Roast Chinese Duck, Lazy Version

Name: Roast Chinese Duck, Lazy Version
Total time: 10800 s
Yield: 2-3 adults willing to pick the carcass clean.
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 whole duck of greater than 5lbs, Asian markets are usually the best deal. Fresh or frozen but raw; 5 Spice powder; 3 whole star anise; Kosher salt; Ground black peppercorns and some whole ones, optionally a few Szechuan peppercorns; Sesame oil; Soy sauce, any kind; Chinese cooking wine, any kind and color; Rice wine vinegar, any kind

iWoodsman @iWoodsman

I got tired of chasing the perfect Chinese duck that would compare with restaurants, and one day I just gave up and had a pan ready for the oven in 10 minutes, ignoring every rule I had learned. For reasons I don’t understand it was the best duck I ever made and the carelessness has fortunately proved reproducible.

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Ingredients

Between 2 and 3 hours

2-3 adults willing to pick the carcass clean.

1whole duck of greater than 5lbs, Asian markets are usually the best deal. Fresh or frozen but raw
5Spice powder
3whole star anise
Kosher salt
Ground black peppercorns and some whole ones, optionally a few Szechuan peppercorns
Sesame oil
Soy sauce, any kind
Chinese cooking wine, any kind and color
Rice wine vinegar, any kind

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Steps

Between 2 and 3 hours

1

Put the duck in a roasting pan. Don’t bother pricking the skin because all the fat will render out anyway. Sprinkle all dry ingredients over it. You can be heavy handed except with the salt, just a sprinkle. Most of your salt will come from the soy sauce. Place two star anise in the pan and one on the duck breast. There’s no real point but just pretend that it’s meaningful.
2

Pour a good glug of each wet ingredient over the duck, thereby rinsing everything you just sprinkled on the duck into the pan. Isn’t that stupid? Why put Five Spice powder on the duck only to have the cooking wine rinse it off? Someone here is an idiot and it isn’t you. Here is what we have, note the total volume of liquid is low, but intense.
3

Add water to dilute the liquid and bring the level to an inch or more deep. That’s a lot of liquid. Is this supposed to be roasted duck or braised duck?
4

Seal a nice tight foil tent for the duck to steam in. A good cook would tent it loosely so you can more easily baste during cooking, but you will be basting maybe once, after which the foil gets thrown away. So crimp that thing on. Try to keep the foil from smooshing onto the duck skin to avoid a burned spot.
5

Into the oven for 2 hours at 350F. Careful not to slosh the liquid as you move the pan, you can’t see what it’s doing.
6

Remove the foil and baste the duck well, wiggle the legs. If they move very freely in the joint, drop the temp to 200 and baste a bit more to get better color, and after a few minutes the duck is done. If the legs are still resistant, drop the temp to 200 anyway, baste and leave the duck in for as long as it takes to get those legs wobbling.
7

Move the duck to a board that hopefully can catch juices. No need to actually carve it, as it is totally falling apart. Most of the fat is rendered out with just a little left on the skin. I recommend that two or three people devour it with fingers, with a side bowl of steamed rice and veggies and a spoonful or two of the pan juices.