This roasted braised duck recipe is so good. With a few special ingredients and a little time, you’ll have an amazing, special dinner on your hands.
After living in Beijing for three years, I’ve had many versions of Peking Duck, and I can honestly say that I’m not that crazy about it. How can I say that, you ask? How could I not love the pride and joy of the Beijing?
Well, the thing about Peking duck is…it doesn’t really have a lot of flavor. There, I said it. Everyone tells me that the duck is roasted in an oven fueled by fruit wood, which is supposed to infuse the meat with fruit flavor that I can never smell or taste. If it weren’t for the sauce and the fixings, it would be way to boring. Yeah, the duck is crispy. But where’s the flavor?
In my opinion, Cantonese roast duck is the best but how to cook duck like that at home? While it’s almost impossible to do that dish justice at home, here’s a recipe that comes pretty close and show you how to cook a duck that is super tasty.
Roasted Braised Duck: Recipe Instructions
Rinse the duck inside and out and thoroughly pat dry. Remove the tail. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wok over medium heat, and swirl it around to coat the wok.
Lower the duck into the wok breast side down, and let the skin brown and crisp up slightly.
Spoon the oil over the parts of the duck that aren’t touching the oil. You will end up with a lot more oil than you started with, as the fat renders out of the duck. Turn off the heat.
In a large pot (big enough to accommodate the duck laying flat) over medium heat, add a tablespoon of the fat from the wok, and cook the ginger and garlic for about 1 minute. Stir in the rock sugar until it’s melted.
Add the Shaoxing wine, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, rice vinegar, star anise, cloves, bay leaves, whole peppercorns, dried orange peel, 3 cups water and the duck. The liquid should come up about halfway up the duck. Add a little more water as needed.
Bring the liquid to a boil and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 50-60 minutes, flipping the bird every 15 minutes to make sure it cooks evenly.
Carefully lift the duck out and drain all the liquid from the cavity, Place the duck on a V-rack or roasting rack set on a baking sheet. breast side up. Brush the duck all over with honey water. Set aside and preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Roast the duck for 12-15 minutes, until the skin is crispy. Watch it closely to prevent burning. Take it out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before carving. You can serve it just like that, or with some of the sauce left over in the pot.
I actually cooked another dish using the sauce the next day: napa cabbage and cellophane noodles. Just cut the cabbage into strips and stir-fry in a bit of oil. Add the softened cellophane noodles and stir. Then add the leftover sauce, cover, and cook for a couple minutes. Season with salt to taste, and serve. Yum.’
Roasted Braised Duck
Ingredients
- 4-5 lb. duck (innards removed)
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 5 slices fresh ginger
- 6 cloves garlic (peeled and smashed)
- 1 tablespoon rock sugar (or regular sugar)
- ½ cup Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing wine)
- 1 ½ tablespoons dark soy sauce
- ¼ cup light soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 3 star anise
- 6 cloves
- 3 bay leaves
- 12 whole peppercorns
- 4-5 pieces dried orange peel
- 3-4 cups water
- 1 teaspoon honey (mixed with 1 teaspoon warm water)
Instructions
- Rinse the duck inside and out and thoroughly pat dry. Remove the tail. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wok over medium heat, and swirl it around to coat the wok.
- Lower the duck into the wok breast side down, and let the skin brown and crisp up slightly. Spoon the oil over the parts of the duck that aren’t touching the oil. You will end up with a lot more oil than you started with, as the fat renders out of the duck. Turn off the heat.
- In a large pot (big enough to accommodate the duck laying flat) over medium heat, add a tablespoon of the fat from the wok, and cook the ginger and garlic for about 1 minute. Stir in the sugar until it’s melted.
- Add the cooking wine, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, rice vinegar, anise, cloves, bay leaves, peppercorns, dried orange peels, 3 cups water and the duck. The liquid should come up about halfway up the duck. Add a little more water as needed.
- Bring the liquid to a boil and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 50-60 minutes, flipping the bird every 15 minutes to make sure it cooks evenly.
- Carefully lift the duck out and drain all the liquid from the cavity, Place the duck on a V-rack set on a baking sheet. breast side up. Brush the duck all over with honey water. Set aside and preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Roast the duck for 12-15 minutes, until the skin is crispy. Watch it closely to prevent burning. Take it out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before carving. You can serve it just like that, or with some of the sauce leftover in the pot.
The recipe looks awesome. We do quite a bit of traditional Asian cuisine and I am really excited to try this. I have a question about the cleaver shown in one of the picture descriptions. I have tried several times to find one online and I can never find one I like. The one you have pictured looks thin with a nice length to it. Would you mind posting a link to buy that one? Thanks
Hi Cody, search for Chinese restaurant/kitchen suppliers near you or online. They for sure have it :-)
I never cooked my own duck, come to think of it, I don’t know if I ever are duck. I follow your instructions to a T. My bird turned out just yummy! Thank you very much. Can’t wait to do it again.
Two thumbs up for a job well done, Paul!
Please help! I am prepping my ingredients to make this dish and I have a few questions:
1) my package of dried orange peel came with the peel cut into 1/4 inches. How much of it do I use to equal 4 pieces?
2) how many pieces of rock sugar equals 1 tbsp.
3) which type of peppercorn is used in this recipe; white, Sichuan….?
Thanks
Hi Denise, hope you have a kitchen scale :-)
1) my package of dried orange peel came with the peel cut into 1/4 inch pieces. How much of it do I use to equal 4 pieces? (about 1/2 of a tangerine peel)
2) how many pieces of rock sugar equals 1 tbsp. (about 5 gram)
3) which type of peppercorn is used in this recipe; white, Sichuan….? I used black, all are acceptable.
Thanks so much for the rapid response! I love the recipes and your website. Thanks for everything.
Denise
Awesome! Thank you for your love and support :-)
Thank you for you reply. I will begin to experiment 😀
Hi I want to make your recipe for Roasted Braised Duck but I don’t want to use a whole duck just the leg and thigh part. Could you please advise me on quantities and cooking time. Much appreciated. Karen
Hi Karen, you can experiment with the recipe. I think the cooking time can be reduced. It’s hard for me to give you the specifics without trying it myself.
I followed this recipe very closely and got terrible results. In your picture, the skin is super dark and red before you put it in the oven, but mine was basically still beige after 1 hour and flipping 4 times. I don’t know if it matters, but I didn’t flip the duck in the wok while browning it (you didn’t say to). A lot of fat ended up going into the braising liquid because not a ton rendered out during the browning. Your sauce is also super dark, but mine was more like a light brown. My marinade looked dark like that before I added 2.5 cups of water, which was all I needed to get the water halfway up the duck. I don’t get how my sauce could have ever become that color, but it seems necessary to get the duck that red. When I put the duck in the oven, it just sort of burned on random parts of the duck without crisping the skin at all. It was so sad! Also, the meat was very chewy.
I’m sorry to hear the outcome, Joyce, as many have tried and loved the recipe. I’m pretty sure the issue is the type of soy sauces and ingredients that you used. Can you tell me the brand of soy sauces and spices that you used?
Lee Kum kee premium dark soy sauce, kikkoman low sodium soy sauce, mizkan natural rice vinegar.
One thing I did which I always do with a bird was brine overnight. I also took the duck out of the fridge for an hour to temper and dry.
Hi Joyce, we use the Pearl River Bridge brand of light and dark soy sauce. But the two brands you mentioned here are not bad. By the way, did you pan-fry the duck in the very beginning? I really can’t think of anything else.
Hi – Can I use a lu bao instead of all the separate spices? Would it turn out as good you think? Thank you!
Hi Hanna, you can use lu bao. Check the lu bao package. It usually tells you how much meat each lu bao is good for.
This recipe is super yummy 😋!! I have tried other recipe of braised duck 🦆 but I will keep this for repeat
Thank you for your love and support, Carol.
I made two ducks at the same time and gave one to my son and his family. They loved it as much as my husband & I did – my daughter in law said it was “impressive”! In this Covid19 time, we are not going out so cannot purchase roast duck. Now that I have tried your recipe, there is no need to buy it anymore! I think next time, I will let the duck sit in the gravy overnight, breast side down and then dry the next morning, roast in evening for dinner. I made egg noodles for hubby & spooned some gravy onto it – just like Lo Mien! He said he would marry me again even though we have been married over 50 years! You guys are my go to for any recipe!!! Thanks again for sharing such wonderful recipes – you are an amazing family!
Wow! Teresa, that’s pretty amazing! Thank you for your lovely comment :-)