Super Easy Way to Roast a Duck Like a Pro

Whole Duck, chopped into quarters, Roasted to perfection.

Now I'm not going to sit back and pretend to be an expert on roasting duck, but I did it once and it came out perfect so if the shoe fits... Hehe!

I currently live in Korea and when it comes to food this culture couldn't possible be more different than American culture. Mostly I do my grocery shopping on the nearby military base so that I can have all of the oh-so-calorie-laden western foods that I love, like cheese and peanut butter. On a side note, peanut butter isn't popular in Korea, presumably because it's about a billion dollars per jar. I just can't help but feel bad for the millions of Korean kids sitting at school at this very moment, being drilled by the harsh requirements of the Korean education system, without a nice PB&J, lovingly prepared by mom, resting in their lunch boxes, ready to comfort them through their lunch hours... Instead they have fermented spicy cabbage... to be fair though, I freaking LOVE kimchi! 

Wow I rabbit-trailed this post in a big way... 

Being the homegrown kinda gal that I am I love farmers markets, so I make an exception to my use of the commissary when it comes to fruits, veggies and, recently, duck. Yes, duck. 

The cost of meat in Korea is astronomical! Presumably, because of their massive population and itsy-bitsy country that's surrounded by water and communist North Korea... Except duck. They have a pretty good number of ducks, it seems, which allowed me to pick up a whole duck for 10,000won ($10). 

But when I got home and plopped the fresh bird into the fridge I was suddenly overwhelmed. Not only had I never made duck, I've never roasted a turkey or even roasted a chicken! My only experience with poultry is limited to baking chicken breast. 

To ease my concerns, I popped on to Pinterest and found many crazy awesome recipes with ingredients I had never heard of and cooking terms I needed a dictionary to understand. So I switched to Google. I found several "easy" recipes, some that called for cooking the bird at high temps for short times, some that called for low temps and long times. Which to choose?!?!?

I was frenzied and it made me realize what the world needs most.... A duck cooking for dummies recipe! 

So I made one, I tried it, it was amazing. Here it is, enjoy!

Roasted Duck

Ingredients:

1 Duck- chopped up, or whole, your choice

Salt

Pepper

Step 1

     Rinse the duck, trim off the excess fat and pat it dry.

Step 2 

     Sprinkle all over with salt (not too much!) and pepper. If you're feeling creative feel free to add other spices such as paprika or garlic powder, but it's not necessary

Step 3

     Place the pieces into a Crockpot and cook on high for 3-4 hours (7-8 on low, but the meat might fall off the bone and make the roasting part hard) depending on your bird size. You can add a tiny bit of stock to the Crockpot if you want but the bird I used was super fatty so I wasn't worried about it drying out.

Step 4

     After you're confident the duck is cooked thoroughly (inner temp 165 degrees), carefully remove it from the Crockpot and place in a pan (line with foil for easy clean up) skin side up! Sprinkle with a tad more pepper if desired or more spices

Step 5 

Roast in oven at 450 degrees for approx 30 minutes, checking frequently for your desired level of browning. 

Eat!