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Meet your new favourite indulgence, a bold, mouthwatering duck sandwich that takes comfort food to the next level.
Sumptuous crispy seared duck breast morsels layered onto a hot, soft Italian roll covered with sweet grilled onions and slathered with an epic homemade melting chilli cheese sauce with peppers and mushrooms. It’s a classic sandwich using the delicate succulence of a flavoursome duck breast with its crispy skin rather than frizzled beef used in the original. Duck loves a bit of spice so this duck sandwich is then hit with a hot cheese sauce infused with Korean Gochujang and then served with all the original extras.
A Philly Cheesesteak is a bit of an institution in the United States and especially Philadelphia. A soft Italian-style roll or hoagie is topped with grilled onions and crisped beef and smothered with melted cheese, it is so simple and effective to satiate ravenous appetites on the go, it became the sole focus for its original creators to sell from its humble side-walk hot-dog stand origins near the Italian market of Philadelphia back in the 1930s.
Aficionados claim that this staple sandwich must be made with thinly sliced frizzled rib-eye steak with soft, sweet grilled onions and topped with provolone cheese, although due to differing tastes or trends, many establishments, as a standard, will offer up a choice of three cheeses and two further toppings of green bell peppers and mushrooms.
The original cheese used and still a popular choice is provolone, an Italian semi hard cheese that is created with a technique also used in mozzarella production called pasta-filata where the curd is stretched. This cheese is also made with the introduction of an enzyme that derives from goats that gives it a wonderful piquant flavour. When aged and matured, the result is a sharp cheese that melts beautifully when grilled.
In the 1950s another product came onto the shelves in the form of Cheez Whiz. This is a processed cheese dip produced by Kraft Foods that often smothers other on-the-go foods such as hot-dogs and corn chips and has ever since been the go to cheese for a cheesesteak sandwich.
More recently, American pasteurised process cheese made with cheddar such as Cooper Sharp is offered. The slices of cheese have a higher milkfat content that give it a sharp cheddar taste whilst remaining creamy when melted, which seems to be the most popular attribute cheese needs to be able to give to a Philly cheesesteak.
A bold twist on the classic Philly
The classic sandwich will always have its place however, other Philly cheesesteak creations are now commonplace. The Heater for example is a Philly cheesesteak version served at the Phillies baseball games that’s made with jalapenos, buffalo sauce and chilli cheese for a hotter, spicier sandwich. Michelin restaurants also have their own versions with luxury wagyu steak and embellishments of truffle or other high end produce, and of course chicken versions can be chosen as well as vegan alternatives too and also served not only on sandwich rolls but in a skillet or on a pizza.
With this thought in mind, and to keep an homage to the original sandwich whilst maximising flavour and texture we have this duck Philly cheesesteak to offer.
Why use duck?
Whilst a rib-eye beef steak is an exceptional cut of meat and truly flavoursome, the sandwich calls for frizzled cuts. In other words crispy, well cooked pieces. Burnt ends are very tasty but come at the expense of cooking the meat thoroughly. A good steak can easily have a good sear on it whilst maintaining a rare or medium rare inside, but the sear won’t be as crispy as you can get with a succulent duck breast where the fatty skin can render down to a beautifully crunchy shell. The bite to a philly cheesesteak is important and duck has the best of both worlds by having the ability to be cooked rare or well done with a crispy skin, the choice is therefore yours to have as rare a texture as you want without losing that tougher bite. It must be said, that you could use pulled duck too to get the texture you would have in a chinese crispy duck pancake.
Duck meat does love a bit of sauce, just think of duck and hoisin, duck a l’orange or duck in plum sauce for example. Obviously here however, the sauce is a cheese sauce, if not just melted cheese, so this aspect gives us the chance to elevate the cheese element with even more flavour.
For this we are going down the asian route whilst still using inspiration from some of the other newer variations of a Philly cheesesteak and incorporating some spice. With some of the cheese sauces adding Jalapeños or buffalo sauce for some heat we are also adding a hot sauce but in this instance we are using Gochujang, the Korean sweet and spicy fermented chilli paste.
Epic home-made cheese sauce
One of the reasons Cheez Whiz has become the main go to cheese sauce for a Philly cheesesteak is that it can be poured on after the grilled items top the bread roll and still be warm and gooey itself. Provolone or other cheeses would need to be grilled on top of the sandwich giving a longer preparation time (not good if you are wanting to serve up hundreds of duck sandwiches one after the other from a stall) also, many of the customers would require kosher produce and meat and cheese on the one grill also was a no go.
This home-made cheese sauce not only looks the part but tastes the part and can also be used for your corn chips, hotdogs and even your pizzas and pastas, it’s brilliantly versatile.
The cheese combination that gives this the important sharp taste as well as the stringiness without giving this sauce a more European fondue-like flavour comes from Red Leicester, an english crumbly cheese similar to Cheddar that gets its red colour from annatto, a seed from the achiote tree which also gives it a peppery and nutmeg flavour, and American Monterey Jack cheese, prized for its creamy texture when melted on top of burgers etc.
We start by making an equal part roux with a tablespoon of salted butter and tablespoon of 00 flour and stir together in a pan to cook out. Simply add milk and stir to a thickened béchamel. Next, the grated cheeses go in which melt and combine in the sauce to create a wonderful orange hued and stringy sauce. One tablespoon of Gochujang or more if you like it hot gives an even more intense colour, very reminiscent of Cheez Whiz but more importantly adds a vibrant and complex sweet and spicy flavour, absolutely perfect for cheesesteaks, tacos and even lasagne. For a more American flavour, substitute the Gochujang with buffalo wing sauce such as Franks hot wing sauce. It’s certainly an amazing cheese sauce to save for your repertoire.
The other important components are the grilled or sautéed vegetables. Sweet onions which are softened and intensified in flavour are intrinsic to the sandwich, whilst green bell peppers and mushrooms can be added or omitted if preferred. The key for the onions is to cook them low and slow so that they caramelise. A good tip to cook duck too is to also fry it on a low heat skin side down so that the fat can render out and produce a crispy skin, placing both the duck and the chopped onions in the same low heat pan for 20 minutes will do the trick. This way the duck fat will also highly flavour the onions too. Once these are cooked chop the duck up into bite sized pieces and a quick frying off of the peppers and mushrooms is the only thing required.
Building your duck sandwich
A soft Italian style bread roll works best and nice if it is one you can bake for 5-6 minutes in the oven to warm up first.
First spread a good layer of the caramelised onions on top of the bread and liberally pile up the duck pieces on top. The cheese sauce, which can sit in a pan on very low heat to keep it saucy, can then be drizzled or smothered on top. You will most likely have a bit of sauce left, but that can stay in the fridge for a few more days to use on other dishes later in the week. Lastly garnish with the fried peppers and mushrooms and serve immediately.
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Duck Sandwich Philly-Style Loaded with Homemade Cheese Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 duck breasts
- 1 white onion chopped
- 10 mushrooms optional sliced
- ½ a green pepper optional sliced
- 2 Italian style bread rolls
Cheese sauce
- 120 g of grated Red Leicester / Monterey Jack or Provolone mixed
- 200 ml of full fat milk
- 1 tablespoon of Gochujang chilli paste
- 1 tablespoon of salted butter
- 1 tablespoon of 00 flour
Instructions
- Lightly score the skins of the duck breasts and rub with salt. Place into a non stick pan on a medium to low heat skins sides down. Add the chopped onion to the same pan and cook for 18-20 minutes regularly stirring the onions in the rendered duck fat. Occasionally turn the duck over to cook lightly on the underside but cook skin side down for much longer. Remove the duck and set aside to rest.
- (Optional) add the mushrooms and pepper and fry for 3-4 minutes and remove from the heat.
Cheese Sauce
- Melt the butter in a pan on a medium heat and add the flour and stir to fully incorporate. Continue to stir the roux on the heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the milk and whisk until thickened to a light bechamel.
- Stir in the grated cheeses until melted and add the gochujang chilli paste, set aside.
- Bake the bread rolls in the oven for 5-6 minutes to heat up. Slice in half.
- Remove the onions, mushrooms and peppers from the pan. Turn up the heat on the hob and return the duck breasts skin side down to the pan. Fry for 2-3 minutes to crisp up the skin.
- Place the duck breasts on a chopping board and cut into bite sized pieces.
- To build your duck sandwiches, spoon a generous layer of onion over each bottom bread slice. Top with the duck pieces followed by the mushrooms and peppers. Pour over the cheese sauce and place the top slice on top and serve.
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