My Peking duck
J. Kenji López-Alt. A two-day Peking duck project — brining, glazing, hanging to dry, then roasting until the skin is mahogany and crisp. Served with Chinese tortillas, scallions and cucumber.
Ingredients
| 3 tablespoons | 45 ml | mild honey, such as clover, acacia or orange blossom |
| 2 tablespoons | 30 ml | low-sodium soy sauce |
| 1 teaspoon | 5 ml | turbinado or light brown sugar |
| 1 teaspoon | 5 ml | five-spice powder |
| 1 | Peking or Long Island duck (5- to 6-pound) | |
| 3 teaspoons | 15 ml | kosher salt |
| ½ teaspoon | 2.5 ml | black pepper |
| 1 | beer can or other aluminum can, emptied and filled halfway with water (24-ounce) | |
| ½ cup | 120 ml | hoisin sauce |
| 1 teaspoon | 5 ml | toasted sesame oil |
| 8 | homemade Chinese tortillas, or 8-inch store-bought flour tortillas, warmed | |
| 4 | scallions, cut into 3-inch pieces and thinly sliced lengthwise | |
| 2 | Kirby or Persian cucumbers, cut into 3-inch-long matchsticks |
Instructions
DAY 1:
- Soak for one hour in water with 2 tbsp rice vinegar.
- Remove, pat dry, rub the outside with a little baking powder, salt, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp hot water, 1/2 tsp rice vinegar and coat the outside of the duck with the hot mixture. Wait 30 minutes and coat again.
- Coat the inside of the duck with a mixture of 2 tbsp oyster sauce, 1/2 tbsp mirin, 1 tsp Chinese five-spice mix.
- Hang the duck in a cold place for 24 hours.
DAY 2: 5. Peel off the skin, dip it for a few seconds in boiling water, remove it and repeat the coating procedure inside and out with the ingredients below. 6. Hang for another 24 hours.
PREPARATION:
- Mix the honey, soy sauce, sugar and 1/2 tsp of the five-spice. Stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves. About 3 minutes.
- Boil 2 litres of water, meanwhile remove the excess fat from the duck.
- Using your fingers, separate the skin from the meat being careful not to tear the skin. Place the bird over a rack in the sink. Using a large cup, pour half of the water over the bird, turn the bird and pour the remaining water. Drain the duck and pat it dry.
- In a small bowl mix 1/2 tsp five-spice and 1 tsp salt, black pepper and 1 tbsp of the honey glaze. With this mixture coat the duck inside.
- With the remaining glaze brush the duck on the outside and sprinkle with salt. Hang to dry for 24 hours. (Close the bottom before roasting with soaked toothpicks.)
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C. Place the duck on a baking grill and use a lined baking pan to catch the drops. Then roast for 20 minutes. Then turn the duck over and roast the other side for another 15 minutes. Lower the temperature to 120°C and continue roasting for 30 minutes. (My bird is around 1000g each one, if you get larger ones, lengthen another 10 minutes for 500g weight addition.) Let the skin get even crisper.
- Heat oven to 230 degrees with rack in bottom third of oven. Remove duck from refrigerator, and add 1 1/2 cups water to the pan. Wrap wing tips and tips of drumsticks with foil to prevent burning, then loosely tent duck with foil. Roast for 15 minutes. Decrease temperature to 175 degrees and roast, tented with foil, until skin is mahogany and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh registers 74 degrees, 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes more, adding more water to the pan if needed.
- Leaving duck on the can, transfer duck vertically to a cutting board and let rest for 15 minutes. Carve the crispy skin from the back and legs of the duck, and slice into strips.
- Carefully remove duck from the beer can and return to cutting board. Carve off the breasts and legs; thinly slice the breasts and shred dark meat.
- Carefully strain pan juices into a small bowl and pour off all the fat. In another small bowl, whisk together the hoisin, sesame oil and up to 1/4 cup of the pan juices to form sauce.
- To serve, spread 1 tablespoon prepared sauce on each tortilla. Top each with some scallions, cucumbers, duck meat and crispy skin. Roll up and enjoy warm.
Tip: The glaze can be made a day ahead and stored at room temperature.