Our Sous Vide Duck Breast is made by vacuum sealing a duck breast, cooking it in the water circulation bath at 120° for 2 hours. Then, the breast gets sauteed skin-side-down to crisp up before being served with mashed potatoes and a rich pan sauce.

This post was sponsored by Anova as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

Sous Vide Duck Breast

I have done some sous vide cooking in my time, but never as much as I would’ve liked because my previous sous vide systems were SO big and bulky that I just had a hard time motivating myself to get it down from the shelf in the garage for an egg or a chicken breast.

When I got the opportunity to work with Anova on this Precision Cooker Nano project, I knew that it was going to be right up our alley. It is such a compact, efficient machine. Instead of taking up a whole cupboard or shelf, it is just a bit bigger than your average stick blender and can easily be tucked somewhere handy to pull out for even the smallest dish.

Anova wants to make sous vide cooking approachable, accessible, and fun for everyone. Sous vide cooking is one of my favorite cooking methods because it is SO forgiving. Your food is held at the perfect temperature without needing a ton of attention, and without fear of anything overcooking if you aren’t ready right when dinner is.

Restaurant-quality results are not only possible at home, but convenient too.

What is sous vide?

Sous vide means “under vacuum”, and typically involves sealing foods in a food-grade plastic bag and then submerging it in a water bath that’s circulating and maintaining a constant temperature.

It is a gentle way of cooking foods that is precise and is especially perfect for foods that tend to dry out using other methods.

What kinds of foods can you make in the Anova Precision Cooker?

You can cook just about anything using the sous vide cooking technique, but some definitely lend themselves to this method more than others.

Some of my favorite things to use the Anova Precision Cooker Nano are:

Poultry – chicken, turkey, duck, pheasant, quail, and Cornish game hens are all great options for sous vide.

Eggs – If you’ve never had sous vide eggs, you are missing out. You can’t mimic sous vide eggs with other methods. I also LOVE using my Anova for keeping eggs for my Spicy Miso Ramen recipe at temperature and perfectly jammy.

Cheesecake – Cook these in glass canning jars for the cutest, smoothest, single-serve cheesecakes you’ve ever seen.

Fish – From fresh salmon filets to cod, halibut, walleye, or whatever other fish you are cooking up, the gentle sous vide method will make sure your fish is never overcooked or dry.

Seafood – Just as with fish, seafood like lobster, scallops, and shrimp are great candidates for sous vide cooking.

Pork chops – Pork is such a lean meat, it is hard to make a pork chop that is tender and also retains all of the moisture.

Do you have to sear food after cooking sous vide?

With meat, it is really the right decision. It adds another step to the process, but it is an easy step and one that adds so many benefits. The Maillard reaction is real and adds a ton of flavor to the final dish.

Things like vegetables don’t require that final sear, but a lot of them would benefit from it!

Sous Vide Duck Breast tools and grocery list

• 2 boneless duck breasts
• duck fat
• garlic
• salt
• onion powder
• rosemary
• thyme
• black pepper
• sage
• olive oil
• chicken stock
• white wine

Tips for making duck with the Anova Precision Cooker

Get all the air out.

Whether you are using a true vacuum pack machine or a plastic freezer bag, make sure you get all of the air out before sealing. This will not only help keep the bag from floating in the water bath, but it also helps to ensure even cooking as well.

Consider the final temp

According to the USDA, duck should be cooked to a minimum temperature of 165°. According to nearly every chef and restaurant that serves duck, that’s a travesty and a waste of good duck.

We cooked our duck breast to 120° before the sear, and the final temp wound up around 130° for a perfect medium-rare.

Consider this your warning, similar to what you see at the bottom of the menu on any steak or sushi house in the country. “Eating undercooked meat and fish increases your risk for foodborne illness.” If you are at high risk for severe complications, I’d probably encourage you to find meat that’s better suited to being cooked well done than duck breast.

What to serve with Sous Vide Duck Breast

With this sous vide duck breast recipe, we served with sauteed carrots and garlic mashed potatoes. It was perfect!

You could also serve this with something like our mushroom risotto, wild rice pilaf, and grilled asparagus.

More recipes to love

• Simple Sous Vide Chicken Breasts
• Sous Vide Pork Sirloin Roasts
• Simple Sous Vide Steak
• Instant Pot Shredded Chicken Breasts from Frozen
• Traeger Grilled Chicken Breast