Shredded Roast Duck

By Sam Sifton

Shredded Roast Duck
Gentl and Hyers for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Gozde Eker.
Total Time
5 hours
Rating
4(146)
Comments
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Some say roasting a duck is difficult work. It is not. It can be messy, though, so make sure you have a roasting pan that can accommodate the enormous amount that renders out of the bird during its roughly four and a half hours in the oven. (Save it for roasting potatoes!) When the meat has cooked, use a couple of forks to shred it, then moisten it with your favorite barbecue sauce, hoisin sauce, gochujang sauce or gravy, and serve with rice or noodles, on potato rolls or Chinese wheat-flour pancakes, or as the final topping of this maniacal recipe for scallops with hollandaise sauce and shredded duck.

Featured in: A Meal of Joyous Excess for the Holidays

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Ingredients

Yield:4 to 6 servings
  • 14- to 6-pound duck
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • Barbecue sauce or hoisin sauce, to taste
Ingredient Substitution Guide
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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 325. Remove giblets and neck from duck cavity, and discard or reserve for another use. Cut off excess fat from duck cavity. Place duck on a rack in a deep roasting pan, breast-side up, and season with salt and pepper. Then slide the pan into the oven and cook, undisturbed, for 2 hours.

  2. Step 2

    Remove duck from oven, and use the point of a sharp knife to prick the skin of the bird, all over the breasts and thighs. Return bird to oven, and cook for 1 to 2 more hours, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thigh measures around 155 degrees.

  3. Step 3

    Increase oven temperature to 450, and cook until the duck is golden and crisp, 15 to 30 minutes.

  4. Step 4

    Carefully remove the roasting pan from the oven, and transfer the duck to a cutting board. (Let the fat in the pan cool, then store it, covered, in the refrigerator. It is an excellent medium for roasting potatoes.) Allow the duck to rest for a few minutes, then shred it, using two forks to pull the meat apart. Add your favorite barbecue sauce, to taste, or your favorite hoisin sauce, to taste. Keep warm.

Ratings

4 out of 5
146 user ratings
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Comments

Barbara

oh my. So easy and delicious. I patted it dry before seasoning and didn't even have to turn up the heat. We will use the leftovers for lo mein or fried rice or soup or....

ArtSpring

Tent the duck loosely with aluminum foil. Also use a larger pan that you'd expect to use.

Doug

Any thoughts on how to minimize the splattering of the grease during cooking? My oven always looks a mess afterwards!

dhwsmith

My oven is accurate but my duck was over 165 in about three hours. And it was cold to start.

Joshua

Cooked this exactly as per the recipe to tremendous results. Less fat released than expected and the meat just fell off the bone. Served with pancakes, cucumber, spring onions, and hoisin sauce for a sublime 'Fakeaway' dinner. The giblets and carcass have been put to use to make stock.

CC Baker

This is my go to recipe for roasting duck. I had a sizeable one, so I spatchcocked it, trimmed excess skin, inverted the rack in my roasting pan and threw onion halves on the rack/under the meat. This made more surface area for crispy skin, and the meat cooked evenly. I tented the sides with foil to capture all the drippings (and save my oven!). The bones will go to soup, the drippings (and cracklings) will be used to make plenty of amazing dishes, and the meat will be used a few ways.

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