Duck Breast with Apple, Bourbon, and Rosemary Glaze

Ingredients

• 10 to 12 duck breasts, depending on size of breasts
• 1 bag Honeycrisp apples
• 2 large bunches fresh rosemary
• 2 yellow onions, roughly chopped
• 1 cup of good bourbon
• 2 cups chicken stock made from jarred chicken base
• 1 jar apple jelly
• 2 sticks salted butter
• Salt
• Pepper
• 4 tbsp blackstrap molasses

Instructions

1. 1
   Trim the tenderloin and the white film from the duck breast. Rinse and dry each breast, scoring the skin without slicing through to the meat under the fatty layer and salt each breast on the skin side. Let sit and come to room temp at least for 15 minutes.
2. 2
   In a saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat. Sauté onions, salt, and pepper until the onions start to turn golden, stirring occasionally. While the onions cook, peel and chop 4 apples and put in the saucepan with the onion.
3. 3
   Add ¾ cups of bourbon to the apple and onion mixture and turn heat to high. Cook down by half. Add molasses.
4. 4
   Keeping the mixture at a vigorous simmer, put several hearty sprigs of rosemary into the pan, then pour in the chicken stock and – keeping at a vigorous simmer – cook down by half.
5. 5
   Add ½ cup (or more, to taste) of the apple jelly to help thicken it. Keep the mixture simmering while you work on the breasts.
6. 6
   Dry the duck breasts again (if they are sweating or if the salt drew out any moisture). Using 2 large cast iron pans, put the breasts skin side down into a COLD PAN, turning on the heat to medium-high and letting the fatty skin side sear to a nice brown. When brown, turn, reduce heat, and cook for another 1 or 2 minutes. Do not cover (if you cover, you’ll lose the crispiness of the skin). Depending on the size of the breasts, you can probably do about 5 (small) breasts to a pan for the searing.
7. 7
   Remove breasts from pan and let rest for 5 minutes while you finish the sauce.
8. 8
   Turn down the heat on the sauce, taste, and add salt and pepper. Then whisk in several tablespoons of cold butter.
9. 9
   Slice each breast into 3 or 4 thick planks and arrange on a platter. Spoon sauce over the breasts at the last minute, garnishing with rosemary (and apples, if you have time to thinly slice and arrange on platter). Serve additional sauce in a pitcher, removing rosemary sprigs.