“‘My fellow magisters have doubled the size of the city guard,’ Illyrio told them over platter’s of honey duck and orange snap peppers one night at the manse that had been Drogo’s. The khal had joined his khalasar, his estate given over to Daenerys and her brother until the wedding.” -A Game of Thrones
Honey Duck w/orange snap peppers
Our Thoughts:
Like many meat dishes, the star of this dish was the incredible sauce. Made with honey, orange juice, butter, and a dash of warm pepper, it brought out the richness of the duck. Dripping with this sauce, each bite of the duck is succulent, a delight to eat. We sauteed orange bell peppers with a touch of salt, as well as some baby bok choy for additional color, then drizzled both with some fig infused balsamic vinegar. Amazing. Serve with some flatbread, honeyed wine, and a table set with the strangest fruits you can find, and you’re golden.
Honey Duck Recipe
Cook’s Notes: Once you have picked your duck clean at dinner, consider boiling down what’s left for an incredible broth. It adds depth and richness to any dish; we turned ours into a risotto that was out of this world!
Ingredients
- 1 (4 pound) whole duck, rinsed
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger root, or powdered ginger
- pinch of white pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 orange, quartered
For the sauce
- 1 cup honey
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- pinch of Aleppo pepper
- several thin slices of lemongrass (optional)
To prepare the duck, prick the skin all over with a sharp knife; this will allow some of the fat to run out and keep the duck from being too greasy.
In a small bowl, mix together your spices and salt. Sprinkle this mixture over the duck and stuff with orange quarters. Place the duck in the roasting pan, and make the sauce.
Simmer together the honey, butter, lemon juice and orange juice in a small saucepan, until just combined. Pour a splash of this over the duck, and save the rest for a sauce.
Bake for 30 minutes at 350F. Turn the duck breast side down, and reduce the heat to 300F. Cook for another 2 hours, or until a nice dark golden color. If desired, turn duck breast up again at the end of cooking to brown it.
Oh my, thi is a dish I’ve been thinking about recently and wanted to try my hand at. Glad you beat me to it! :D
Looks gorgeous… Silly question but cooking for 5 adults, how many ducks would you recommend? I’m thinking 3 to be on the safe side…
3 sounds like a very safe estimate. Part of it will depend on the number of sides you plan to include, but really, can one have too much duck? PLUS! Extra leaves you with the added bonus of being able to make duck stock with it the next day. We used our stock for several dishes, including an amazing mushroom risotto with asparagus and parm.
Now I’m jealous of your meal, all over again…
LOL don’t be, it’s the first time I’ll be making duck, so it might not turn out all that well… Thanks for the confirmation though, looking forward to this weekend more now! :0)
I’ve already tried a few of your recipes, and they were all perfect. Although they were “small ones” like lemoncakes, leek soup or pears in wine. Tomorrow I want to try this one and I have a question: did you peeled the orange before stuffing the duck with it?
We did not peel the orange before stuffing the duck. Goodluck, and let us know how it turns out!
Thanks for quick response.
The duck…well, I think that was the best duck I’ve ever eaten. At first, I was terrified by the sauce. When I’ve tasted it from the pan…it tasted like one of the first steps of making lemoncakes.
But on the duck…I could not stop myself from pouring it on meat over and over again. And it also made a great combination with my ‘salad’ – pears marinated in vinegar (with small addition of cloves).
And I even wasn’t stricly following your recipe – I haven’t aleppo pepper, so I used a plain chili powder, and instead of juice from concentrate I’ve used fresh one, 3/4 cup.
And it still was astonishing. Thanks a lot!
Huzzah! I’m so glad you loved the duck! And it’s great to know that chili powder can be successfully substituted- I’ll add that note to the recipe. :)
I’m really looking forward to making this dish; I have everything ready. I just can’t think about what else to serve with it. What do you recommend? What kind of sides do they have in Pentos?
For sides, I’d suggest a middle eastern grain, such as rice or cous cous. Spicy carrots in a wine sauce would go well, as would a salad with fennel.
As far as desserts, how about a sherbet, or even just an assortment of exotic fruits? Baklava is always a win, in my book. :)
And don’t forget to stew down your leftovers; the duck broth makes an amazing base for mushroom risotto!
Thank you for the suggestions! I’m going to give it the old college try.
I planned this to be my first attempt at making duck but ran into some misfortune along the way :-(
The grocery store I go to had whole non-frozen ducks the week before but when I went back my choices where a whole frozen duck or 2 premarinated half ducks. I didn’t have time to wait for the whole duck to thaw and the half ducks would have had to be crudely stitched together into some ungodly edible monstrosity so I ended up replacing the duck with a chicken.
Once I got over my disappointment the whole thing turned out quite nicely.
I made this exactly as written and it was absolutely incredible. It was so tender that the meat literally fell off of the bones. Everyone loved it. Thank you for posting this recipe!
I know this sounds like a stupid question but what type of roaster do you recommend? I’ve noticed some have the rack down the bottom and some don’t… what do you use? Thanks :)
I think those roasting pans with the rack in them are wonderful; I hope to someday own one. :) Instead, I usually use a regular baking pan with tall sides.
I’m a little concerned that the recipe doesn’t include instructions for the proper rendering off of excess fat that all water fowl have. Is it implied that most readers will know to prick the skin all over for the excess fat to rend out so the bird isn’t excessively greasy or oily? (Plus, saving duck/goose fat for later cooking is half the reason to cook one!)
Recipe duly tweaked! I’m a big fan of duck fat, but didn’t include it with the recipe because I wasn’t sure how the citrus and other ingredients might affect it. Do you suppose it would still work well?
I wouldn’t use it as interchangeably as just plain duck fat that only saw salt and pepper, but I wouldn’t throw it out, either! I can imagine using a bit of the duck fat with the mingled flavors from the sauce in cooking the sides for the same meal. Just a touch for the baby bok choy or peppers, or even take a bit of bread and give it a quick one-sided fry in just a bit of it. Would be very cohesive, and if done with only a light touch, shouldn’t make things too “one note,” either. :-)
If you aren’t a huge fan of ginger, do you have any suggestions on what you can substitute?
Galangal. You should be able to get this in asian stores
I keep serving this amazing dish to every guest showing up at my place, and they all love it. so much, they beg me to cook it again and again. The sauce is delicious, and the spices combined are just a perfect mix. So good!
Wow! What an outstanding rip off of the Feast of Ice and Fire Official Cookbook. Your cook’s note is almost word perfect. Just enough to avoid plagerism charges, I reckon.
Hi Jemma! If this comment is meant to be ironic, it’s very funny. If not, it’s hilarious. I wrote both the blog entry and the cookbook! Thanks for looking out for my best interest! ;)
Hello. Excuse me for the blasphemous question, but, would the recipe still work if I replace the duck with chicken? It’s just that I’m having a lot of trouble finding duck, unfortunately :/
Thank you.
Nonsense! I can’t often justify the expense of duck, even when I can find one, so I bet it would totally work, and would still be delicious! Use cooking times from the Honeyed Chicken recipe, but you should be able to keep everything else the same. Let me know how it turns out!
Cool! Thank you! I will! :)