Serves 8
165 min
Smoked Duck with Chinese Steamed Buns
Recipe GLPRc69f3d4f5ecc71
A restaurant-quality dish featuring a whole roasted duck with crispy skin, carved tableside and served in soft, pillowy steamed buns. The duck is rubbed clean with kosher salt, seasoned, and roasted low-and-slow until the meat is tender, then finished at high heat for crackling skin. Accompanied by fragrant scallion oil made with fresh minced green onions, crispy scallion ribbons, and your choice of Asian sweet chili or plum sauce. Perfect for entertaining.
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Ingredients
1 whole duck (about 5-6 pounds)
Kosher salt for cleaning and seasoning
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup cooking oil (rice, vegetable, canola, or peanut)
8 stalks fresh green onion or scallion
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 to 3 cans prepared sourdough biscuit dough
Asian sweet chili sauce or plum sauce for serving
Directions
Preheat your oven to 300°F, or prepare your grill for indirect cooking at 300°F with a drip pan placed beneath the grates to catch the duck fat as it renders.
Thoroughly clean the duck by rubbing it all over with a generous handful of kosher salt, scrubbing the skin to exfoliate and remove any residue. Rinse completely under cold running water until all salt is removed, then pat the duck dry with paper towels. Season the inside cavity and outside of the duck with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Place the duck breast-side up on a roasting rack in a roasting pan, or center it on the grill grates above the drip pan. Roast at 300°F for approximately 45 minutes per pound (about 225-270 minutes total for a 5-6 pound duck), until the internal temperature at the thickest part of the thigh registers 165°F on a meat thermometer, not touching bone.
Once the duck reaches 165°F, increase the oven or grill temperature to 450°F. Continue cooking for an additional 5 to 8 minutes to crisp and brown the skin until it is golden and crackling. Remove the duck from the heat and let it rest for 10 minutes before carving.
While the duck cooks, prepare the scallion oil: mince 4 stalks of the fresh green onion into small pieces and place them in a large, heat-proof bowl. Set aside.
With the remaining 4 stalks of green onion, slice them as thin as possible on a steep angle, then place the slices into a bowl of ice water to crisp up and curl. Set aside until serving.
Prepare the steamed buns: flour a clean work surface. Remove the biscuit dough from the cans and gently roll each biscuit into an oval shape. Fold each oval in half and place it on a small square of parchment paper. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest on the counter until ready to steam.
When the duck is nearly finished cooking, set up your steaming vessel: fill a large wok, bamboo steamer, or saute pan with 2 cups of water and 1 tablespoon of white vinegar. Bring the water to a rolling boil over high heat.
Carefully place the prepared buns (still on their parchment squares) in the steaming basket above the boiling water. Reduce heat to medium and steam for 8 minutes until the buns are soft and puffy. Remove from heat and keep warm until serving.
While the buns steam, finish the scallion oil: in a small pot or frying pan, heat the 1/2 cup of cooking oil over medium-high heat until it just begins to smoke and shimmer. Carefully pour the hot oil over the minced scallions in the heat-proof bowl, add a pinch of salt, and stir well to combine. The residual heat will cook the scallions and release their fragrance.
To serve, carve the duck at the table into thin slices. Place one or two slices of duck into each warm steamed bun, then add a drizzle of the fragrant scallion oil, a small handful of the crispy curled scallions, and a spoonful of your chosen Asian sweet chili sauce or plum sauce. Serve immediately while everything is warm.
