Honey Duck

While very good, this recipe needed a bit of revisement to bring the taste factor up a bit. Also, as many other reviewers have noted, if you cook a bord this size and weight for the suggested amount of time, it comes out dry...even at low temperatures (300 F). Using my method, I cooked my 6lb. duck and it was done within 2hours and 20minutes, far below the time limit set for this recipe for a smaller duck. Since it only takes about 20 minutes per pund for a duck to cook at 375 uncovered, and an extra 5 minutes with it covered at 300F, I used a combination of both to achieve a tender and still crispy duck. First,I set the oven to 375F. Since I was doing a 6lb. duck, I had to adjust all of the ingredients by and additional half. for the rub portion, I also found it was necessary to add some additional spice/herbs since I know that ginger and basil alone aren't enough for my pallete. I added about 2 tablespoon's worth of a combination of equal parts rosemary, sage (ground), marjoram, thyme and oregano. If you don't have a mortar&pestil, you get a simmilar blend that works the same way from the Spice Hunter brand of seasonings; it's called "Poultry Seasoning".

I made this for my Christmas Eve dinner party. The only "problem" with it was it was SO tender I could not turn it breast up in the last few minutes of cooking. I served it with a raspberry sauce. Everyone loved it!!!! It was the best duck I ever ate.

Outstanding recipe! I varied the recipe a bit by adding some ground rosemary and ground ginger inside and out, which always works nicely with oranges. I added water with a bit of orange concentrate on the bottom of the pan to use for basting, the rest of the concentrate I brushed over the duck, then lightly dusted a touch more seasoning on. My husband, 2 year old son and myself devoured the whole thing in one sitting, and if a picky toddler will eat this, then it deserves 10 stars! :) Thank you for sharing the recipe!

Great recipe.. would use it again. Made a couple of revisions that I think really enhanced the flavour. First, I added mango chutney to the honey / orange glaze. There was a hint of the exotic that my family really liked. Also, I turned the duck over (breast up) about 45 minutes before finished in order to have a lovely dark skin presented on the platter. Oops, one other thing.. I totally filled the cavity of the duck with orange and squeezed the cooked orange juice onto the meat before serving. Thanks!

The duck was really good but came out a little dry because the cooking time was a little too long. I will make the duck this way again but will make sure to cut the cooking time way down.

This was the first time we had ever even eaten duck...(well most of us) it was a wonderful substitute for the over worked turkey that comes around on holidays. I made my own mango chutney which included fresh ginger root and honey vinegar and nutmeg, cloves,cinnamon fresh herbs like basil and some brown sugar and stuffed the inside of (both ducks) with the chutney and orange 1/4's. I made the glaze (suggested here) and it was beautiful!!! I even made an orange mango gravy that was rich in flavor of fresh fruits and herbs. I will definately use this recipe again and again and again...It came out perfectly cooked and tender after two hours and a half (they were 5 lb ducks!). THANK YOU for this amazing new addition to our holiday tradiotion!

I have never prepared a duck before this but will continue to use this recipe forever. Even my picky husband ate it! The prep time for this recipe is fairly short but it takes a while in the oven (I think its worth it though). The duck was not greasy and the orange-honey glaze was perfect. This recipe is not kid friendly as they probably wouldn't be interested in the recipe (although I think they'd like the sweet taste). Excellent recipe that I recommend to all!

My family loves duck. We hunt them every year. This year we were a little tired of the same old thing and so my dad told me that he had heard of this web site. We were so excited to see that there are so many recipes for duck. I decided that this sounded great so we printed it up and fell in love! It is a delicous recipe!

This was the first time this otherwise-experienced cook prepared duck and it was a hit with my family. Thanks! My 5 lb. duck wouldn't have served more than 6. I served this with a green salad with pears and pistachios and oil and balsamic dressing, parsleyed potatoes, and bread.

My friends and I all really enjoyed this recipe. The sauce was a little bit too sweet for the rice we made with it, but it was great on the duck!

Wow, What a great Recipe. I even got a comment from my mother Inlaw, that is was the best duck she has ever tasted. and that says something I was so unsure about cooking duck, I even rosted a chook to have as a stand by. Guess What were having for lunch? Good eating Marie from Down Under

I found this was a great recipe to start from. I made my first duck last night, and it was so tender! The changes I made: I sprinkled the duck inside and out with Chinese 5-spice powder and kosher salt. For the sauce, I used orange juice instead of water, the honey, dried orange peel and 6TB unsalted butter. I also added a bit of Grand Marnier to taste--Mmmm! For a 6lb. duck, I roasted breast side up, covered, 375 for 1/2 hr, then 300 for 20 min/lb. with the last 20 min. uncovered. I took it out of the oven, poured off the grease and let it sit for 15 minutes.

Excellent! I added more honey and used regular orange juice and just reduced it for about 20 minutes before using it. I also used this glaze on the ham we cooked as well and it was fabulous.

Delicious! I made this for my boyfriend's 29th birthday. I rubbed my duck with ginger on the inside and Chinese five spice and white pepper on the outside, until the bird was very well coated. The glaze did not thicken like I thought it would, but the result turned out delicious and beautiful. Thank you for the recipe!

This was absolutely DELICIOUS. I thought that basil and ginger together in the same recipe were a weird combination, but decided to follow the recipe to the letter. It was the best duck I have ever eaten. I had stinging nettles as a side dish and the sauce was beautiful on them as well - I imagine spinach would be well complemented as well. Thanks for a wonderful recipe!!!

I made this for my first attempt both at cooking duck and cooking Christmas dinner. As other reviewers suggested, I added some rosemary to the garlic/basil/salt rub. After making the glaze, I used an injector to get some of the flavor throughout the meat. I also cooked in a bag, rather than the roaster. I added more glaze every thirty minutes. The flavor was absolutely amazing, but the duck was tough. After doing some research, I discovered that duck can be served medium rare, unlike chicken. The juices run rosy instead of clear at this stage.

We always fix a duck to go along with the turkey on Thanksgiving Day, and this was by far the best duck we've ever had. I put a wedge of onion in the cavity with the orange, and that was nice. But the cooking time/temperature seemed very off to me. We ended up uncovering it after about 45 minutes, and cooking it at 350. It was done in 3 hours total, but I don't think it would have been if we hadn't turned the temperature up. The back was a lovely, crispy brown, its too bad the breast wasn't that way... but it was wonderfully moist, so I'm not sure I'd roast it breast-up. Really just a great recipe.

I did not have a whole duck because hubby refises to pluck (I don't blame him), so I put breasts in a container with orange juice (not concentrate) minced ginger root and honey and marinated overnite (when meat is cold takes longer to marinate). The next day we baked them in the oven and they were awesome!! Hubby now doesn't want duck any other way!

This was very good. I used duck and goose all cooked in the same batch and I couldn't taste the difference between either meat. I did however marinate the goose and duck 1 hour in ice cold salt water to remove the blood and game flavor. Next time I'll probably do it in Coke so it is more tender. After that 1 hour was up, I marinated the meat in the ginger root, oj, and honey over night. The next morning I put it all in a crock pot (cause I had cut out the breast and leg meat of each cause I had shot them the day before and it's easier to clean them that way). Let them cook all day cause I wasn't home, turned out wonderful. My aunt and mother had some and they said it reminded them of Christmas - they loved it!

I'm a novice, and it was my first time to make ever make any duck recipe. This turned out delicious. Next time however, I will add more honey/OJ, and cook it longer. Otherwise, it was delicious! Made it for New Year's Day and it ws yummy! Everyone enjoyed it.

Great recipe as is. But my ego is so large I always have to take credit for whatever concoction I do up in my house. I used mango/peach/orange juice, added about 4 tbsp. soya sauce and 2 cloves of garlic to the marinade. I also roasted the "innards", splashed a shot of cognac on them and boiled them in the same juice mentioned above with some onions, celery tops, bayleaves, garlic and ginger for gravy. It was absolutely fabulous. You could use white wine or scotch in a pinch.

We made this recipe for Thanksgiving. I was a little apprehensive as it was the first duck I'd ever cooked & I was afraid I'd screw it up, but it turned out so delicious we ended up destroying the carcass to get at every last little bit of duck meat! My only criticism is that the prep took me more like 45 minutes, so I was a little behind in my cooking schedule.

Good duck recipe! My dad and fiance loved it! Good flavor while still retaining the taste of the duck. Great one to make again!

This was fabulous. My 4 kids and husband loved it. The orange flavor was perfect. I made two ducks (2 1/2 lbs each) and added garlic and rosemary. I only cooked them until the internal temp was 165 degrees, which was about 2 hours at 300. I also cooked them for 30 mins at 400 in the beginning. It was very good. Thanks.

I made a few changes to turn up the flavor but it still turned out a bit bland. However, the saving point was that the duck came out really tender. I used a 6 pound duck and adjusted the recipe accordingly. One thing that I want to mention is that there was too much of the basting mixture. I used the original 4 pound portion and only used 2/3 of the mixture. I put in some ground rosemary and black pepper to spice it up and it definitely added to the flavor. Also, instead of the 3 hours that they said we should bake it for. I only baked it for 2 hours and twenty minutes and that was for a 6 pound duck. The duck came out tender but the skin wasn't crispy as I had hoped.

Wonderful! Although I think I needed to cook mine a bit longer...

This was pretty good. I had never made duck before, so I might have not done it right, but it was kinda tough and the skin never got crispy. The flavor, however was excellent and I will try and make this again sometime.

great

Thought this recipe was very good. I did use some orange marmalade (couldn't resist) & omitted the orange juice concentrate and ginger simply because I just didn't have any at the time. The results were so tasty I would definitely make it again. Highly recommend! Thank you for sharing :)

Very Tasty. I love duck, and this was a very good way to prepare it. I was hoping for a crispier skin, however. I prepared this for a friend who had never eaten duck and was curious about the flavor. He enjoyed the taste, and agreed the mild gamey flavor is better complimented (or masked :) ) with a sweet glaze or sauce.

Duck turned out kinda dry

I used a too small roasting pan and over flowed and made a mess, but the duck was delicious!!

Great recipe! So tender & juices. I stuffed the duck with oranges & squeezed more over the top once done. I also chopped more basil & ginger, and sprinkled salt over the duck the last 30 minutes.

Perfect!

I found this recipe to be time-consuming for a "just o.k." result.

Very tasty sauce. I like how it turned out.

Just got done eating. It was the first time I cooked duck, it was amazing. The meat was falling off the bone when it came out. It is not something I will do very often because of the high fat content and the time it takes to fix it, but I will definately do it again. The pan seared foie gras snack that came along wasn't bad either. I just deveined it, cut it in to small strips, squeezed some of the left over orange over it, and seared it in a pan with a little canola oil for ~30 second on high heat(just before smoke point). Yummm.

Very good, and I added some balsamic vinegar to the sauce for an added zing.

I am never cooking a duck again! I don't know if it is because I used a frozen duck (thawed first, of course) or what the problem was, but this was tough and gamey. I used a thermometer to ensure I did not overcook the duck as other reviews said to be careful not to overcook. My husband ate his supper (the rest of us had our potatoes and vegetables) but even he said he won't eat the leftovers. A waste of honey and butter!

very nice duck recipe. completely different from the usual orange glaze. the basil and ginger give it depth and complexity. thank you for this recipe!

I used the glaze before I seasoned the duck because it just made more sense to me. I also added lemon & orange zest to the rub for a greater citrus flavor. Delicious!

We made this for christmas only we used fresh bee honey from the farm which made it super sweet. I loved the flavor it was very runny and juicy, my husband wasn't as much of a fan, but I couldn't get enough of it.

My absolute favorite thing to make on all recipes

It was very tasty. Everyone loved it in my house, even my 11 and 2 yr old!

Easy to do and absolutely delicious. I was concerned it may be too sweet with the honey-orange baste but not at all. Just enough. Perfect! A must do again

Used a 5 pound duck, followed recipe exactly, including the initial 30 minutes at 375 degrees. After 2 1/2 hours at 300 degrees, the duck was still undercooked, pallid, and unappetizing. Out of desperation, I took the orange quarters out of the body cavity and turned up the heat to 400 degrees. Half an hour later, the duck was finally cooked. In the past, I've cooked duck by searing in a preheated 425 degree oven for 30 minutes, lowering the heat to 325 degrees, and roasting for an additional 18 minutes per pound. I was using a fresh duck straight out of the refrigerator. Maybe this recipe works if you allow the duck to come to room temperature before you begin?

This duck recipe was OK but I also found that the skin didn't get crispy even though it was pricked many many times. Instead it was rather sticky on top. However it was very moist and the flavour was fine. Would I cook it again? Probably not as I prefer a crispy skinned duck.

I made my duck in a green egg with this marinade. Fantastic!

We made it tonight! It was a hit. I don't have a covered roaster so I used my PC deep dish baker. Skin did not get crispy but knew it wouldn't in PCDDB. I did add fresh Rosemary to cavity and under the skin. Had to drain fat out of baker half way through. Need to get a proper roaster. No one used extra sauce-I just basted with it so will make 1/2 a batch next time.

What is it expected you do with the leftover PINT and a Half of liquid. And was it really necessary to use a whole jar of honey? It was very wasteful. And that amount of butter was a lot considering how greasy duck is. Was more like boiled duck. Duck tasted ok but not amazing.

Great recipe if you want to cover up the duck flavor.

It was pretty good. The duck came out good, but the flavoring wasn't there like I thought it was going to be. And pricking the skin to make it crispy didn't really work for me either.

Made this for Thanksgiving. It was AMAZING! I'll be making this again next year.

Great flavor, but it was a little dry.

Full stars, this is great! One question to anyone who knows, what's the best way to turn the duck over after 30 min @ 350 degrees. Besides the heat, it's floppy, feels delicate, and it's covered in basting sauce. Do you just grab it with oven mitts on, or is there a best kitchen tool to pick up and turn over the duck?