One of my favorite recipes in my cookbook Duck, Duck, Goose: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking Waterfowl, Both Farmed and Wild is a Thai green curry duck. This red curry duck is an alternate version, one that’s every bit as popular in Thailand.
I consider myself a pretty good cook, but whenever I venture outside the Western tradition I try to seek out people who know more about the food than I do. In this case, my friend Jax Phongsavath’s mom. Jax is as American as I am, but her mom is from Thailand.
Nervously, I ran my green curry past her. I was overjoyed to get the “Thai Mom Seal of Approval” for that recipe. Only thing Jax said to me was that her mom usually made Thai red curry with duck.
So here it is: Red curry duck with a Thai mom’s seal of approval. Hope you like it!
The highlights of this curry are, other than the duck, that great warm-rich feeling you get when you combine coconut milk and chiles, and the sweet-tart high notes of the pineapple chunks. If you hate fish sauce, you can skip it, but Jax’s mother will be sad. I prefer Three Crabs brand fish sauce, but Red Boat is also good.
Serve this with white steamed rice and a crisp beer, or an off-dry white wine such as a Gewurztraminer. Once you make this recipe, you can reheat it as leftovers for a few days.
A word on the curry paste. The store-bought ones are very good, especially if you can find Mae Ploy. But if you want to make your own Thai red curry paste, this is a pretty good recipe.
If you’re looking for something Asian, but a little different to make with your duck legs, try my Sriracha Honey Lime Duck Legs instead.
Thai Red Curry Duck
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil
- 1 tablespoon minced lemongrass (optional, white parts only)
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 yellow onion, sliced thinly top to root
- 2 to 6 small hot chiles, chopped
- 1/4 cup Thai red curry paste
- 1 13- ounce can coconut milk
- 2 tablespoon fish sauce (optional)
- 1 pound diced, peeled potatoes
- 2 tablespoons sugar (palm sugar if you can get it)
- 1 cup pineapple chunks
- 1 pound duck or goose breasts, sliced thin
- Lime juice to taste
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Heat the peanut oil in a wok or a heavy saute pan over high heat. The moment it smokes, add the lemongrass, ginger and garlic and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the onion and chiles stir-fry another minute or two, then mix in the curry paste. Stir-fry the curry paste until it begins to separate a little, about 2 minutes.
- Pour in the coconut milk and stir well to combine. Fill up the coconut milk can with water and pour that in, too. Add the fish sauce and the potatoes and simmer, covered, until the potatoes are almost tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.
- When the potatoes are just about tender, add the pineapple chunks and the sugar. Add salt or more fish sauce to taste. Cook the pineapple for a minute or two before adding in the sliced duck breast.
- The duck breast will release some juice in a minute or two. When it does, stir the curry well and add the cilantro and lime juice to taste. Turn off the heat and serve immediately over white rice.
Used some diver ducks for this and added baby corn and water chestnuts. It was delicious!
Absolutely superb recipe. Perfect flavour combination and your recipe and instructions were easy to follow and spot on. Even non duck fans would like this, tender, melt in your mouth perfection. Thank you, nailed it.
Hi Hank – can’t wait to try this recipe. Had a question – if I’m using duck legs, specifically diver duck legs, at what point should I be adding them into this to ensure they’re tender and fall off the bone? Or would it be better to slow cook those beforehand and then follow this recipe as it is? Appreciate your site and all that you do!
Jordan: If you are using legs, you can do either. If you braise them in this curry, know that it will take about 90 minutes to 2 hours or so, so you will want to leave out any ingredient that will get hammered in that time until the meat is tender. Then add them in.
How long does it take for duck to cook?
Melina: Until it’s tender. Sorry, but with wild game the bird could have been a year old… or 30 years old. You never know. But with farmed ducks, about 90 minutes should do it.
Absolutely delicious. I substituted rice for potatoes, and mangos for pineapple. Perfect blend of spice and flavour.
My first recipe after a successful Arkansas duck hunt. A beautiful blend of authentic Asian ingredients, giving both a spicy and sweet flavor. I added a pinch of turmeric and chopped up the heart and gizzard giblets for extra flavor in the sauce. Well Done Hank!
I just made this recipe the other night. It was extremely satisfying; it was at least as good as I would expect to eat in a restaurant, which always makes trying something new worth chancing. The recipe was easy, and the ingredients were not obscure or onerous to gather. Your recipes are consistently high-caliber. Another homerun, Hank. Thanks!