Want Some Luck With Duck?

It takes a confident cook to tackle roast duck, but The Early Show's resident chef Bobby Flay will have you serving it up Cajun style with dirty wild rice, bourbon sauce and pecans.

Duck rarely appears on American dinner tables, partly because it's considered a high-fat poultry, but perhaps even more because it's seen as difficult to prepare.

However, skinless duck breasts are actually fairly low in fat.

And, chef Flay insists that cooking duck is not much different from cooking other meats, and once a few basic principles are mastered almost anyone can become a master duck chef.

Bobby is making dirty wild rice to serve with his duck breast. Dirty rice is a Cajun dish traditionally made of rice, ground chicken or turkey livers and gizzards, onions, chicken broth, green pepper and garlic. The ground livers and gizzards give the dish a "dirty" appearance; hence the name. Bobby's recipe omits the liver or gizzards.

RECIPES

Pan Roasted Duck Breast with Dirty Wild Rice, Bourbon Sauce & Pecans
Serves: 4

Bourbon Sauce

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 large carrot, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 leek, washed well and sliced
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons bourbon
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 cups homemade chicken stock
4 sprigs fresh thyme, plus 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme

Method:

1. Heat oil and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the carrot, onion and celery and leek, season with salt and pepper and cook until soft, stirring occasionally, about 6 to 7 minutes.
   
2. Increase the heat to high, add 1 cup of the bourbon and cook until completely reduced. Add the stock and thyme sprigs and cook until reduced to 2 cups.
   
3. Strain the sauce through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl and return to the saucepan. Stir in cold butter, the remaining 2 tablespoons of bourbon and the chopped thyme.
   
4. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste and keep warm.

Ingredients
4 duck breasts, fat trimmed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
   
2. Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Season the duck on both sides with salt and pepper. Place the breasts in the pan, skin-side down and cook until golden brown and the fat has rendered, carefully drain most of the fat from the pan, turn the breast over and roast in the oven to medium-rare doneness, about 10 to12 minutes. Remove, loosely tent and let rest 10 minutes before slicing.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 stalk celery, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, finely diced
1 roasted yellow pepper, peeled, seeded and finely diced
1 roasted red pepper, peeled, seeded and finely diced
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup Arborio rice
3 to 4 cups hot chicken stock
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 cup cooked wild rice
1/2 pound chicken livers, sautéed to medium-rare doneness and coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
1/4 cup toasted pecans, chopped

Method:

1. Heat oil and butter in a large high-sided sauté pan over medium heat. Add the celery, garlic and jalapeno and cook until soft. Add the roasted peppers and cook for 1 minute. Add the Arborio rice and stir to coat the rice in the oil and vegetable mixture and cook for 1 minute.
   
2. Begin adding the hot stock ½ cup at a time to the rice, stirring constantly until absorbed. Continue adding the stock and stirring until the rice is al dente.
   
3. Stir in the cooked wild rice, cooked chicken livers and parsley and thyme and cook to heat through, adding more stock if needed. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a large bowl or platter and top with the toasted pecans.