Duck and Roasted Garlic Quesadillas with Tomatillo Salsa Recipe

How to make it

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• *** If you like, the duck, peppers, and garlic can be roasted a day ahead of time.
• *** The tomatillo salsa can also be made 1 to 2 days ahead of time.
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• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• Rinse the duck with cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle the duck with salt and pepper and place in roasted pan breast side up. (A single layer if using duck legs).
• Roast 1/2 hour, then turn oven down to 350 degrees. Continue to roast for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Check for doneness as with a chicken.
• Remove duck from oven and let cool until easily handled with your fingers. Remove and discard skin. Separate duck meat from the bone. Shred the meat with your fingers or by using two forks. Toss the duck meat with 1 teaspoon chili powder and refrigerate until needed (up to one day ahead).
• While the duck is cooking, roast the garlic and peppers. Without peeling, cut off about a 1/4 from the top of each garlic head. Wrap the garlic heads loosely with foil and place in oven for about an hour or until the garlic becomes very soft. Remove from oven and let cool. To remove the roasted garlic from the husks, just squeeze it out the open end into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.
• Blacken the skin of the Poblano or Anaheim chiles by roasting under a broiler, turning occasionally. Alternatively, blacken the peppers on a hot grill, a dry cast iron pan, or by holding the peppers with tongs over your gas stovetop. The peppers do not need to be completely blackened and will actually have a burnt taste if you over do it. Once blackened, transfer the peppers to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
• When the peppers have cooled, remove the blackened skin with your fingers and discard. (If you are sensitive to pepper oil, you may want to wear gloves). Use a paring knife to cut a slit in the pepper and remove the seeds and stem. Do not rinse the peppers in water as this will remove a lot of the flavor, some seeds are okay. Cut the peppers into thin strips.
• To Make the Tomatillo Salsa
• This salsa can be one day ahead if you desire.
• Preheat the broiler of your oven.
• Place the tomatillos in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Place under broiler and cook until tomatillos begin to soften (about 15 minutes). Remove from broiler and allow to cool slightly.
• To a food processor, add the tomatillos, garlic cloves, cilantro, jalapenos (or serranos), and 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt. Depending on the size of your food processor, you may want to do this in two batches. Pulse the mixture until the salsa is well combined but still a little on the chunky side. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the chopped corn. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate.
• Make the Quesadillas
• Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Heat a large cast iron pan or lightly oiled skillet.
• Add one tortilla to the hot pan and top evenly with 1/5 of the duck meat, roasted peppers, shredded cheese, and roasted garlic. Place another tortilla on top of filling. Let bottom tortilla get light brown, then flip quesadilla over and brown that side. Transfer to a cookie sheet. Repeat this process for remaining tortillas. Once you have assembled and browned all the quesadillas, place the cookie sheet in the preheated oven (or just before serving). Bake for about 10 minutes to get everything hot.
• Cut quesadillas into wedges and serve with tomatillo salsa and sour cream.