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Roast Duck

Upon tasting any number of my culinary creations, people often ask me: “How do you make this simple dish with such fantastic flavor?” Invariably, I say to them, “First, you roast a duck.” When you are done with your duck, you have an amazing amount of rendered duck fat, which is an excellent medium for almost all cooking applications, as it has incredible flavor and holds up to higher heats. I learned how to roast ducks from European-trained chefs back in 1988 when I worked in my first restaurant, and I have been roasting them ever since. This is the method I learned to make a crisp-skinned, juicy-fleshed duck.
Ingredients
- Whole duck
- 2 Valencia oranges, cut in quarters
- Unrefined sea salt and black pepper
- Whole garlic head, cut in half
- Seasoning mix of your choice (optional)
- Rosemary (optional, for cavity)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425º F and place the roasting pan in the oven.
- Open and wash the duck thoroughly, removing neck and giblets (liver, heart, and stomach). You can save the giblets to make pâté.
- Pat dry, remove wings, and trim all the excess fat. Cut the excess fat into thin strips.
- Score the duck skin and season the duck liberally with your seasoning preference inside and out.
- Stuff the duck with the orange quarters. Reserve the pieces that do not fit.
- Carefully remove the hot pan from the oven and place the neck and the wing tips in the pan so as to create a natural rack for the duck. Then add all of the duck fat pieces and the garlic to the pan. The garlic will help flavor the rendering duck fat.
- Place the seasoned, stuffed duck, breast side up, on the rack created by the wings and neck and put in the oven.
- Cook for 30 to 45 minutes at 425º F and then flip the duck over onto its breast.
- At this point, there should be plenty of rendered fat. Stir the fat pieces and make sure they are getting evenly browned. (When you eat these pieces later, you will thank me.)
- Turn the oven down to 400º F and cook for 30 more minutes.
- Return duck to its upright position and continue cooking until its internal temperature reaches about 165º F.
- Remove the duck to a resting pan. Then remove the oranges from the cavity and squeeze the juice onto the duck, rubbing the duck with the cooked orange. You can squeeze on the juice from the uncooked oranges as well. Let rest.
- Carefully strain out the rendered duck fat and remove cracklings to a paper towel to dry.
- When the duck is sufficiently cool, you can remove the meat from it and serve.
About the Author
Chef Lance Roll has been cooking professionally for 29 years. His career started in 1988 when he joined the team of Chef Mark Strausman at Sapore Di Mare, in New York, where he spent two and a half years learning classical European cooking principles and Tuscan cuisine. In 2005, he became a Certified Executive Chef at the American Culinary Federation, and from 2003 to 2007, he was a professional chef instructor at San Diego Culinary Institute, in California, where he was dubbed “The Flavor Chef.” Chef Lance is considered by many to be an expert in the industry, and he is widely sought after for interviews. He is the sole owner and president of The Flavor Chef, Inc., which he founded based on a farm-to-table philosophy of using local and organic sustainable food products. His company provides catering services to the San Diego area and sells its signature bone broths online. Learn more about The Flavor Chef at www.bonebroth.com.
Check out more recipes by Chef Lance Roll:
Tuscan-Style Broccolini (or Rapini) with Garlic & Onion
Published in the Price-Pottenger Journal of Health & Healing
Fall 2017 Volume 41 Number 3
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