Fragrant Crispy Duck Recipes

HONEY ROAST DUCK RECIPE

Steps:

• Completely defrost the duck in the refrigerator for 2-3 days if using a frozen duck, then remove giblets and neck. Rinse well, inside and out, with cold water and pat completely dry using paper towels. Let the duck sit out on the counter for 30 minutes to come up in temperature a bit.
• Use a sharp knife to score the skin on the duck's breast in a diamond pattern, trying to cut only the skin without reaching the breast meat below. If there are other fatty areas like where the duck legs connect to the body, give those a poke or slash as well.
• Stuff the cavity of the duck with garlic cloves, a quartered onion, and a couple sprigs of rosemary. You could also use lemon slices or a quartered apple.
• Fold the loose skin on both ends of the duck to hold everything inside and tie the duck legs with butcher's twine or string to truss it by tying a loop around one duck leg, then crossing it over the other leg and wrapping the twine around both legs a time or two, then tying it off.
• In a small bowl, combine the salt, paprika, garlic powder, and pepper, then rub over all over the duck.
• Place the duck with the scored breast side up on a wire cooling rack over a baking sheet or on the rack of a large roasting pan.
• Start the duck by roasting it at a higher temperature of 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then decrease the oven temp to 350 degrees and roast for 1 hour and 15 minutes. At the 60 minute mark, brush half of the honey over the duck, then cook for 10 minutes before brushing the duck with the remaining honey.
• If the juices are still running pink after a total of 1 1/2 hours, let it roast another 15 minutes before pulling it out of the oven and tenting with foil for 15 minutes to let the juices redistribute before carving. The duck will be done with the juice running from the thigh after poking it are just barely a rosy pink color.

CRISPY FRAGRANT DUCK WITH PICKLED RADISH SALAD

Steps:

• To make the marinade: Put the garlic, rice wine, honey, chile sauce, light soy sauce, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice into a bowl or resealable plastic food bag, and set aside.
• To make the duck: Add the duck legs to the marinade, cover with plastic wrap, and leave in the refrigerator to marinate for as long as possible, preferably overnight.
• To make the salad: Put the radish, cucumber, chile, if using, cilantro, rice vinegar, sugar, salt, and rice wine, in a bowl and toss to combine. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and set aside in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
• To finish the duck: Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F.
• Place the duck legs, skin side up, in a roasting pan, and roast for 10 minutes. Then, raise the temperature of the oven to 425 degrees F for 5 minutes to cook the meat to well done. Remove the duck from the oven, and set aside for 2 minutes, to cool slightly.
• Cut the duck meat into bite-sized slices, and dust the slices in the flour to coat well.
• Heat a wok or heavy-bottomed pan over a high heat, and fill it to a quarter of its depth with enough groundnut oil.
• Heat the oil to 350 degrees F, or until a cube of bread dropped in it turns golden brown in 15 seconds. Place the duck pieces in a spider scoop or wire strainer, and lower them into the oil and fry until crispy, and golden brown. Remove the duck from the pan, and drain on an absorbent kitchen towel to remove the excess oil.
• To serve, spoon some pickled radish salad onto a serving plate and lay some of the crispy duck slices over the top. Sprinkle a pinch of salt, and some dried chile flakes over the duck pieces and serve immediately.

CHINATOWN STEAMED AND ROASTED DUCK

Steps:

• Duck is notoriously a fatty bird, to diminish the fat and produce a crispy skin, begin by trimming the excess fat from the neck and body. Rinse the duck, inside and out, and pat dry thoroughly with paper towels. Combine the Chinese five-spice, sugar, and salt in a small bowl. Rub the spice mixture all over the duck, inside and out. Salt and five-spice powder makes a fragrant dry marinade, which draws some of the moisture from the duck so that the spices penetrate. Stuff the duck cavity with the aromatics: the ginger, garlic, green onions, and tangerine peel. Fold the wing tips back under the duck and tie the legs together with kitchen string. Poke the duck breast a few times, piercing the skin.
• Place a roasting pan on the stovetop over 2 burners and fill with 2-inches of water, turn the heat to medium. Set a V-rack insert inside the pan and lay the duck on the rack, breast-side up. Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Steam the duck for 45 minutes, checking the water level periodically. Steaming the duck first melts away some of the fat and shrinks the skin.
• In a small saucepan combine the vinegar, honey, and soy sauce over low heat. Cook and stir for 5 minutes until thick. The duck will be lacquered with the sweet glaze, which caramelizes during roasting, making the skin crisp and brown.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Take the foil off the duck, remove the rack with the duck, and pour out the water and all the fat that has rendered out (this is great to use in other dishes like fried rice.) Put the rack with the duck back inside the roasting pan. Baste the duck with the vinegar mixture, until all the skin is completely coated in the glaze. Stick the whole thing in the oven. Roast the duck for 1 hour, basting periodically with any remaining glaze to set in a deep mahogany color. Tent the breast with some foil if it gets too dark. The legs will wiggle easily when it's done. Carve and serve.

CRISPY DUCK

Steps:

• To make the marinade: Place the star anise, grated ginger, rice wine, peppercorns, salt, dark soy sauce, and light soy sauce, into a bowl, and stir to combine.
• Add the duck breasts to the marinade, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and leave to marinate for 20 minutes.
• Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F.
• Heat a wok or pan over a high heat, and add the groundnut oil. Remove the duck from the marinade and place the duck into the hot wok or pan, skin-side down, and fry until the skin is brown and crisp, about 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer the duck to a sheet pan, skin-side up, and roast in the oven for 3 to 4 minutes, depending on how well done you would like your duck to be. While the duck is in the oven, prepare the apricot and plum sauce
• To make the sauce: Pour the water into a small saucepan, and bring to a boil. Add the plums, apricots, sugar, honey, cinnamon, star anise, and cook until the mixture has reduced to a sticky sauce. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the lime juice.
• To serve, place a duck breast onto a plate, pour over the sauce and serve with a salad.

CRISPY FRAGRANT DUCK TACOS WITH ASIAN PEAR AND MANGO SALSA

Steps:

• For the duck marinade: In a medium bowl, add the ginger, peppercorns, rice wine, dark and light soy sauce, sea salt and star anise and stir to combine. Add the duck, cover with plastic wrap and leave to marinate for 30 minutes or as long as overnight in the refrigerator.
• For the salsa: While the duck marinates, combine the cilantro, ginger, chile, grapefruit, lime juice and zest, pears, mangos, onions and chile flakes in a medium bowl. Toss to combine and season with sea salt. Set aside in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
• Heat a wok or pan over high heat and add the vegetable oil. Place the duck into the wok, skin-side down, and fry until the skin is brown and crisp, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip the breasts and reduce the heat to medium. Cover and cook for 4 minutes.
• Remove the duck and let rest for 5 minutes. Chop the duck into bite-size pieces, then dust the pieces in the cornstarch and coat well.
• Heat a wok or pan over high heat and fill to a quarter of its depth with peanut oil. Heat the oil to 350 degrees F, or until a cube of bread turns golden brown in 15 seconds and floats to the surface. Ensure that your wok is stable before deep-frying.
• Place the duck pieces in a spider/scoop, carefully lower into the oil and fry until crispy and golden brown. Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels.
• To serve, spoon some crispy duck onto a tortilla and top with some Asian pear salsa. Serve with small bowls of cilantro, flaked sea salt and dried chile flakes so guests can season their own and help themselves.

FRAGRANT CRISPY DUCK

Steps:

• Prepare duck:
• Cut off wing tips with poultry shears or a sharp knife. Remove and discard excess fat from body cavity and neck, then rinse inside and out. Pat dry inside and out and press on breastbone to break it and flatten duck.
• Marinate duck:
• Heat peppercorn salt and five-spice powder in a dry skillet over moderate heat, stirring, until hot. Measure out 3 tablespoons and rub 1 tablespoon in body cavity and 2 tablespoons over outside of duck, including under wings and legs. Reserve remaining spiced salt for serving with duck.
• Put duck in a bowl and marinate, covered and chilled, 8 to 24 hours.
• Steam duck:
• Drain any liquid from cavity and put duck in glass pie plate. Rub rice wine over duck. Smash ginger and scallions with flat side of a large heavy knife, then put one third in duck cavity and scatter remainder over duck.
• Fill wok with enough water for rack to sit 1/2 inch above water and bring to a rolling boil. Wearing oven mitts, put pie plate with duck on rack over boiling water and cover wok with lid.
• Reduce heat to moderate and steam duck 2 hours, checking every half hour to siphon off fat and juices from around duck and in cavity with bulb baster and replenishing boiling water as necessary.
• Wearing oven mitts, remove pie plate from steamer. Discard ginger and scallions. Drain duck and cool in pie plate 15 minutes.
• Air-dry duck:
• Slide duck onto a rack set over a baking sheet (to catch juices) and pat dry with paper towels. Position duck in front of a fan and air-dry 2 hours, making sure air blows directly onto duck.
• Fry duck:
• Heat 2‚ inches oil in large wok or large pot until a deep-fat thermometer registers 375°F. Meanwhile, brush outside of duck with soy sauce, then dust with flour, gently knocking off excess.
• Dip mesh spoons in hot oil (to keep duck from sticking) before using them to gently lower duck into hot oil. Fry duck, spooning hot oil over top, 2 minutes. Carefully turn duck over and fry 1 minute more. With extreme care, remove duck from oil with mesh spoons, draining cavity, and transfer to paper towels to drain.
• Heat oil to 400°F and fry duck a second time, in same manner, until dark brown and crisp, 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side. Again with extreme care, remove duck from oil with mesh spoons, draining cavity, and transfer to paper towels to drain briefly.
• Presentation:
• Serve duck with small dishes of reserved spiced salt for dipping.

CRISPY DUCK SALAD WITH BITTER ORANGE VINAIGRETTE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Score fat and skin on duck breasts. Place duck breast skin side down in a large cold skillet with a heat safe handle. Put skillet on stove and turn burner on to moderate heat. Cook breasts 5 to 8 minutes, turning once the skin crisps and most of the fat is rendered. Place the skillet in the oven and cook another 9 to 12 minutes. Meat should be pink at center.
• Arrange greens on individual plates or 1 large platter. Arrange frissee and scallions on bed of baby greens.
• Combine shallots, vinegar and marmalade. Let stand 10 minutes. Whisk in extra-virgin olive oil.
• Slice duck breast and serve 6 to 8 ounces per person, arranging the sliced duck on the salad. Grilled or sauteed chicken or pork is delicious with this dressing as well. Pour dressing evenly over duck and salad.

FRAGRANT DUCK BREASTS WITH WILD RICE PILAF

Steps:

• Score criss-crossed lines into the duck skin, then rub in the garam masala and ginger. Chill for 30 mins if you have time.
• Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Heat a heavy, non-stick pan, then gently fry the duck, skin-side down, for 10 mins until the fat runs out. Pour off the excess fat halfway through. Transfer to a baking dish, roast, skinside up, for 10 mins, then leave to rest.
• While the duck is cooking, melt the butter in a pan. Add cumin seeds, fry for 2-3 mins, then stir in the rice for another few mins. Pour over the stock, cover partly with a lid, then simmer for 10-12 mins, adding the peas for the final 4 mins. When the rice is cooked and all the liquid has been absorbed, fork through the spring onions and some seasoning to taste. Slice the duck and serve with the rice and a spoonful of chutney.