Ok. Yes. This seems ultra extra right now. A Smoked Duck? Before this week I couldn’t have even told you where I would get a duck to smoke (for those local to Atlanta, we signed up for Fresh Harvest - they deliver local and small farmer’s goods straight to your door! We love it, love being able to support local and small businesses and love the fun, unique things that are offered. Like DUCK!). Anyways, this was a first for me, roasting one…and if I’m being honest, eating one.
I don’t say this next statement lightly….
LIFE CHANGING!
Seriously!
And it currently wins the award for THE.BEST.THING. we’ve ever cooked on our Big Green Egg! My husband claimed this the best meal of his life. And my kids devoured it!
So, needless to say, you’re going to want to Pin this Duck Recipe…because on the off chance you get your hands on a duck…you’re absolutely going to thank me :)
To Make :
Also to note, online a lot swear marinating overnight is key. If you’ve got the time and thought ahead, GREAT. But for us, this was a quick simple marinade, with a salt bath prior that I think was the trick to making this spectacular! And frankly, I can’t imagine how marinading it overnight could make this thing any better.
Get your Duck, rinse in water, then place in a salt bath for 30 minutes. I used a large bowl, room temperature water and more salt than I care to admit…think the ocean or pasta water!
Remove from Salt Bath and Rinse again in water.
Pat dry with towel or paper towels.
Now For the Marinade :
In a bowl mix juice of 3 small kumquats (this is what we had, oranges would work as well), and 4-5 cloves of chopped garlic. Add pepper and mix well.
In a roasting pan, cover the duck with this marinade, then top with fresh chopped herbs. We used rosemary, German thyme and sage!
Inside the bird, place additional stems of herbs and the other half of the garlic bulb, cut in half.
Let your bird sit in this marinade for one hour, occasionally spooning those juices over the duck.
We chose to roast this in our Big Green Egg… gave it part roast, part smoke flavor! But you could also roast this in your oven. The key here, is low and slow!
Preheat your smoker or your oven to 200 degrees.
If using a smoker, place roasting pan directly onto the grill.
Cook for 4-4.5 hours or until internal temperature reads 155-160. And the tip for a really good finish, remove the bird from the roasting pan for the last hour and place directly on the grill grates!
Now this Duck turned out beautiful all on it’s own! But for a fun feast, we turned this into duck tacos and served with Dressed Bok Choy (simply rough chopped bok choy & bunching onions that were allowed to marinade in soy sauce for 30 minutes) and Pickled Red Onions (again, so simple, chopped red onions marinaded in apple cider vinegar). Served with tortillas and our favorite Sriracha. And because this meal was off the charts, served it with homemade Rosemary French Fries!
