I prepare my duck at home in several styles within several dishes. In general, the duck meat is chewy and fatty. We like duck meat when it is perfectly cooked and not chewy but also very juicy. Over time, I have developed a process to prepare roasted juicy but non-chewy duck with my own spices. Here I have shared that recipe with you all. I think duck roasting is an art and you need a little patience, For me, it's getting better day by day:). I used 48 hours for brining and 3 hours for cooking. The slow cooking made the meat soft and juicy. In the end, all the hard work will always pay off in every bite.
Prep time: 48 hours
Cooking time: 3 hours
Serving: 4
Ingredients:
1 whole duck
6 tablespoon salt
3 Bay leaves
2 cinnamon stick
10 cloves
10 cardamom
20 whole black peppercorn
4 tablespoon sugar
1-gallon water
orange peels
1/3 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoon room soft room-temperature butter
2 tablespoon honey
Methods :
Step 1: Brine the Duck
Clean the Duck and make score diagonally on the breast's skin with a knife.
Make room in the refrigerator to keep a large pot that you will use to make the brine.
Place the pot in the oven, and add the bay leaves, cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom, whole black peppercorn, or any other spices that you like.
Add water and bring it to a boil and add salt, sugar, and orange peels.
Mix it well to dissolve all the salt and sugar.
Please turn off the heat and let it cool a little bit (for faster cooling, I use extra ice). The recommended process is to bringdown the brian temperature to room temperature before put the duck inside.
Put the Duck inside the salted brian water.
Make sure the duck is completely under the solution.
Cover the pot with a lid and put it inside the refrigerator.
Brine for 12 to 48 hours. I personally prefer a longer time, so I brined for 48 hours.
After 48 hours, take out the duck and pat dry.
Step 2: Roast the Duck
Preheat the oven to 325'F degrees.
Place the patted dry duck on a rack over a tray so that when the duck cooks, the skin fat gets drained and stored in the bottom of the tray.
Cover the duck with a piece of foil and cook it for one hour at 325 F degrees.
After one hour, take out the duck from the oven and remove the foil.
Step 3: Apply orange glaze.
Then make the orange glaze.
In a bowl, mix orange juice, honey, paprika, cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, soft butter.
Make the oven temperature 350F degree.
Apply the spice mix on the skin nicely and put the duck back in the oven for
one hour for each side. So after one hour, flip the duck and put it back in the oven for another hour.
After another 1 hour, the outer skin will be golden brown and crispy.
Take out the duck from the oven and cut it into smaller pieces of meat.
Serve the crispy-skinned but juicy duck meat with feta cheese, apple, walnut salad with orange vinaigrette.