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The Best Way to Roast a Duck

From zen2

Ingredients

  • 1 whole Pekin duck, 5-6 lbs.
  • kosher salt
  • Sweet & Spicy Glaze
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 molasses
  • 3 Tbls. orange juice
  • 1 Tbls. soy sauce
  • 1 1/2 Tbls. Sriracha chili sauce (adjust to taste)

How to roast a duck:

Roast it as follows for 4 hours at 300 degrees. After 4 hours, glaze and blast it at high heat for a short time.

  • Score the skin, cut off excess fat, and poke it all over
  • Salt and truss
  • Roast at 300 degrees for 1 hour, breast-side up
  • Poke, flip, roast for 1 hour, breast-side down
  • Poke, flip, roast for 1 hour, breast-side up
  • Poke, flip, roast for 1 hour, breast side down
  • Poke, flip, blast at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, breast-side up
  • Brush with glaze
  • Finish at 400 degrees for 5-7 minutes
  • Rest, carve & serve

If you’re a meat thermometer kind of person, you want your duck to register 165 degrees F. If you follow the instructions below, you should be just fine.

How to roast a duck: Score the skin

  1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
  2. When your duck is empty, rinse it under cold water. Pat it dry with paper towels. Set a rack in a deep-ish roasting pan. Put the duck on the rack. (Or, score the skin, then set it on the rack afterward. Up to you.) Sprinkle the cavity with a little kosher salt.
  3. Rinse and dry your duck
  4. With a very sharp knife, score a diamond pattern into the duck skin on the breast. Slice carefully. You want to cut through most of the fat without cutting into the meat. Luckily, a duck’s layer of fat is fairly thick, so this is pretty easy once you get the hang of it.Cut on an angle.
  5. Slice through the skin and fat, but not into the meat
  6. Score the duck skin. How to roast a duck: Yank out any quills
  7. Your duck might not have any quills. But if you do see any little pointy things poking out of the duck’s skin , just pull them out:
  8. Trim off any excess skin (and render it, if you like)
  9. Cut off any excess skin at either end of the duck’s cavity. Cut off any excess skin
  10. Poke the duck all over & truss it
  11. Prick the duck’s skin all over with a sharp knife. This is to create small holes that’ll let the fat escape more readily. The more fat escapes, the crisper the skin will be. Only prick the skin, don’t hit the meat. Poke it all over
  12. Cross the legs and tie them together like this with a piece of butcher’s twine. Truss the legs
  13. Tie up the legs. Fold the wings under the duck.Fold the wings under
  14. Stretch the wing out Fold it back Tuck it under the bird
  15. Sprinkle the duck with salt and pop it into the oven. Roast just, breast-side up, for 1 hour at 300 degrees.Into the oven!
  16. After the first hour: Poke and turn the bird breast-side down
  17. After the first hour, yank the pan out of the oven. The skin will still be pale, and should be just a wee bit crisp when poked.
  18. After the first hour. Prick the skin all over with a knife. When pierced, the skin should let out gloriously molten duck fat. Be sure to get the area around the legs, which is particularly fatty.
  19. Prick the skin. Flip the bird over, so it’s breast-side down.
  20. Pop it back into the oven. Roast breast-side down for 1 hour at 300 degrees.
  21. After the second hour: Poke and turn the bird breast-side up
  22. After the second hour, yank the pan out of the oven. The skin will be browner, and more crisp,
  23. After the second hour
  24. Prick the skin all over. Flip the bird breast-side up.
  25. Pop it back in the oven. Roast breast-side up for 1 hour at 300 degrees.
  26. After the third hour: Poke and turn the bird breast-side down
  27. After the third hour, yank the pan out of the oven. Your duck should be noticeably browner and getting kind of crispy.
  28. After the third hour. Prick the bird all over. Prick the skin
  29. Flip it over so it’s breast-side down. Back into the oven
  30. Pop it back in the oven. Roast breast-side down for a final hour at 300 degrees.
  31. While the duck is roasting for its last hour, make the glaze
  32. When the duck is roasting for its fourth hour, it’s time to make the glaze. In a medium-sized saucepan, combine the honey, molasses, orange juice, soy sauce, and hot sauce. Bring to a simmer.
  33. Whisk constantly over medium-high heat for a few minutes, ’til it gets thick and syrupy. Glaze
  34. It should coat the back of a spoon fairly thickly.
  35. Set your glaze aside, off the heat, until your duck comes out of the oven.
  36. After the fourth hour: Finish your duck!
  37. Finally! After the 4th hour, yank the pan out of the oven. Crank the heat up to 400 degrees.
  38. Put the duck back in the pan on the rack. Flip it over, so it’s breast-side up.Flip the duck over
  39. When your oven hits 400 degrees, stick the pan back into the oven. Roast like this, breast-side up, for 10 minutes or so. This is to help crisp up the skin a little more.
  40. Back into the oven for 10 minutes
  41. After 10 minutes, yank the pan out of the oven. The skin should be golden brown and crisp.
  42. After 10 minutes at 400 degrees
  43. Brush the surface with glaze so that your duck is completely covered. (If your glaze has cooled and is too thick to spread, just warm it up on the stove and it’ll liquify right up.)
  44. Stick your pan back in the oven, and roast at 400 degrees for 5-7 minutes, until your duck is a beautiful mahogany color. Keep a close eye on it, and yank it out if it starts to burn.
  45. Let the duck rest for 10 minutes. Carve, serve, and enjoy!
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