Roasted Duck with Honey Balsamic Glaze

Ever wondered how to cook duck? It's much simpler than most people think. This Roast Duck has tender and juicy meat, crispy skin, and it's glazed with the honey-balsamic glaze to give the duck a beautiful roasted look. Perfect holiday main dish recipe or something you can make any time for a special occasion.

It's a great looking dish - perfect for any special occasion, and with the holidays coming up, this roast duck will look great on any Thanksgiving dinner menu, or as a Christmas and New Year's Eve dinner idea. By the way, the honey-balsamic glaze in this recipe DOES NOT MAKE THE DUCK SWEET - I did not want a sweet duck. It only gives the nice crispiness and beautiful look to the duck skin. Your duck will have a very savoury and juicy flavour from the garlic and lemon that you'll stuff inside the duck cavity. Cooking this duck does take some time and effort, which makes it a perfect holiday main dish or a special occasion dinner.

This Roast Duck has juicy meat, crispy skin, and it's glazed with the honey-balsamic glaze to give the duck a beautiful roasted look. Perfect main dish for any special occasion, especially holidays, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve.

Duck:
1 (6 lb) whole Peking duck
kosher salt
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lemon, sliced

Glaze:
½ cup balsamic vinegar
1 lemon, freshly squeezed
¼ cup pure honey

Prepare the Duck:
Completely defrost the duck in the refrigerator for 2-3 days if using a frozen duck, then remove giblets and neck. Rinse well, inside and out, with cold water and pat completely dry using paper towels. Let the duck sit out on the counter for 30 minutes to come up in temperature a bit.

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C/160°C fan, Gas Mark 4).

You will be roasting the duck for a total of 3 hours (3 hours will be divided into 4 time chunks where you will be flipping the duck, brushing it with glaze, etc).

Set the duck on the working surface. Score the duck's skin on the breast in a diamond pattern, making sure you only cut the skin, without reaching the meat. Poke the other fatty parts of the duck with the tip of the knife all over, to ensure fat release, especially in very fatty parts. You don't need to poke the duck legs as the skin is pretty thin there (except for where the duck legs connect to the duck body). Season the duck very generously with salt both inside the cavity of the duck and outside on the skin, legs, all over. Place the duck breast side up.

Put 5 chopped cloves garlic and lemon slices inside the duck cavity (these are just for flavour, not for eating - you will discard them after cooking).

The duck will have flapping skin on both ends - fold that skin inwards, to hold the garlic and lemon inside. Tie up the duck legs with butcher's twine.

Roast the duck for 3 hours.

Place the bird breast side up on a large roasting pan with a rack (roasting pan should have a roasting rack to lift the duck from the bottom of the pan and allow the fat to drip below the duck). Roast the duck, breast side up, for 1 hour.

After 1 hour of roasting, flip the duck on its breast and roast it breast side down (roast the other side) for 40 minutes.

Remove the roasting pan with the duck from the oven (you now have roasted the duck for 1 hour + 40 minutes), carefully remove the duck to a platter (making sure the lemons and garlic from the cavity do not fall out - keep the skin on both ends of the duck folded), and carefully pour off all the duck fat juices from the roasting pan into a large heat-proof bowl or container.

Flip the duck breast side up again on a rack in a roasting pan (the pan will have no fat juices now). In a small bowl, combine ½ cup of balsamic vinegar with the freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon. Brush all of the duck with the balsamic mixture (especially the scored duck breast) and cook the duck breast side up for another 40 minutes, brushing every 10 minutes with the mixture.

Now, in a separate small bowl, combine ¼ cup honey and 3 Tbsp. of balsamic vinegar lemon mixture that you will have left over from the previous step. Brush the breast side of the duck with this honey-balsamic mixture, and roast for another 40 minutes, brushing the duck breast side every 10 minutes with honey balsamic mixture. You can even carefully broil the duck for the last 10-15 minutes if you like (do it carefully, checking the duck regularly to make sure it doesn't char too much).

After the duck is cooked, remove it from the oven, let duck stand for 15 minutes. Then, carefully remove and discard the lemon from the cavity (being careful not to get burned). Carve the duck and serve.

Total Cooking Time:
The duck should be roasted for a total of 3 hours. These 3 hours of roasting are divided into 4 distinctive time chunks (1 hour breast side up + 40 minutes breast side down + 40 minutes breast side up brushed with balsamic-lemon mixture + 40 minutes breast side up brushed with honey-balsamic mixture).