Best A La Orange Sauce Recipes

DUCK A L'ORANGE

Steps:

• Roast duck:
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 475°F.
• Stir together salt, coriander, cumin, and pepper. Pat duck dry and sprinkle inside and out with spice mixture. Cut 1 half of orange into quarters and put in duck cavity with thyme, marjoram, parsley, and 4 onion wedges.
• Squeeze juice from remaining half of orange and stir together with wine and stock. Set aside.
• Spread remaining 4 onion wedges in roasting pan with carrot and celery, then place duck on top of vegetables and roast 30 minutes.
• Pour wine mixture into roasting pan and reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Continue to roast duck until thermometer inserted into a thigh (close to but not touching bone) registers 170°F, 1 to 1 1/4 hours more. Turn on broiler and broil duck 3 to 4 inches from heat until top is golden brown, about 3 minutes.
• Tilt duck to drain juices from cavity into pan and transfer duck to a cutting board, reserving juices in pan. Let duck stand 15 minutes.
• Make sauce:
• While duck roasts, cook sugar in a dry 1-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, undisturbed, until it begins to melt. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally with a fork, until sugar melts into a deep golden caramel. Add orange juice, vinegar, and salt (use caution; mixture will bubble and steam vigorously) and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until caramel is dissolved. Remove syrup from heat.
• Discard vegetables from roasting pan and pour pan juices through a fine-mesh sieve into a 1-quart glass measure or bowl, then skim off and discard fat. Add enough stock to pan juices to total 1 cup liquid.
• Stir together butter and flour to form a beurre manié. Bring pan juices to a simmer in a 1- to 2-quart heavy saucepan, then add beurre manié, whisking constantly to prevent lumps. Add orange syrup and zest and simmer, whisking occasionally, until sauce is thickened slightly and zest is tender, about 5 minutes. Serve with duck.
• Available at D'Artagnan (800-327-8246).

CHICKEN A LA ORANGE

Steps:

• In a skillet, brown chicken breasts in 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Cook till juices run clear.
• Add orange juice to the pan. When juice just begins to bubble around the edges of the pan, add corn starch dissolved in hot water. Mix ginger and honey together in a cup, and add to orange juice. Cook until sauce is thick and slightly browned. Serve.

DUCK BREAST A L'ORANGE

Steps:

• Place sugar in a medium saucepan and set over medium-high heat. As sugar begins to melt, use a fork to gently stir sugar from edges to center of pan. Continue stirring in this manner until sugar is a deep amber color.
• Remove caramel from heat and carefully stir in vinegar, orange zest and juice, chicken broth, and shallot. Return to medium-high heat and boil, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 2/3 cup, 20 to 25 minutes.
• Score fat of duck breasts with the tip of a knife in a crosshatch pattern to form 1-inch diamonds. Season both sides of breasts with salt and pepper. Place breasts, fat side down, in a medium skillet and place over medium-high heat. Cook undisturbed until skin is crisp and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Flip and continue cooking to desired doneness, about 8 minutes more for medium-rare (125 degrees). Allow meat to rest 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
• Add orange supremes to sauce and pour over sliced duck just before serving.

CLASSIC DUCK A L'ORANGE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
• Roughly chop the orange rinds after juicing and place in the cleaned duck cavity. Place the stuffed duck on a baking rack over a baking sheet with 1/2-inch of water. Bake until skin turns golden brown and lightly crisps, about 30 minutes. Reduce temperature to 300 degrees and continue cooking until duck reaches an internal temperature of 170 degrees, about 1 hour.
• In a medium heavy saucepan combine the orange juice, zest and sugar over medium high heat and reduce nearly 3/4 in volume, to about 3/4 cup. Add bitters to orange juice gastrique, and set aside. Place duck stock in clean saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Add hot stock to reduced orange gastrique, and continue to simmer over medium low heat for 10 minutes to make sauce.
• Remove duck from roasting pan and discard drippings in bottom of pan. Return duck to roasting pan and place pan over 2 burners over medium high heat. Add orange liqueur to pan and cook off the alcohol, scraping the pan continuously with a large wooden spoon. Add 1 cup of the orange sauce to the roasting pan and cook 1 minute. Remove duck from the pan and discard orange rinds in cavity. Place duck on serving platter and let sit 10 minutes before carving. Combine roasting pan juices and orange sauce in a gravy boat and serve with carved duck.

CHEF JOHN'S ORANGE DUCK

Steps:

• Score duck skin almost all the way through the skin and fat each way on the diagonal in a crosshatch pattern. Generously season with salt and rub salt into each breast. Let rest, skin-side up, at room temperature, for 15 minutes.
• Whisk chicken broth, orange liqueur, sherry vinegar, orange marmalade, orange zest, and cayenne pepper together in a small bowl.
• Pat duck breasts dry with paper towels. Re-season skin-side of duck breasts with salt.
• Heat duck fat in a heavy skillet over medium heat for 2 minutes. Place duck in skillet, skin-side down, and cook for 6 minutes. Flip duck breasts and cook until they start to firm and are reddish-pink and juicy in the center, about 4 minutes more. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read 140 degrees F (60 degrees C). Transfer breasts to a plate to rest. Pour any rendered duck fat into a glass jar.
• Return skillet to medium heat and whisk flour into pan; cook and stir until flour is completely incorporated, about 1 minute. Pour orange mixture into skillet; bring to a boil. Cook until sauce thickens and is reduced, 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low. When orange mixture stops bubbling, add butter; stir until butter is completely melted and incorporated into the sauce, about 1 minute. Season with salt to taste.
• Slice duck breasts across the grain, arrange on a plate, and spoon orange sauce over the top.