Duck Off: Chinese Crispy Duck Recipe

Today I’m sharing a crispy duck recipe that is simple and takes almost zero prep.

As regular readers of my blog will know, I am not one of nature’s cooks.

That said, I do have a wildly over-developed competitive instinct and no real sense of my own limitations, so when the nice people at Gressingham Duck sent me some duck to try cooking at home, I sensed a challenge.

I roped Ruth from Let Her Eat Clean and challenged her to a Duck Off! Oh yes.

This weekend, each of us created our own duck dish from scratch.

Me? I opted for home-made Chinese crispy duck.

If we order a Chinese takeaway, then crispy duck is one of our go-to options. But I’d never thought to make it at home before.

Turns out that home-made crispy duck is RIDICULOUSLY simple to make. This recipe took just a few minutes prep, and then it’s all down to the long, slow cooking time. This duck dish takes around 2 and a half hours, so it’s definitely not quick (although the prep time is)

Duck is pretty widely available now in supermarkets but for this recipe, we used Gressingham Duck. You can adjust this recipe to work with duck breast fillets but it’s easiest (and tastiest) to use the whole bird. Just buy one without giblets if you can, to reduce the prep time.

Here’s what I did:

Home Made Easy Crispy Duck Recipe

Ingredients

One duck, giblets removed (mine was around 1.3kg and would easily serve 4-6 people)
Maldon sea salt
Chinese five spice
Cucumber
Spring onion
Pancakes (available at Waitrose and Sainsbury’s)

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees, or 170 degrees for a fan assisted oven.
Before you start, wash the duck inside and out, and pat it dry using kitchen paper. Once the bird is dry, generously rub the duck with salt and five spice, all over. Make sure to cover the top and bottom.
Put the duck into a roasting tray, on a rack. This is important, to allow the fat to drain from the duck – if you sit it on a solid tray you will NOT get the desired crispiness. Start with the bird upside down, and roast for one hour.
Turn the duck over, and roast for another hour. Whack the oven up a bit for the last 15 mins for extra crispy skin. I turned up to 210 degrees.
Once the duck is cooked, let it rest for 20 minutes, then shred the meat using two forks. Put the shredded crispy duck into a large bowl and cover with foil to keep warm until serving.
We served our duck takeaway style, with sliced cucumber and spring onion. I also poured some hoi sin sauce into bowls to add as dressing. You can make your own, but we used a jar and pancakes that were ready made, from the supermarket.

And that’s it! I confess, I cheated a bit by not making my own sauce, but this crispy duck was stupidly easy to make, and the duck was so much nicer than the stuff we get from the local takeaway (if I say so myself). If you’re inspired to try my easy homemade crispy duck then let me know how you get on!