 135° F. While duck meat is technically poultry, the texture and fat content is more similar to steak than, for example, chicken. The USDA recommends cooking duck to 165° F, although this is rarely adhered to by chefs and home cooks as the meat is usually overcooked once it exceeds 145° F.
👩🏻🍳 Pro Tips
- No two air fryers are exactly the same, so you may need to adjust the cook time.
- I strongly recommend using a meat thermometer to confirm that the duck is fully cooked and has an internal temperature of at least 135° F.
- Save the duck fat and use it to make duck fat roasted potatoes, duck confit, duck fat roasted chickpeas, and much more!
- You only need a small amount of Demi glacé concentrate, so you’ll have a lot left over! Use it to make stews, gravies, glazes and marinades for meats, or use it to add flavor to stir-fries and roasted vegetables. You can also freeze it for later use.
- Leftover cherry sauce makes a great alternative to gravy!
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Air Fryer Duck Breast With Cherry Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
Air Fried Duck Breast
- 1 duck breast (skin-on)
- ½ tsp honey (to brush on skin halfway through)
- ½ tsp olive oil (to brush on skin halfway through)
Marinade Ingredients
- ¼ cup red wine
- 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 small garlic cloves (minced)
- ½ medium shallot
- ½ tsp fresh thyme leaves
- 2 fresh rosemary sprigs (roughly chopped)
- 1 tsp orange zest
Cherry Sauce
- ½ cup dried cherries
- ½ cup chicken stock
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
- ½ medium shallot (minced)
- ½ cup red wine
- ¼ tsp Demi glace concentrate
- ⅛ tsp sea salt
- ⅛ tsp black pepper
- ¼ cup heavy cream
Instructions
Air Fryer Duck Breast
- Defrost duck breast in a bowl of cold water, then remove from package. Use skewers to poke a series of holes into the underside of the duck breast, then lightly score the skin in a criss-cross pattern with a sharp knife and pat dry.
- In a medium bowl, combine marinade ingredients then place duck breast into the mixture skin-side up, keeping skin dry. Cover bowl with saran wrap and refrigerate overnight (or a minimum of 2 hours).
- Place duck breast in the air fryer basket skin-side up and cook for 7 minutes at 300° F. Mix 1/2 tsp honey and 1/2 tsp olive oil and brush over the skin. Raise the temperature to 400° F and cook an additional 7-12 minutes or until duck breast has reached an internal temperature of at least 135° F.
Cherry Sauce
- Soak dried cherries in a small bowl of chicken stock to rehydrate. Meanwhile, add oil, butter, and diced shallot to a saucepan and sauté until shallot is soft and translucent.
- Mix in cherries, stock, red wine, Demi glacé concentrate, salt, and pepper. Simmer over medium-low heat until liquid reduces by half, about 5-10 minutes, stirring often. Lower heat and incorporate the cream, simmering 3-5 minutes until thick.
- Slice duck breast and serve with cherry sauce on the side or drizzled over the top.
Notes
- If too much moisture is retained, it can prevent the skin of the duck breast from getting crispy! This is why we don’t submerge the skin in the marinade and why marinating overnight is ideal so the skin has ample time to dry out.
- You don’t have to line the tray with foil, but I like to because it helps contain the rendered duck fat.
- No two air fryers are exactly the same, so you may need to adjust the cook time.
- I strongly recommend using a meat thermometer to confirm that the duck is fully cooked and has an internal temperature of at least 135° F.
- Save the duck fat and using it to make duck fat roasted potatoes, duck confit, duck fat roasted chickpeas, and much more!
- You only need a small amount of Demi glacé concentrate, so you’ll have a lot left over! Use it to make stews, gravies, glazes and marinades for meats, or use it to add flavor to stir-fries and roasted vegetables. You can also freeze it for later use.
- Leftover cherry sauce makes a great alternative to gravy!
This will make a lovely, fancy dinner for company or a special celebration dinner.
Absolutely! 😊
I can’t wait to try this! It looks divine. 😍
This worked exactly as written, thanks!
Glad to hear it!