Smoked Duck Breast

Name: Smoked Duck Breast
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 70 min
Ingredients: 2 duck breasts; 2 tsp fresh thyme (minced); 1 tsp smoked paprika; 1 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp pepper

Smoking duck breasts is a simple and delicious way to highlight the duck’s natural flavors

By Mark Hinds | Updated February 2, 2023

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Gently smoked duck breasts have a rich smokey flavor that highlights the duck’s natural goodness, creating a perfect dish for nice dinners.

This is a surprisingly easy dish to make, especially for one that’s done in a smoker. The relatively short cooking time makes it one of the few smoker recipes we’ve found that can be made after you get home from work on a weeknight.

Smoking Duck

The key to smoking duck breasts is making sure you smoke them long enough to cook them all the way through, but not so long that they become tired and rubbery.

To highlight the flavors in the duck, this recipe uses thyme and smoked paprika, which helps accentuate the smoking process. During testing, we used apple and hickory wood chips for smoking, each producing equally delicious duck.

We’ve found that smoking the duck at 250ºF for around an hour produced succulent medium-rare duck breasts. The duck ends up having an almost luxurious taste that melts in your mouth.

If you like your duck to have the shiny, crisp look that fancy restaurants give their ducks, an optional step is to further crisp the duck, skin side down, in a hot pan for 2 to 3 minutes after it’s finished smoking.

If you want to learn more about smoking, read A Complete Guide to Smoking Food for helpful recipes and tips.

Some side dishes that taste great with this recipe are Simple Italian Risotto, Creamed Corn, and Wild Rice with Butternut Squash and Dried Cherries.

When it comes to desserts with complementary flavors, try baking a Maple Cinnamon Bundt Cake or homemade Rhubarb Bars with a warm inviting shortbread crust.