Hot Honey Duck Breast With Roast Celeriac

Hot honey recipes are all the rage these days and it inspired me to make this hot honey duck breast dish for a nice date night dinner. Duck breast is one of my favorite things to cook so I am always looking for new and inspired ways to dress it up. This time I paired the perfectly cooked duck breast with some easy roast celeriac for an elegant presentation.

My go to date night dish is oftentimes some type of duck breast. Why? Because this ingredient is impressive, elegant, and extremely easy to cook. I have plenty of duck breast recipes perfect for dinner, but this hot honey duck breast is one of my favorites.

I decided to pair this hot honey duck breast with some roast celeriac since the light, fluffy root balances the spice from the glaze nicely. You can of course change the side up if you prefer something else.

How To Cook Hot Honey Duck Breast

The hot honey part of this recipe only has two ingredients: honey and hot sauce. You can choose the spice level you want by using a ‘mild’, ‘medium’, or ‘hot’ hot sauce. This time I went with a quite spicy Trinidad scorpion pepper sauce but sometimes I like to use my homemade Carolina Reaper hot sauce for a real nice kick.

Ingredients

• 2 Duck Breasts – Grade A, Skin On. To scale up this recipe, or even make it for one person, just change the amount of breasts you use. the honey/hot sauce mix will likely be enough for at least 4 breasts anyway because you really don’t need that much.
• 2 tbsp Honey – You can use your preferred honey in this, but there’s no need to use something really fancy.
• Hot Sauce – to taste
• Salt – about 1/3 tsp per breast

Roast Celeriac Seasoning Mix

• Salt 1 tsp
• Garlic Powder 1 tsp
• Paprika 1 tsp
• Dry Oregano 1 tspDry Basil 1 tsp
• Dry Rosemary 1 tsp
• Ground Mustard Seed 1/2 tsp
• Ground Coriander Seed 1/2 tsp

All my duck breast recipes start the same. In fact my how to cook duck breast guide is one of the most popular posts on the blog. You HAVE to start with a cold pan. Score and salt the duck skin, then place it skin side down in a cold pan. Put the heat on low, and once the fat begins to render slowly raise it. This method will give you the crispiest, golden-brown duck skin.

While the duck fat is rendering go ahead and mix together the honey and hot sauce. If your hot sauce is chunky or thick you might need to add a tsp of water to the mix to thin it out a bit. Of course, if you are using a Louisiana style hot sauce then you shouldn’t have a problem. This is sort of a sweet and savory sauce for duck similar to my recipe with px sauce.

Once your duck skins are perfectly cooked, flip them over and brush them with your hot honey mix. If your pan is not oven safe then move the breasts to a baking dish. Place the duck breasts in an oven pre-heated to 180C and let bake for 6 minutes.

After six minutes remove your hot honey duck breast from the oven. Place them on a baking tray and let rest for 5 minutes. Just like with a steak, this resting time will allow the breast meat to retain more juices when you slice it.

To serve this hot honey duck breast I simply sliced it into four even pieces. This is a knife and fork meal so I wanted to showcase the beautiful skin in this presentation. Of course the duck is on a bed of roast celeriac, which should have basically been finished before you even start the duck because the duck does not take long at all.

Roast Celeriac

Toss your celeriac cubes with the spice blend and a few glugs of olive oil. Spread out your celeriac cubes on a baking tray. I line mine with a silicone mat but you can use parchment paper if you prefer. Then place the tray in an oven preheated to 200C or 400F.

Roast the celeriac for 15 minutes, then remove the tray, flip them, and put the tray back in the oven for another 15 minutes. Note: I start the duck breast in the cold pan right after I flip the celeriac.

Voila! A super easy way to cook celeriac. Now when you want to impress guests with your culinary skills you can present a side they might not have ever tried before. If you don’t feel like celeriac you can also make a corn cream like I do in the recipe for duck with cranberries and corn cream.

What To Serve With Hot Honey Duck Breast

While I made this recipe with the celeriac shown above, you can make a variety of sides that also pair well with the duck. Duck, being a rich, fatty meat means you want a side that can balance that. Here are a few options you might like:

• Mashed or Whipped Potatoes are a classic and elegant option that are always a favorite.
• Sweet Potato Mash can help balance the spice level as well as add a bit of creaminess that goes great with each bite of duck.
• Pasta. Go ahead and pair this duck with a light and/or acidic pasta. I recommend my lemon-ricotta one pot pasta as it can cut both the heat and the fat of this dish nicely.

Hot Honey Duck Breast With Roast Celeriac