Duck!

Yesterday, I fired up the Big Green Egg and decided to tackle cooking a whole duck. Until now, I’d never cooked one myself. Usually, we grab a roasted duck from Chinatown and have them carve it for us to make this duck salad everyone loves. But for some reason, ducks were on special this week, so Jane picked one up instead of a chicken. I had my doubts, but I figured, why not?

Did not look like this. Mine looked better.

I kept the seasoning pretty straightforward, using just some Chinese five spice. I didn’t add any extra flavoured wood beyond the natural smokiness from the charcoal. I opted for a reverse-cooking method since all the recipes suggested starting high and then lowering the temperature, similar to getting crackling on pork. The challenge with the Big Green Egg, though, is that it’s much better at climbing in temperature than cooling down. These things are built to hold heat, not let it go.

Overall, it took about four hours, and I was pretty happy with the results. Sorry. We ate them before I remembered to take a photo. Ducks are incredibly fatty birds, which means they’re packed with flavor. We kept the sides simple—just some sweet potato fries and peas.

I’m a complete noob at carving a duck. I had no idea how to take the legs off without mangling the thing. So, yeah, I mangled it. I’ll get the hang of it with practice. There’s not as much meat on a duck as you’d get from a chicken—enough for maybe three people. But it’s such a rich protein that you don’t need a heap to feel satisfied.

If any barbecue duck experts out there in the cheap seats have some tips, I’ll take ‘em.