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Oven roasted duck

  • 1 Whole Duck
  • Seasonings
    • 4 t Medium-Grain Salt
    • 2 t Black Peppercorn, ground
  • Root Vegetables, roughly chopped (optional)
  • Orange Marmalade Pan Sauce (optional)
  1. Calculate roasting time. Weigh duck. Cooking time at 200°C (400°F) is 20 minutes plus 40 minutes per kilogram (or 18 minutes per pound).1
  2. Rest duck 1-2 hours at room temperature.
  3. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
  4. Rinse duck in cold water, and pat dry.
  5. Trim duck by cutting away both fatty deposits and excess skin in and around neck area and just inside its cavity. Remove wing tips.
  6. Prick skin. Make shallow pricks everywhere but drumsticks --- don't forget the areas where the thighs join the body!
  7. Score breasts in a shallow crosshatch pattern.
  8. Season inside and outside of duck with desired seasonings.
  9. Place rack in roasting pan. Alternatively, layer root vegetables to suspend the duck.
  10. Roast once. Place duck breasts up in roasting pan. Roast for one-third of the total cooking time.
  11. Drain fat. Lay out parchment paper to catch drippings off the rack. Remove duck from oven. Tilt duck to drain, pouring juices from cavity into roasting pan before setting duck on parchment paper. Spoon off excess fat from roasting pan, strain, and reserve for other recipes.
  12. Roast twice. Return duck to roasting pan breasts down. Roast for another one-third of the total cooking time.
  13. Roast thrice. Flip duck breasts up, and continue roasting for the final one-third of the total cooking time until duck registers 71°C (160°F).
  14. Drain again. Tilt duck to drain, pouring juices from cavity into roasting pan.
  15. Rest at least 15 minutes at room-temperature.
  16. Carve. Place duck breasts down on carving board, and cut along both sides of backbone. Flip duck breasts up. Slice along ridge of breastbone to remove meat. When you get to the thigh bone, sever the joint. Remove wings if desired. Separate leg quarters from breast. Slice breast into serving pieces. Sever joint between leg and thigh.
  17. Serve.

To cook properly, the duck must be placed such that the fat can drain off the meat, e.g., on a rack or on top of root vegetables.

The duck will continue cooking to 74°C (165°F) after it's removed from the oven.

Consider roasting the removed neck and wing tips under the duck to prepare a pan sauce.

  1. "Duck Whole Cooking Times and Calculator." Get Clever. 25 February 2021. ↩

  2. Stewart, Martha. "Roast Duck 101." Martha Stewart. 6 June 2012. ↩