How to Make Peking Duck

Over the holidays, my mom taught me how to make awesome Peking duck. It’s surprisingly easy to do and I plan on making it again for the Chinese New Year. We found all of the ingredients in my mom’s huge pantry but I also have everything in my pantry, so the ingredients are definitely not hard to obtain.

Peking Duck

Ingredients:

2 ducks
2 cups of red wine (Two Buck Chuck works just fine!)
1 cup of soy sauce
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon honey

One of my mom’s friends is really handy and made her these duck rests. He cut up two pieces of wood and screwed them together so the ducks could stand straight while they were air drying. Cover the wood up completely with saran wrap or aluminum foil:

And place the wood through the duck’s carcass (after you remove all of the innards – those can be saved for a soup!):

Boil a pot of water (about 10 cups) while you prepare the other duck. Mix together the red wine, soy sauce, salt, and honey:

And while you wait for the water to boil, pose the ducks in a conga line:

After the water boils, take the ducks to the sink and pour half of the boiling water on one duck:

And the rest of the water on the second duck:

Next, place a plastic bag or saran wrap around a table and paint the ducks with the wine + soy sauce:

After you’ve thoroughly coated the duck, set aside overnight in a cold and draftly place. If your garage is clean and cold, you can store it there. Also, if you don’t have those nifty wood pieces that my mom’s friend made for her, you can use a wire hanger to hold onto the ducks and hang them. You can also use empty wine bottles to hold the ducks. Let them dry overnight (at least 8 hours).

When you get the ducks the next day, place them on the roasting rack, breast side up:

Cover up the wings with aluminum foil and place them in a 350 degree preheated oven:

After 20 minutes, take them out of the oven and brush another layer of the sauce on the duck. Also, flip the duck over so the breast is down. Do this every 20 – 30 minutes. After an 90 minutes, the duck should be done:

Yummy:

Duck is usually cut up before being served with wraps, hoisin sauce, green onions, and pancakes (skin and meat are usually separate because the skin is so crispy it’s delicious to eat on its own!) Here’s David cutting up the duck:

My mom has a great serving tray with 6 separate compartments, so we split up the duck and condiments accordingly:

We served it at a dinner party at our house with some of my mom’s good friends:

My mom’s friend made all kinds of amazing dishes (Chinese and Danish) – she brought over Danish meatballs (they’re Danish because they’re much bigger than Swedish meatballs):

Her famous fried rice (with long grain rice instead of the usual Asian short grains):

Smoked salmon with lettuce, red onion, lemon, and capers:

An assortment of Asian appetizers (including lotus root, one of my favorites!) and shredded buddha’s hand:

Sonja, her daughter, made a delicious apple pie (my mom’s colleague brought a raspberry tiramisu for dessert):

My mom also made cornbread, a mung bean noodle dish, and roasted butternut squash soup (the butternut squash was straight from her garden!) We had a great night with Sonja, Thomas, Wangling, Kenneth, and my mom’s colleagues and hopefully we’ll see them again the next time we’re in North Carolina.