How To Roast Duck

I am going to show you today how to roast a duck. I have got a half of a duck, which I have got one leg and one breast. Now, it does take a lot quicker when you are cooking the breasts on its own, but we got it all together, so I really want the oven to be nice and moderate heat.

We are looking at about 160, so it all cooks nicely together. The breast will cook before the leg. That is why a lot of chefs will take off the leg, they will carve it down and braise it in goose fat.

So, I have a duck. What I am looking forward to is to actually cook it and release all the fat from the duck as well, because it's very oily, but it will need some oil in the beginning to get the cooking process going. So, a nice bit of oil on the top of the skin and on the leg, rub that through as well.

If you want to trim it down, which is a good idea, just take off all the excess skin and probably take off the knuckle as well. The more prep you have got, the less you have to deal with when it actually cooks. We are looking to put our duck in a moderate oven, 160, and we are looking at just over an hour to cook - very important because a leg does take a bit longer to cook than the breasts.

What I am looking to do as well is add bit of moisture to my duck, so I have created a tray with some tin foil and some of the wire rack. I want to release all the fat so that it goes into the pan and halfway through, I will take some of the oil out to keep for roast potatoes, it's nice to have a bit of duck fat. I will add some water to my tray as well.

We are going to add some moisture to our duck. We are looking to create some steam to get water and moisture into my duck. We are looking for a nice crispy skin and nice, moist, meat.

I am looking to salt and pepper up, we have added olive oil there, nice salt and pepper, get it on there. I have raised the duck from the tray. I want all the fat to drip off.

I don't want it to go back into the meat. I don't want an oily duck which is very important. I want it all to be moved away from the duck, then I will put my water on the bottom to create some steam, nice and moist.

Nice moderate oven. Just over an hour. Double check it and turn it over to get some nice color to the duck.

We will take it out and drain. Let our duck rest for 10 to 15 minutes. We will cut it up as we want it.

So, that is how I cook and that is how I roast my duck. .