Chinese Peking Duck is roasted in a roasting pan and brushed with plum jam to create a crispy, sweet skin and a tasty interior.
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Making this peking duck was, without a doubt, one of the most daunting recipes on this blog to date. Not because it was actually difficult to make (news flash: it wasn’t) but because I was intimidated by cooking an entire duck. If you’ll remember, I felt this same way while learning how to joint a chicken during Bahrain.
In fact, the first time I bought the peking duck, I allowed it to thaw in my fridge for a few days before cooking it. I was so nervous to cook the duck that I put off the task until, unfortunately, the raw duck went bad and I had to throw it out (wasteful, I know).
It took a few weeks for me to get up the courage to buy another peking duck, another few days to get up the courage to cook it, and then ANOTHER few hours on the cooking day to get up the courage to start the process.
Obviously I’m telling you this because all of my worry was for naught. For all of that stress, cooking a duck was actually so easy! It took a little bit of attention to detail during the last section of roasting when more basting was required. But other than that, it was simple. And came out seeming way more professional than the effort I exerted to make it.
Peking Duck Recipe with Plum Sauce
When I was looking online, there were a lot of recipes for peking duck that didn’t include plum sauce. The plum sauce is actually my favorite part of this recipe, as it leaves the duck with a beautifully sweet taste.
You won’t need to make the plum sauce until your duck is actually in the oven. It won’t be brushed onto the duck until about a half an hour before the duck is done roasting!
What Ingredients are In This Recipe?
Peking duck
Plum jam
Ginger
Chinese 5 spice
Water
Salt
Honey
Oyster sauce
Brown sugar
What Goes with Peking Duck?
A lot of people love to eat their peking duck with Chinese pancakes, often with cucumbers, cantelope, scallions, and hoisin sauce. Peking duck is also delicious with citrus, and can be served with orange slices.
Did you enjoy this recipe for Peking duck? Make sure to leave a comment letting me know what you think! And don’t forget to check out these other poultry recipes on The Foreign Fork:
- Cast Iron Skillet Chicken Thighs
- Chicken and Tomato Rice (Fat Rice from Burkina Faso)
- Machboos from Bahrain
Chinese Peking Duck Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 full peking duck, thawed
Marinade Ingredients
- ¼ cup honey
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2.5 tsp chinese 5 spice
- 1.5 tbsp brown sugar
Plum Sauce
- ¼ cup plum jam
- ⅓ tsp ginger
- ⅓ tsp chinese 5 spice
- 2 tbsp water
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
- Thaw your peking duck completely. Place it in a roasting pan.
- Mix your marinade ingredients together. Brush about ⅓ of it on your raw duck, making sure to get both sides of the duck. Allow to rest for five minutes. Brush another ⅓ of the marinade on the duck and allow to rest for another 5 minutes. Repeat process until your marinade is gone.
- Place the duck in the fridge for at least an hour but preferably overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a small bowl, mix together ingredients for the plum sauce.
- Calculate the cooking time for your duck. The cooking time of a full duck is about 18 minutes per pound. My duck was 5 pounds, so it needed about 90 minutes of cooking time.
- Once duck is done marinating, place it (in the roasting pan) in the oven. About 30 minutes before your duck is done cooking (for me this was an hour), take your duck out of the oven.
- Brush it generously with the plum sauce, using about half of the sauce, and then place back in the oven.
- Cook for 10 minutes, remove duck and brush with the remainder of the plum sauce. Place back in the oven.
- To cook your duck until well done, cook for the entire calculated time, making sure to tent with aluminum foil if the extremities are beginning to burn. For a rare duck (what most prefer), cook for another 5 or so minutes, checking for desired doneness.
- Enjoy! Leave a comment letting me know what you thought!
Sarah S says
I made this recipe last night with a few personal touches and it is to die for!!! I have never been so impressed with a duck before haha! 🙂 It probably wasn’t super authentic as a first timer, but it was still very good. My mom and I made the plum sauce ourselves using plums that we had saved for plum pie. Another good recipe that I highly recommend checking out 😉
The Foreign Fork says
I’m so glad you liked it Sarah! It’s such a fun dish to experiment with. I’m sure your plum sauce was amazing. Thanks for the review, I really appreciate it!
Denise Perry says
Do you cover the duck with foil
The Foreign Fork says
Hi Denise. I do not cover the entire duck with foil, but I do tent the extremities in foil if they are beginning to burn.