Instant Pot Adventures – Muscovy Duck! |

We just hopped on the Instant Pot bandwagon recently, and last week we tried a pot roast in it – yum! This week, I decided to defrost some of our homestead special- muscovy duck breasts- and give that a whirl in the Insta…

BACKSTORY: We live on a little farmette, with our dog, cat, chickens, and these beaux (beautiful) ducks!

Muscovies aren’t just known for their unique beauty, but for their “filet mignon” taste as well.

We have had our muscovies for three-ish years now. The ladies are really good nesters early summer and always find a way to sneak off in the yard, make a nest, lay about 20-ish eggs, and then hatch them. This makes for some interesting surprises every summer, as we see a baby duck parade usually mid-July. They’re cute and cuddly, then they grow up, and the males tend to be très excité (very, um, excited) to procreate. That’s when Chou chou comes in – he helps pare down the flock, choosing males to butcher and place in the freezer. Long story short, we have about five pairs of duck breasts packaged in the freezer. They tend to stay in the freezer, because I have yet to figure out a way to cook them well.

Between the Instant Pot acquisition and a new recipe I found, I am no longer afraid to cook duck. The recipe is for Duck Confit, and I love this post in particular because it talks about how you can use the Instant Pot to your advantage to make better meals quicker. I love the reasoning behind Clark’s recipe book:

“In this book, I focus on the machine’s strengths, writing not about what you can make in it, but what you should make because the electric pressure cooker does it better—faster, or more flavorfully, or with less mess and/or stress.”
From Melissa Clark’s book Dinner in an Instant

As per the usual, I didn’t follow the exact directions – I had duck breasts which I used instead of the duck legs. When I plated the duck and we ate it last night, Chou chou said it was the most tender he’d ever tried. He was super impressed, and Mon Cœur kept saying, “More duck.” Oh it made my heart sing, and made me so happy to know that I’ve found a recipe for duck now!