The duck is stuffed with citrus, then slow cooked until the meat is falling off the bones and the skin perfectly crisped. A restaurant recipe that requires minimal effort and yields the best results.
Having grown up in Beijing, I have a special attachment to duck. We’re spoiled by ubiquitous perfectly roasted Peking duck, a luxurious yet affordable dining choice that we enjoy a few times a year. I can finish half a duck myself. I enjoy eating the duck skin by itself with a bit of sauce (without the meat and without the pancake). In my world, it tastes way better than crispy bacon.
Since moving to the US, I’ve been craving duck.
The first time I dealt with a whole duck, I slow cooked it Mediterranean style. I quartered the duck, placed it on a bed of vegetables and herbs, and slow cooked it until tender. Right before serving, I crisped up the skin by heating the duck pieces under the broiler. It generated nearly duck-confit texture.
It was almost perfect, but my friend and reader Saint Phlip told me there was a better way.
The best slow roast duck
This recipe was originally shared by the chef of a hotel restaurant in Marietta, Ohio. According to Saint Phlip, it’s the tastiest duck she’s ever tried.
To cook the duck, you stuff it with several citrus fruits, then roast it at a very low temperature (95 to 120 C / 200 to 250 F). It requires a long, slow roast. But you don’t need to do anything during the roasting. No flipping, no touching.
When you’ve almost forgotten the duck, 5 hours later, you will suddenly smell a wonderful aroma coming from the kitchen. That’s when you know the duck is getting good.
The next 2 hours will be the most difficult. Your room will be filled with the wonderful roasting fragrance that reminds you of a steak house. You’ll start to check on the duck every 10 minutes, wondering why it’s still not ready. DO NOT pull out the duck now. Be patient!
When you start to worry that you’ve roasted it for too long and suspect the duck meat has lost its moisture, your dinner is ready.
You will be amazed when try to move the duck onto a carving board. You might accidentally crack the skin apart or pull a leg off. I know it’s cliche to say this, but the duck is literally fall-off-the-bone tender (as proof of my words, see the picture below). You might end up serving a “pulled duck”, since it’s nearly impossible to keep the whole thing intact. Restrain yourself from snacking on the crispy skin. You might finish the whole thing before you have a chance to serve your guests.
Cooking notes
Don’t be scared away by the long cooking time of this recipe, because:
- The active prep time is 10 minutes. And you’ll need another 10 minutes to cook the sauce and serve the duck. In total, there’s only 20 minutes of active cooking time.
- You can cook the duck one day or several days ahead, freeze the duck, and serve it later.
- If you’re serving the duck for a party, you can start roasting it in the morning, then heat it up before dinner.
Compared to roasting a perfect chicken, roasting the best duck is much easier. And it is definitely more festive.
There are a few good ways to serve the duck. In the recipe below, I introduce the original sauce recipe – a delightful and sweet sauce made from white wine and fruit preserves.
For those who miss a perfectly roasted Peking duck from back home, cook duck pancakes, and serve everything with chopped green onions and cucumbers. I guarantee you the dish will taste just like home.
For those who enjoy a savory sauce, head over to the Mediterranean duck recipe and cook the olive sauce.
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Duck de Marietta (The Best Slow Roast Duck)
Ingredients
Duck
- 1 2.5 kg / 5 to 6 pound whole duck (I used D'Artagnan Rohan Duck)
- 5 to 6 mixed citrus fruits blood orange, lemon, and/or mandarin, peels removed
- Sea salt
Sauce (*see footnote)
- 4 tablespoons jam of your choice (blueberry, apricot, etc.)
- 1 cup white wine
- 2 to 4 tablespoons potato starch (or cornstarch)
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to the lower third. Preheat oven to 120 C (250 degrees F). Line a baking pan with aluminium foil (for easy cleanup) and top with a V-rack.
- Prepare a plate. Transfer the giblets from the duck to the plate. Use a pair of poultry shears to remove the duck neck and trim the neck skin. Do not trim any skin from the bottom of the duck, because it will keep the meat moist during roasting. Save the duck neck for making sauce or stock. Save the giblets for cooking or making stock.
- Place duck on a working surface or a cutting board. Stuff citrus inside of the duck, using as many fruits as you can. Use a few toothpicks to seal the bottom of the duck, to secure the fruits inside.
- Use a sharp paring knife to score the duck breast, about 1 cm (⅓ inch) apart. This will help the duck render fat faster and create a crispy skin. If you’re not familiar with this process, I suggest you start slow. The thickness of duck skin is not consistent. You need to avoid slicing through the meat, which will cause the duck to lose moisture. Gently press the knife. You might need to slice a few times to get the cut just right. (*see footnote 1)
- Rub both sides of the duck with plenty of sea salt. Place duck on the V-rack, breast side up.
- Bake until the skin turns golden brown, 6 to 7 hours (depending on the thickness of the duck skin). You do not need to flip the duck or monitor the process.
- (Optional) When most of the duck fat has rendered and the skin has become thin (usually 6 hours to 6.5 hours), turn up the heat of the oven to 260 degrees C (500 F) to brown the duck for another 5 to 10 minutes. This method works better when you choose a duck breed with thinner skin (or a duck that was air-chill processed). The skin will crisp up nicely and the meat will remain more juicy.
- Remove the duck from the oven and let rest for 15 minutes. Do NOT cover the duck with foil. This step further crisps up the skin. The stuffing will keep the duck meat hot.
- Transfer the duck onto a large cutting board. Carefully remove the citrus fruits (they will be very hot!) from the duck with a fork or a pair of tongs, and discard them.
- To carve the duck beautifully, you can refer to this video. Alternatively, you can simply pull the meat apart by hand.
- Transfer the rendered duck fat into a small bowl. When it has cooled off, cover with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge. Save for later use.
Option 1 - Fruity sauce
- While resting the duck, cook the fruit sauce.
- Dissolve potato starch in a few tablespoons of the white wine.
- Heat the rest of the white wine in a small saucepan until warm. Add jam of your choice. Stir and mix so that the jam incorporates with the wine. When the liquid comes to a simmer, taste it and adjust the flavor by adding more wine or jam. Remove the pan from the stove.
- Stir the potato starch slurry again to let it fully dissolve in the wine. Slowly pour it into the sauce, stirring at the same time. Add enough slurry to get the sauce to the desired thickness.
- Pour a few spoonfuls of the sauce onto a serving plate. Place the carved the duck onto the sauce. Serve warm with extra sauce on the side.
Option 2 - Peking duck
- Cook duck pancakes (or use store-bought ones). Steam to heat them up while resting the duck.
- Serve duck and pancakes with hoisin sauce, sliced green onion, and sliced cucumber.
Storage
- If you’re not serving the duck right away, wrap the meat in aluminum foil and let it cool down to room temperature. Move it to a ziplock bag, press out as much air as possible, and store it in the fridge for up to 2 days or in the freezer for up to a month.
- To reheat, place the duck, skin side up, on a roasting pan. Transfer into the oven and preheat to 260 degrees C (500 F). Bake until the duck heats up and the skin turns crispy, 10 to 15 minutes.
(Optional) Giblets
- Cut duck giblets (liver, heart, and gizzard) into even-sized chunks and combine with a spoonful of Chinese distilled liquor (白酒, bai jiu), vodka, or Shaoxing wine in a small bowl. Add a teaspoon of cornstarch and season with salt. Mix well. Marinate for 5 minutes.
- Heat oil in a skillet. Gently cook the giblets over medium low heat until cooked through and the surface browned.
- Season with black pepper and serve warm.
Notes
- Many recipes suggest puncturing the duck meat with a sharp knife or fork. I personally do not like that method so much. It is slower and the duck won’t look so pretty compared to one with scored skin.
This is a festive dish, so we’re not going to count calories here 🙂
Hello,
I’d like to try this but was curious if the duck is covered in the baking pan or uncovered during cooking?
Thank you.
Hi Donna, the duck is uncovered udring cooking. The skin will crisp up this way and the meat will remain juicy. It’s really great 🙂
Looking forward to trying this on Christmas day.
I just got a small 1.5 kg duck from a small local family business and would like to try this recipe for our 2 person Xmas dinner. I’m planning to bake at 100°.
Any suggestions on how to adjust cooking time for this small bird as it’s 1kg less than the recipe?
Hi Jack, I think for a smaller duck with a lower temperature, you probably need 1 or 2 hours less. I think the best way is to roast the duck for 4 hours, then you can try gently pull the leg. The duck will become so tender that you can easily pull the leg apart from the body. If the duck is not ready, increase the cooking time by an hour. The recipe is very forgiven, so the duck will still be very good if the baking time is a bit longer.
Happy cooking and hope the duck turns out great! Happy Holidays 🙂
I made this duck yesterday for Christmas and it was DELICIOUS. The meat was so tender and the skin so crispy. I loved the idea of just letting it cook all day and giving me a break after doing lots of cooking for Christmas Eve. I served it with a cranberry wine sauce (just warmed some canned cranberry sauce with red wine and thickened with a corn starch slurry). And I roasted potatoes and brussels sprouts in the duck fat. So good! So easy! Thanks!!
Hi Deb, I’m glad to hear the recipe worked for you! Yes, I love the fact that the duck is easy to prepare and the result is so rewarding 🙂 Duck fat roasted potato and brussels sprouts sound super yummy! I hope you had a great Christmas. Happy New Year to you and your family!
Finally – crispy skin meets juicy meat! This was so easy and the best method I’ve ever tried for duck. I used a Mary’s duck from CA and had to turn the oven up to 325 at hour 7 to render more fat for 30 more mins but it turned out beautifully. In the past I would get crispy skin but the meat would dry out at higher temps.
Hi Bryan, I’m glad to hear the method worked for you! It is by far my favorite duck recipe and I’ve been cooking duck this way since I discovered the method 🙂 Happy New Year!
Fabulous, memorable for all the right reasons.
We have just enjoyed this recipe on the balcony in Portugal with the sun shining.
This is possibly the most memorable meal this holiday.
Thank you.
So happy to hear you enjoyed the dish! And the table setting sounds so lovely. Hope you have a great week ahead 🙂
Fatastic Recipe !!!! I finally know how to cook a perfect duck.
So glad to hear you like the recipe as much as I do Dyana!
Hi Maggie,I used your recipe to the letter and and it came out perfectly.
Thanks a lot
EJ
Can I substitute 2 duck breasts for a whole duck? Any cooking time changes?
I have used a (what we thought) was the most delicious duck recipe for years. My hubby came down with SIBO so that recipe went out the window. I ran across your recipe….we are amassed how fantastic it is.
Yummmeeeee
Great recipe! I baked this in a Dutch Oven using the backbone as my “rack” (so I could use all those glorious bits for duck stock after everything was said and done). I used a star-anise spiced plum jam (and arrowroot instead of cornstarch) for my sauce and served everything along with squash-tarragon soup and squash sourdough. This was for sure a home run recipe and all my flavor choices played well with each other. Can’t wait to eat leftover duck tomorrow with the sauce on the squash sourdough bread, panini style! Thank you!!!
I tried this technique Sunday, November 4, 2018.
Like you said it was tender not dry and easily pulled away from the carcass.
I totally thought I messed up when I realized at the 5 hour mark I had been cooking the duck at 200 degrees Fahrenheit instead of 250. So I turned it to 250 for last two hours.
My second goof up was I didn’t put it on a rack. However, despite the goof ups it turned out really good.
Time for new glasses. 😂
We love Duck, finally I found the best ever recipe, thank you s much. The only thing I did different was the sauce (didn’t have wine or jam lol) so used Chicken broth, cranberry jelly, and cornstarch. Even my brother who isn’t crazy about Duck, loved it. Thank you.
What a great recipe!
I just needed to adjust the temperature a little and cook it at 170 for 7 3/4 hr.s and finish with 15 minutes at 450 in a convection oven as I needed to extend the cooking time to allow for an airport pickup of our arriving guest.
They were absolutely famished when they arrived not having eaten for 12 hours due to their traveling.
The aroma from this magnificent duck permeated the air as we entered our home guest in tow and they beamed as this scent greeted our arrival.Upon plating with jasmine rice and our Mandarin rum orange sauce and a few side salads we were exhiliarated by deliciousness of this splendid bird.
The meat was spectacular and the skin crackling crispy, the best duck any of us had ever eaten.
The only modification I made as far as ingredients was substituting Black Seal rum for the Chinese liquor but the rum with the citrus made the sauce devine. A fantastic dish and a recipe that will be our go to for duck from now on.
Maggie! I’m actually cooking it now for thanksgiving, it’s been in the oven for 5 hours and 30 min @ 225f. It’s not completely brown yet so I will give it another hour crank it up to 450 for 15 min. I’m a little nervous of it being over cooked but after reading everybody’s comments I think I’ll be ok! I’ll keep u updated! Thank you so much!
Excellent and easy recipe. I used a 6.5 lb duck. Super fatty. Cooked at 250 for 7 hours, then upped the temp to 500 for 15 mins. Result was perfectly crisped skin and super tender, pull apart meat. I used chunks of orange and lemon to stuff, sea salt only for seasoning. I’d post a picture if the site would allow, but it looks just perfect. I remember learning from my mom to always cook duck at low temp for very long periods of time, she did 225 degrees for 8 hours. So very similar. Thank you for the reminder of how to cook a perfect duck.
A friend gave me a frozen duck a month before Thanksgiving. After seeing the guest list I knew I had to buy another. I allowed the ducks to thaw in the refrigerator for 3 days. The night before T-giving I made cuts in the fat. In a bowl, I put ground salt and pepper, garlic and onion powder and a pinch of cayenne pepper. I rubbed the 1st duck with half of the dry rub. Before adding rub to 2nd duck I added some Chinese 5-spice to the dry rub and sprinkled and rubbed it in.
The 1st duck I stuffed with a sprig of thyme, chunks of Vidalia onion, an apple(cores and quartered) and chunks of raw deer sausage(any sausage will do).
The 2nd duck I stuffed with sprig of thyme, then peeled a navel orange, 2 limes and 2 tangerines leaving them whole.
I then place celery stalks on the bottom of the pan and placed the ducks breast side up. 250’ for 6 hours 15 minutes.
PERFECT!!!
Can you make an orange sauce with this ?
Hi Michael, I do have an orange sauce recipe here: http://omnivorescookbook.com/orange-chicken-sauce/
Happy cooking!
Hi Maggie
When cooking in advance and reheating to serve, should I carve the duck then reheat in pieces or reheat whole?
Thanks
Hi Krystal, I’ve tried both ways they worked out well. I would recommend reheat them with a higher temperature (400 F) in pieces, which will generate a crispier skin. Happy cooking!
Hi, is it possible to get the same juicy results if the duck is not whole but cut up into pieces before baking or is it going to dry out? If I line my pan with citrus and place the duck pieces skin side up right on top of the citrus, would that work too? If yes, does the baking time and method change? Please advise.
Thanks in advance
Hi Adelina, I’ve never tried to use this recipe to cook smaller cuts. I think it won’t work as well as the whole duck because the meat will lose some juice during the baking. That’s being said, if you’re using various bone-in skin-on cuts, I’d try the method you suggested (place the duck on top of citrus with skin side up). It should still come out quite moist with crispy skin.