A Chinese grandma’s approach to a classic Cantonese dish.
Cantonese Roast/Grilled Duck
This recipe is approximate and by feel, so feel free to tweak it to your liking.
Ingredients
- 1 whole duck about 5-1/2 lbs
- 1 golf ball sized amount red miso
- 2-3 squirts hoisin sauce
- 2 tsp 5 spice powder
- 2 big slices of ginger, julienned
- 2-3 whole star anise, rough brokened
- 3-4 stalks of green onion
- half a bunch of cilantro
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sherry
- light sprinkle salt
Directions
- Wash and clean the duck. Remove any big hunks of fat at the tail and neck openings. Cut off the neck, feet, and last pointy joints of the wings. Save those to season and roast for porridge or soup stock. Dry inside and out with paper towels.
- Lightly dust the inside of the duck with 5 spice powder. Rub it around the entire inside.
- Take a golf ball sized amount of miso, mix with 2 or 3 squirts of hoisin from a Lee Kum Kee bottle. Rub that all over the inside of the duck.
- Put the ginger and star anise inside. Spread it around so it’s not all in one spot.
- Wad up a handful of cilantro, and stuff inside.
- Bend the green onions in half and stick them inside also.
- Splash in some soy sauce and sherry.
- Close up the bottom opening with a skewer. Wipe off any miso or hoisin from the outside of the duck to prevent burnt clumps of crud.
- Rub the outside of the duck with some soy sauce to help it color evenly. Do a very light sprinkle of salt all over the duck. You can also do a very very light dusting of 5 spice powder on the outside of the duck.
- Grill 40-45 minutes over charcoal, indirect, ideally using a rotisserie. Alternatively, you can roast in an oven at 400F. But grilled is better.
- Duck is good to eat as is. A super popular twist has been to make it into roast duck tamales.