Rich Red Wine Duck Jus Recipe

Homemade duck stock and a little patience are the keys to success for this spoon-coating sauce.

By
Sasha Marx
Sasha Marx
Senior Culinary Editor
Sasha is a senior culinary editor at Serious Eats. He has over a decade of professional cooking experience, having worked his way up through a number of highly regarded and award-winning restaurant kitchens, followed by years spent in test kitchens for food publications.
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Published January 31, 2020
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Photographs: Vicky Wasik

Why It Works

  • Homemade brown duck stock produces a sauce with rich, roasted-meat flavor while reduced red wine adds subtle sweetness and acidity.
  • Powdered gelatin gives the sauce added body without the need for purchasing and simmering extra collagen-rich bones.
  • An optional spoonful of shio koji gives the jus added savory depth and strengthens the background sweetness of the wine.

Making a glossy, spoon-coating, restaurant-worthy jus at home isn't hard. It just requires time, patience, and some high-quality, homemade stock.

For our Big Duck Project, we wanted to pull out all the stops for a duck jus worthy of the occasion. To make this sauce, we start by reducing our brown duck stock and red wine separately on the stovetop, until the wine has cooked off most of its alcohol and concentrated to a syrup. The reduced wine is then added to the simmering stock, along with some bloomed gelatin that gives the jus body without the need for purchasing a bunch of collagen-rich bones to cook down with the stock.

As the stock simmers and reduces, fat and impurities are skimmed off, to produce a smooth, silky sauce. For the best results, we recommend straining the jus into a smaller saucepan as it cooks down, to get rid of any sediment particles from the stock. This optional step may seem fastidious, but it leads to a shiny sauce, free of any grit.

Once the jus has reduced to the perfect spoon-coating consistency, it's ready to be seasoned. Season a sauce that is still reducing is always a risk, since it's possible the salt will grow overly concentrated as the water content evaporates. Holding off on seasoning until the very end therefore ensures that we aren't left with an inedibly salty sauce.

The duck jus can be simply seasoned with salt, or you can stir in a spoonful of blended-smooth shio koji, which lends the sauce not just salt but also savory depth as well as a little background sweetness. Either way, you will be left with a rich, meaty jus, perfect for spooning over roast duck and vegetables alike.

Recipe Details

Rich Red Wine Duck Jus Recipe

Active 15 mins
Total 90 mins
Serves 12 servings
Makes 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients

  • 2 quarts (2L) brown duck stock, divided

  • 1/2 ounce (2 packets; 14g) powdered gelatin, such as Knox

  • One 750ml bottle dry red wine

  • 1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30ml) shio koji, blended until smooth (optional, see note)

  • Kosher salt

Directions

  1. Pour 1 cup (240ml) of duck stock in small bowl or liquid measuring cup and evenly sprinkle gelatin over surface of stock. Set aside. Transfer remaining stock to 3-quart saucier. Pour wine into separate medium-size saucepan.

    20200116-duck-jus-vicky-wasik-gelatin

  2. Set saucepans of wine and stock on stovetop and bring each to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to maintain both at a rapid simmer. Cook, uncovered, until wine is reduced to syrupy consistency that measures about 1/2 cup (120ml) in volume, about 40 minutes.

    20200116-duck-jus-vicky-wasik-reducing

  3. Add reduced wine and gelatin-enriched stock to saucier of simmering stock. Continue to cook, adjusting heat to maintain simmer and occasionally skimming fat and scum from surface of liquid with a ladle, until liquid has darkened in color, thickened to a sauce-like consistency, and reduced to about 1 1/2 cups (355ml), about 50 minutes. For glossy jus with few impurities in it, midway through reducing, strain jus through a fine-mesh strainer into a smaller saucepan and continue to reduce until liquid has achieved proper consistency.

    20200116-duck-jus-vicky-wasik-skimming-fat

  4. Using a spoon, test the consistency of sauce; jus should coat the back of a spoon when dipped in it, and when you drag a finger over the spoon, it should leave a clear path.

    20200116-duck-jus-vicky-wasik14

  5. Season jus with shio koji (if using), adding 1 tablespoon (15ml) at a time and stirring to incorporate into the sauce, until desired flavor is reached. Season with salt (if using shio koji, additional salt may not be needed). Jus can be used right away or cooled and refrigerated in airtight container until ready to use.

    20200116-duck-jus-vicky-wasik19

Special Equipment

3-quart stainless steel saucier, fine-mesh strainer

Notes

Shio koji adds savory depth, salinity, and subtle sweetness to the jus, but the success of the sauce doesn't hinge on its inclusion. If you don't have any shio koji on hand, you can simply omit it, or substitute an equal volume amount of kecap manis. The flavor of Indonesian sweet soy sauce is different from that of shio koji but hits on many of the same notes—salty, sweet, slightly funky, and umami.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Duck jus can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 month, or frozen for up to 6 months. To reheat, warm gently in a saucepan over low heat or in a microwave-safe container in the microwave.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
355 Calories
20g Fat
1g Carbs
38g Protein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 12
Amount per serving
Calories 355
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 20g 26%
Saturated Fat 6g 29%
Cholesterol 115mg 38%
Sodium 194mg 8%
Total Carbohydrate 1g 0%
Dietary Fiber 0g 0%
Total Sugars 0g
Protein 38g
Vitamin C 0mg 0%
Calcium 19mg 1%
Iron 2mg 11%
Potassium 340mg 7%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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