Delightful Oven Roasted Duck.

Growing up in the Caribbean, the one and only way duck was prepared (and still do for the most part) is in a rich and spicy curry sauce. We love our curry duck so much, it’s not surprising to see many cooking competitions dedicated to the art of cooking a “good” curry duck. In this oven roasted duck recipe I won’t be using the traditional Muscovy duck we tend to raise and use in the Caribbean, but a North American type duck found in most grocery stores.

Ingredients

1 duck (about 5 lbs)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon Chinese 5 spice powder
1/2 orange
2 scallions
4 cloves garlic
2 star anise
3 Thick slices Ginger
4-6 sprigs thyme

• Remove the package with the innards (neck, gizzards etc) from the cavity of the duck, wash and pat dry.
• Trim off excess skin and fat.
• Using a bamboo skewer or fork, prick the skin of the duck (especially the breast area where there’s a lot of fat under the skin), but try to not go as deep as the flesh. This step will help the duck render out fat as it roasts and also make for crispy skin.
• Season the cavity of the duck with half the salt and black pepper, then stuff with the slices of orange, thyme, garlic (smash with your knife), star anise, scallions and ginger.
• Now season the outside of the bird with the remaining salt, black pepper and Chinese five spice powder. Be sure to pat or massage it on.
• Place on a wire rack in your oven proof dish and into a preheated 350 F oven. Place on the middle rack. In my case I didn’t have a wire rack, so no worries if you don’t have one.
• After 45 mins, take it out of the oven and remove the fat which accumulated at the bottom of your roasting pan. You’ll have to do this again every 25 mins or so. You can use this fat to baste the duck as it roasts as well. Save the fat you remove from roasting – it’s the base of delightful roasted potatoes another day. DON’T pour this fat down your sink.. it will clog your pipes.
• Basically you want to get the internal temp (thickest part of the duck) up to 175F. But I went a little longer as I like it well done. Took just over 2 hours of roasting. You can hit the broil setting for a couple mins to crisp the skin further and get a bit more color (if you wish).