I am fortunate to have a family that will eat almost anything. Even my Panda and Monkey have adventurous pallets. My Panda thinks pickled beets are the best food ever and my Monkey would take a bowl of lettuce over a candy bar almost any day.
So I really count my blessing that my kids ate duck! Since I’m participating in my friends, Ott. A’s Iron Chef’s duck challenge, it was time for me to figure out where to buy duck and how to make it! With my coupon from Maple Leaf Farms in hand, I headed to my little Kroger store. The only way I could find duck was as a whole duck. No problem. I’ve roasted plenty of chickens, pork loins and turkeys. I figured I could just roast a duck!
My first experience eating duck was at my wine festival, Vintage Indiana, long before I was in charge of the festival. Maple Leaf Farms served duck at Vintage the year I attended as a guest and I loved it. So I was excited to get that duck home and cook it.
I defrosted my duck in the refrigerator for two days. Since it was frozen solid when I bought it, this gave it plenty of time to thaw.
I searched through a dozen recipes trying to decide how to cook this duck. In the end, I simply seasoned it with one of my favorite additions. This lemon sea salt and peppercorn seasoning is from Kroger and I add it to everything!
I simply put the duck, breast side up, in my favorite old roasting pan with a stand in it to keep the duck from boiling in the fat drippings.
It needed to cook at 375 for 2 hours and 15 minutes. My whole house was starting to smell wonderful. And then I heard a boiling sound. Upon opening the stove I found this…
My duck collapsed! Which prompted my Farmer to ask me if it was trying to fly away? Funny guy. I quickly fixed my fallen duck and returned it to the oven. After 2 hours in the oven, perfection.
And it tasted even better. I picked the meat off the bones just like I do whole chickens. I served it shredded for my Farmer and I and added some BBQ sauce for the Panda and Monkey. My Lion Cub, now nearly 5 months old, had a chance to lick one of my fingers! He liked it too.
While it would have been easier to cook just breasts, I’m happy with my whole duck experience!
LOL!! I can’t believe your duck fell. I am so glad we ventured into the world of duck. It might actually become a semi-regular occurrence around here.
I’m trying the whiskey duck Leah posted. Not too adventurous yet, but it might lead to there tries! Glad your duck didn’t fall completely our of the pan! I thought only lobsters did that! 😉
crazy blog world here! al these ducks flying around!!!
The duck looks great!
thanks
Leontien
http://www.littlemissbookwurm.blogspot.com
Lol! I love that when the duck fell you grabbed the camera to take a visual! True blogger at heart 🙂
Your end result looks fabulous!
Maple Leaf at Vintage??? that sounds amaizing!!!! Glad you tried duck and everyone liked it. I liked that you have a roaster that you always use. My mom has a similar one that belong to my great grandma and it fixes every bird she prepares for every holiday. thanks so much for linking up!!!
I love that your Farmer thought the duck was trying to fly away. 🙂 Sounds like something my farmer would say.