Citrus Roast Duck Adventure

David Chang had us at duck and oranges. When the chef talked about foraging citrus tree leaves for a futuristic roasted bird on his Netflix show Dinner Time Live before the holidays, we looked at each other and smiled.

This was during the proverbial calm before the storm. Ripening fruit filled the towering navel orange tree in our backyard. Roast duck is one of Guillaume’s specialties. All the ingredients were straightforward and this seemed just right for a small, cozy Christmas dinner.

But we didn’t have a recipe, just the official blog post where Dave described generally what he planned to make — and clearly had to change at the last moment. This is how I found myself scrutinizing the video replay over and over, trying to decipher a wine bottle label and gas flame height.

“A Christmas Carol Menu” with guests Tony Hawk and Kenya Barris might be the episode that haunts Dave the most. The puff pastry around his coquilles Saint-Jacques didn’t fully cook, the Yorkshire pudding batter took an accidental detour through the microwave, the roast beef was overdone, and several steps for the duck went awry, too.

“If you’re going to do duck at home, it can be unwieldy,” Dave cautioned while cutting the breast meat, live. “It’s an intimidating thing because there’s quite a lot of fat and you’re looking right now at a lot of the juices.” He added that normally he’d let it rest at least 10 more minutes so the juices wouldn’t spill out.

His guests chuckle appreciatively. “Say whatever you want, you’ve already convinced us not to do it,” Tony responds smilingly, reaching for his mulled wine. As the credits start to roll, Dave turns to co-host Chris Ying and exclaims something like, “All my greatest fears came true!”

Let me pause here to say how much I loved this show. Each episode unfolded unpredictably with raucous laughter, crosstalk, smack talk, hot takes, hot pans, sweetness, awkward silences, food missing mouths, a tight and friendly crew, practical tips, fun factoids, culinary dorkery, and occasional insanity in the quest of deliciousness.

Rather than dissuade us, the challenges made his ephemeral citrus duck dish even more tempting. To piece together a recipe, I did extensive online research and found helpful suggestions published by the Serious Eats team, the Momofuku recipe writers, Hank Shaw, John Mitzewich, and Jasmin of JulietKitchen.com.

We prepared the duck in two phases, first breaking the bird down and making the stock, and secondly searing the main section, roasting it with endives and citrus, and making the sauce. We reserved the rendered duck fat, extra stock, cooked leg meat, and carcass for other dishes.

Our approach differed from Dave’s in places. I didn’t add picked leg meat to the sauce at the end because that felt superfluous. We also omitted the marmalade, using a trusty white wine sauce recipe adapted from WineFolly.com instead, incorporating a little cornstarch slurry as a thickener.

One crucial lesson was that you can’t safely or easily break down a raw duck without the right tools. A super sharp boning knife is ideal. A meat cleaver should also work. We had neither at first and it was dangerously difficult. Fortunately nobody ended up in the ER.

Did everything else go smoothly on the first try? Uh, no. We didn’t manage to remove the wings. While scoring the skin, the knife accidentally cut into the meat. The first roast wasn’t long enough for medium-rare so we had to pop it back in the oven. The butter chunk hardly melted. We even forgot to inhale the aroma. But that first duck we shared with my cousin was truly delicious and made us eager to try again.

The second round, with a pricier fresh air-chilled duck, was less successful. We burned the skin. The duck breast roasted unevenly and the slices came out more rare and not as nice as before. Re-watching old episodes of The Chef Show, I noticed that chef Jessica Largey tells Roy Choi and Jon Favreau, “Duck is super temperamental,” while preparing a whole aged roast duck. “Every duck is different.”

Please keep that in mind with the recipe below. May we all get through this and be able to celebrate together peacefully again, citrus duck or no.

Citrus Roast Duck
Inspired by Dinner Time Live with David Chang

Makes 3 main course servings

1 whole duck, approximately 5 lbs.
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
Salt
6 oranges (1 for stock, 5 for roasting)
Several small orange tree boughs with their leaves, rinsed and dried
1 yellow onion, cut into large pieces
1 leek, cleaned, trimmed, and cut lengthwise into large pieces
Several sprigs fresh parsley
Several sprigs fresh thyme
1 carrot, peeled, trimmed, and cut into large pieces
1 celery stalk, cut into large pieces
1 Tbsp. black or mixed peppercorns
5 endives
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 small shallot, minced
Approx. ¾ C. dry white wine (we used La Crema Monterey Pinot Gris)

Equipment: 6-quart Dutch oven with lid, poultry shears, boning knife or meat cleaver, stock straining tools, meat thermometer, 12-inch metal skillet, carving knife.

Phase 1

Salt and dry the duck
For frozen duck, defrost in the refrigerator for a couple days first. At least one day before planning to serve, prepare the duck. Use a boning knife or meat cleaver to slice off the duck neck and excess fat from the duck cavity, remove the wing tips, legs, and lower back / spine. Set these parts aside.

Rub salt all over the duck breasts and inside the cavity. Place in a covered dish breast side up and refrigerate for up to 24 hours to allow the skin to dry out.

Make the stock
Add peppercorns, parsley, thyme, carrot, celery, and 2 orange halves to the Dutch oven along with the duck wings and lower back section.

Salt the duck legs generously. Place them skin-side down in a 12-inch skillet set over medium heat. Allow the fat to render for 20 to 25 minutes. Flip them over and cook for another 5 minutes. Put the seared legs in the Dutch oven. Carefully drain nearly all the duck fat into a heat-proof container, allow the fat to cool, and refrigerate it for future use.

Reheat the skillet to medium, add the leek and onion, and brown them evenly. Put them in the pot. Deglaze the skillet with enough dry white wine to cover the skillet bottom. Add this mixture to the pot and then cover the duck parts and aromatics with cold water.

Cover pot and bring to a boil. Remove lid, reduce to a steady simmer on medium heat, set a 1-hour timer, and cook gently for at least 2 hours, stirring occasionally. After the first hour, take out the duck legs, remove the meat to use for another time, and return the bones to the pot.

Once the stock has reduced, remove the duck bones and aromatics, and then finely strain the liquid. We ladled it into a gold coffee filter set inside a ceramic funnel over a glass jar. Funnel the stock into a plastic storage container or containers and refrigerate it.

Phase 2

Sear the duck
Being careful to only pierce the skin and not the flesh, use a sharp knife to make gentle diagonal scores ¼-inch apart in a cross-hatch pattern starting from the top of the duck breast down to where the legs were. Put a chunk of unsalted butter inside the cavity, approximately 4 tablespoons.

Heat a clean empty Dutch oven on the stovetop to medium-high and test with a little water. Once hot, place the duck breast side down and sear, rendering some fat and giving it some color. This may take 9 minutes or so, but be careful to not let it brown too fast. You might need to lower the heat and go for longer. Remove it to a cutting board, breast side up. Let the Dutch oven cool slightly. You need the fat in the bottom for roasting.

Preheat oven to 450°F. Mince the shallot, measure out ½ cup white wine and, separately, ½ cup duck stock. In a small bowl, make a slurry with 1 teaspoon cornstarch and 1 generous spoonful of duck stock.

Roast the duck
Gather the endives, remaining oranges, and orange tree sections. Trim the endives and cut large ones in half. Cut the oranges in half.

Add the endives to the fat in the Dutch oven. Squeeze two of the orange halves into the pot and put the rinds in. Add the rest of the orange halves. Place a layer of small tree boughs and leaves in the pot. Set the seared duck breast side up on the greens. Put the lid on and roast for around 20 minutes at 450°F.

Open the lid and inhale the aroma. Use a meat thermometer to check the duck breast. Internal temperature should be 140°F for medium-rare. Set the duck on a cutting board to rest for approximately 15 minutes. Remove the tree sections and oranges to cool and compost later. Leave the endives in the pot with the drippings.

Make the sauce
Place minced shallots in a large metal skillet set over medium heat with a few spoonfuls drippings. Cook until translucent, about 5 minutes, and then add ½ cup dry white wine. Let the alcohol burn off and cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Add ½ cup duck stock to the pan, raise the heat to medium-high, and mix in the cornstarch slurry. Once thickened, add some more roasted drippings. Season with salt to taste.

Remove the rested duck breasts from the bone with a carving knife and then cut them against the grain into ¾-inch slices, preserving the browned skin. Plate several pieces with some endives and sauce to serve. Note: This dish goes well with crusty bread to mop up the sauce.