Honey Merlot Crispy Duck Legs

With the end of summer and the start of the school year, Rosh Hashanah seems to sneak up on the calendar each year. This often means we are sort of stuck scrambling to pull together a proper menu to bring in a “sweet new year.” When Simone and I were writing The New Yiddish Kitchen, we wanted to make sure that each holiday had a menu designated for it so that the guesswork could be avoided.

While we were working on the manuscript, I connected with Kol Foods who I just love because they bridge the gap between paleo and kosher by honoring both practices. They asked me to collaborate with them and Kosher Wine to create a delicious Rosh Hashanah recipe pairing two of their products together AND help promote their GIVEAWAY which you can find HERE!  You don’t want to miss out on free wine and meat do you!! The answer is nope.

Anyway, I was very excited to see what surprises I might open in the mail…can you say Hanukkah in July?! When I opened the duck legs from Kol Foods and 4 wine options from Kosher Wine, I have to say I was a little intimidated. To be honest I have never cooked duck before! I have a favorite duck hash dish I order at my go-to brunch spot, but make it at home? Nope! Now I was not about to ruin the beautiful duck legs I received, nor did I want to waste a drop of that delicious wine, so I studied online for a hours before I finally took the plunge.

I absolutely love love love the end product! I ended up pairing the duck legs with the merlot and wanted to create a honey infused sauce for a sweet new year of course! I used cast iron to make this dish so it could transfer from stovetop to oven. Of course a dutch oven would be perfect as well, I just didn’t have one!

Ingredients:

• 4 duck legs
• Sea salt/Pepper to taste
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 cups carrots, diced
•  1 cup merlot wine
• 1/4 cup local raw honey
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 cup chicken broth
• Parsley to garnish

1. Begin by trimming off excess fat on the underside of each duck leg
2. Preheat your oven to 375
3. Next season your duck legs with sea salt and black pepper on both sides
4. Now sear the duck legs in a large, deep, heated cast iron skillet over high heat for around 7-8 minutes, before flipping them over to cook the underside for about 3-4 minutes
5. Remove the duck legs from the skillet and pour out the duck fat, reserving 1-2 tablespoons to cook your veggies (You may save this valuable duck fat to cook in later!)
6. Now introduce your onions and carrots to the pan and saute in the reserved duck fat until the onions become translucent, around 10 minutes
7. While your veggies are cooking, combine your honey, merlot, chicken broth, garlic sea salt, and onion powder in a small saucepan over high heat on a separate burner, simmering for 10-12 minutes or until it reduces by about 1/3
8.  Now place your seared duck legs back into your skillet, on top of the sauteed veggies
9. Pour the honey merlot sauce over the the legs and veggie mixture
10. Now carefully cover your cast iron and slide it into the oven and cook for 90 minutes (covered the entire time)
11. Very carefully remove your hot cast iron from the oven and serve, garnished with parsley and extra coarse sea salt!
12. Note: If you want to crisp up your duck even more, you can use the broil feature on your oven but be careful not to burn as broiling takes only a minute or two