Duck a l'Grill: Tasty Barbecued Duck Recipes
If you can have barbecued chicken, then why not barbecued duck? No reason, really. Saturday, June 02, 2018
For reasons that escape me, grillmasters the world over have mostly ignored the concept of barbecued duck. This seems rather odd, since all poultry is well-suited to grilling. Obviously, nobody's had any problem figuring out that chicken makes for some good barbecuing.
Duck, not so much.
Why not? Ducks are bigger than chickens. There's more meat on 'em. They're tasty enough. Maybe it has something to do with expense and availability, since chickens are cheaper and easier to get. Or maybe it's just that all duck meat is dark, and has a stronger flavor than chicken.
One Possible Culprit
Me, I blame haute cuisine. Everyone's heard of duck a l'orange and Peking duck, but where are the grilled duck recipes? Missing! Those hoity-toity gourmet chefs tend to look down on barbecue, for reasons I have yet to fathom. Maybe it's because anyone can cook it, without having a Cordon Bleu pedigree.
Be that as it may, the truth is that someone, somewhere, will try to cook and eat almost anything in existence in every way possible (remember baluts?) , so sanity has prevailed and duck barbecue recipes do exist.
One Example
Here's a simple recipe that some chef has obviously meddled with, such that it's not strictly grilling and bears a passing resemblance to duck a l'orange. But here goes anyway. Besides a duck, here's what you'll need:
The freshly-squeezed juice of two oranges
A like amount of soy sauce
A tablespoon of honey
Salt and pepper to taste
Mix the ingredients together to form a marinade, which you can then work into the meat. Cook the prepared duck in a pan on the grill, skin side down, for four minutes; then turn it over and let it grill for another five. Next, wrap it in aluminum foil and let it sit for five minutes before serving.
Another One
Here's another simple recipe that actually uses the grill directly. The ingredients include:
One duck, cut in half lengthwise
1/2 cup of oil
1/2 cup of vinegar
1/4 cup of soy sauce
4 crushed garlic bulbs
1 teaspoon of rosemary
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
Combine the ingredients in a saucepan and let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes before removing it from the heat. Then cook your duck halves on the grill, liberally applying the sauce.
Turn the duck halves several times over the next 35-40 minutes, swabbing with the sauce each time. Be very careful to keep it from drying out, and you'll end up with some very tasty barbecued duck that you won't soon forget!
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