This five-spice orange roasted duck is seasoned with freshly ground Chinese five-spice powder, orange zest, plus a fair amount of garlic. A fancy little recipe to serve for your favorite dinner party guests.
Notes
It looks like this recipe was initially written for a roasted whole duck, and the cooking directions for duck breasts seem to have been added on later. The ingredient amounts for the duck seasoning as well as the glaze appear to be scaled for roasted duck and will need to be adjusted downward for duck breasts.
Ingredients
Duck
- 4 duck breasts - or 1 whole duck
- 3 tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoons RawSpiceBar's Five Spice Powder
- 1 large orange - zested and cut into wedges
- 1 one-inch piece fresh ginger - minced
- 2 cloves garlic - minced
Glaze
- 2 cups orange juice
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoons Demerara sugar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 two-inch piece ginger - thickly sliced
Instructions
Prepare the duck (the day before)
- Rinse duck and pat dry.
- Combine salt and five-spice powder and liberally coat duck.
- Combine orange zest with grated ginger and garlic, then smear inside the cavity.
- Place orange wedges in the cavity.
- Tie legs together. Secure neck flap with wooden skewer or toothpicks.
- Place duck on a rack in roasting pan breast-side-up and refrigerate overnight, uncovered.
Make the glaze
- Heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Meanwhile, bring the duck to room temperature and make the glaze.
- Bring orange juice, honey, sugar, and soy sauce to a simmer.
- Add sliced ginger and star anise, then reduce the mixture until you have a medium-thick syrup, about 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and set aside.
Roast Whole Duck
- Roast whole duck for 2 hours, pouring off fat and turning duck over every 30 minutes.
- Paint with glaze and roast another 30 minutes (2 1/2 hours in all). Tent with foil if the glaze begins to get too dark. Duck is done when the temperature at the thickest part of the leg reads 165 degrees.
- Paint the duck once more, keep warm, and let rest 20 minutes.
Roast Duck Breasts
- For duck breasts, bake, 15-25 minutes, glazing halfway through and turning halfway through, until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 150°F