Pulled Duck Quesadilla Recipe

As a duck hunter, I'm constantly searching for new recipes for cooking wild duck. Recently we went to a restaurant and ordered an appetizer called Pulled Duck Quesadilla. I was skeptical because normally the duck meat they use in restaurants isn't wild duck. There isn't a gamey duck taste to the meat; you may as well be eating chicken.

When the duck quesadilla arrived, however I was amazed at how good it was. It was truly a unique taste, but I could tell it wasn't wild duck. I wondered what it would taste like with real wild duck.

A wild duck has a distinct gamey taste, which I've come to love. Many wild duck recipes try to hide that taste by adding lots of spices and sauces. These are yummy recipes, but I always tone down the requested spices to preserve a hint of the gamey taste.

After our restaurant experience, my wife tried her own wild duck quesadilla recipe. As with a lot of her recipes she winged it.

The problem was figuring out a way to get the duck meat to shred. Wild duck meat is very fine grained, and is difficult to cut into strips let alone shredded pieces.

The problem was solved by pulling out our crock-pot and slow cooking the duck over the course of the day. We had about 6 duck breasts to cook but even twice this number would have worked fine.

To give the duck flavor, my wife added one bottle of smoke flavored barbecue sauce along with a quarter cup of honey. After stirring this all together she set the crock-pot on low and let it cook all day.

After about 7 or 8 hours she pulled the duck out of the crock-pot and was able to shred the duck meat easily using a fork.

The meat tasted incredible. It was sweet yet still maintained its hint of gaminess. It was far better than the restaurant duck we'd enjoyed earlier.

The rest of the process was simple. We browned a flour tortilla over the stovetop added cheese then put the duck on top and sandwiched it between another browned tortilla. We added sour cream and a little salsa and called it good.

Now, whenever we have wild duck this is the recipe we use. It requires some forethought because it needs to cook all day, but it's simple and incredibly tasty.

Recipe:

Wild duck breasts (as many as you want)

One quarter cup of honey

One regular bottle of smoky flavored barbecue sauce

Flour or wheat tortillas

Throw it all into a crock-pot (except the tortillas) and cook for 7 or 8 hours on low heat, then enjoy!