Duck a l’Orange
with Duck Fat Mashed Potatoes & Arugula Almond Salad
- Tree Nuts
- Milk
Think a dish like ‘duck à l'orange’ requires a plane ticket to France, or, at the very least, a reservation at the fanciest French restaurant in town? Think again! This luxurious meal can be whipped up from the comfort of your very own kitchen—in 40 minutes, no less. There’s pan-seared duck glazed in a savory-sweet, thyme-flecked orange sauce, creamy duck fat mashed potatoes, and an arugula salad bursting with juicy orange segments, pickled shallot, and almonds. Take your taste buds on a trip—no passport required!
Ingredients
12 ounce
Potatoes
2 ounce
Arugula
¼ ounce
Thyme
1 unit
Apricot Jam
2 tablespoon
Sour Cream
1 unit
Chicken Stock Concentrate
12 ounce
Duck Breasts
5 teaspoon
Red Wine Vinegar
1 unit
Orange
2 teaspoon
Dijon Mustard
1 unit
Shallot
½ ounce
Sliced Almonds
(Contains: Tree Nuts)
Not included in your delivery
2 teaspoon (tsp)
Olive Oil
2 tablespoon (tbsp)
Butter
(Contains: Milk)
1 teaspoon (tsp)
Sugar
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• Wash and dry produce. • Dice potatoes into ½-inch pieces. (TIP: For a smoother texture, peel potatoes first.) Place in a large pot with a few thyme sprigs (you’ll use the rest in step 3) and enough salted water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, 15-20 minutes. • Remove and discard thyme sprigs. Reserve ½ cup potato cooking liquid, then drain and return potatoes to pot. • Keep covered off heat until ready to mash.
• Meanwhile, pat duck* dry with paper towels; season all over with salt and pepper. • Place, skin sides down, in a large, preferably nonstick, pan. Cook over medium heat, carefully reserving fat in a small bowl as it renders, until skin is crisp, 15-20 minutes. TIP: Lower heat if skin begins to brown too quickly. • While duck cooks, halve, peel, and thinly slice half the shallot (whole shallot for 4 servings). Toss sliced shallot in a separate small bowl with half the vinegar (you’ll use the rest in the next step), 1 tsp sugar (1½ tsp for 4), and a big pinch of salt and pepper.
• Strip thyme leaves from remaining sprigs until you have 1 tsp (2 tsp for 4 servings); roughly chop leaves. • Zest orange until you have 1 tsp (2 tsp for 4). Halve orange; squeeze juice from one orange half into a third small bowl. Peel remaining orange half; dice into ½-inch pieces. (For 4, squeeze juice from two orange halves; peel and dice remaining orange.) • To bowl with orange juice, add jam, stock concentrate, half the orange zest, and remaining vinegar.
• Once skin is crisp, flip duck and cook to desired doneness, 3-5 minutes more. Transfer to a cutting board to rest. • Add chopped thyme to same pan over medium heat and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds. • Stir in orange juice mixture and bring to a simmer. Cook until thickened, 2-3 minutes. • Stir in 1 TBSP butter until melted. Turn off heat.
• Heat pot with drained potatoes over medium-low heat. Mash with sour cream and 1 TBSP butter (2 TBSP for 4 servings) until smooth and creamy, adding splashes of reserved potato cooking liquid as needed. • Stir in reserved duck fat to taste. Season with salt and pepper. • Keep covered off heat until ready to serve.
• In a large bowl, combine shallot pickling liquid, mustard, a large drizzle of olive oil, remaining orange zest, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Toss with arugula, pickled shallot, diced orange, and almonds. Season with salt and pepper. • Slice duck crosswise. Divide between plates along with salad and mashed potatoes. Spoon sauce over duck and serve.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Feb 2026- Flavor: Many found the duck and orange sauce delicious, with some calling it restaurant-quality and their favorite HelloFresh meal ever 🎉
- Ease of prep: Several noted it was more complex than expected, with multiple steps, but most felt it was worth the effort.
- Suggestions: Consider scoring the duck skin for better fat rendering; some preferred less mustard in the salad dressing.
- Leftovers: The duck reheated well, with some saying it tasted even better the next day.
- Portions: A few mentioned the duck portions were smaller than expected for a premium meal.
Reviews from our home cooks
Wow, this one is amazing! The Duck is crispy but juicy with a savory flavor and an amazing sweet orange sauce. The potatoes are so rich and creamy with the duck fat mixed into them, balanced with thyme. The salad is wonderfully acidic with citrus and vinegar cutting through the rich fat flavors of the duck and potatoes. This is a fantastically decadent meal for when you want something extra special.
One of Hello Fresh's best meals that will make you lick your plate clean. The duck is amazing and is even better with the a l'orange sauce on top. The mashed potatoes are amazing with the duck fat mixed in. Then to add the salad with that wonderful dressing, all parts are perfect and perfect together. I am surprised this isn't a Hall of Fame meal. I never thought I could cook duck myself at home but Hello Fresh made it possible and made it awesome!
Wonderfully decadent! I have gotten duck l'orange from Blue Apron, and this one came out better. I added the zest of the orange to the sauce as well. I also would suggest scoring the duck skin for much better results. The duck fat potatoes were just insanely decadent. I might have preferred potatoes roasted in duck fat instead of mashed potatoes. The portion was way too big with the size of the salad and the amount of potatoes.
This was so delicious. We love the fruits in salad combinations you have in several meals and arugula is a nice bitter foil to the sweet orange. We also love the pickled shallots. Duck is one of my favorite meats and the quality was excellent and the sauce easy and pungent and a smooth syrupy texture. Mashed potatoes are always a treat.
The duck, sauce, and mashed potatoes were great. However, the salad dressing for the arugula was almost pure acid (too much orange in the recipe, perhaps, with nothing to balance it). It was very unpleasant, and we couldn't eat it.
One of the best meals I have ever had. The duck was exceptional! Apricot sauce hit the spot. The arugula salad was fresh and fun. I roasted extra Brussels sprouts with baby carrots added oranges, olive oil little honey to go as appetizer. I always like more green vegetables. The Duck with orange apricot sauce & thyme was exceptional.
This French dish is the definition of gourmet. The star of the show is the pan-seared duck breast with the orange sauce, just wow. I can't say enough about using the Duck fat in the Mashed Potatoes, and the salad balances the whole meal by using citrus acid to cut through any fats.
Super easy version of duck a l'orange and very tasty. Will definitely get this again. Roasted the potatoes instead of mashed.
Great meal I love duck and this was fun to make. The potatoes I recommend you mash with the sour cream first then add the rendered fat and if you like more thin potatoes the water. I did notice a few very small unplucked feathers but they were easy to take out after cooking. The orange sauce was great and something I will make more of on a larger scale (you can buy rendered duck fat separately). My only regret is I saved this for last!
Amazing! Great meal to get introduced to duck meat for the first time. The level of difficulty was harder than normal but overall meal came out great. Duck was well seasoned with my own seasoning and tender. The mashed potatoes were good, couldn't really taste the duck fat. Could go without the salad because not a fan of arugula but wasn't bad. Would get again to make.
