Lingonberry Roast Duck

Julesong's Note:

Yesterday I was feeling adventurous and so I pulled a duck from the freezer and thawed it for the evening. Here's the recipe I came up with, a combination of a general roast duck recipe with a version of a spicy (peach, but I substituted lingonberry) basting sauce recipe that I've enjoyed in the past. The resultant duck was absolutely wonderful! Prep time includes marination. This is a Pantry Challenge recipe.

• Total Time: 3 hrs
• Prep Time: 1 hrs
• Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 5 1/2-6 lbs ducklings
• 3/4 cup lingonberry preserves
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup sherry wine
• 1/2 cup hard apple cider
• 10 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried ancho chile powder
• 1/4 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 -2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce, to taste
• 1/2 large onion
• 2 1/2 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 cup chopped scallion (green onion)
• 3 cups additional hard apple cider

Directions:

1. Rinse/wash and dry the duckling, removing any giblets, etc, that are inside (use the giblets to make an excellent broth, another time*- you can freeze them for later use, if necessary).
2. In a bowl, combine the jam, soy sauce, sherry, hard cider, garlic, lemon juice, and Tabasco.
3. Pour 1/2 cup of the jam mixture into the inside of the duck and roll the duck around to coat the inside; place on roasting rack in the roasting pan.
4. A quarter of a cup at a time and making sure all of the skin becomes wet from the glaze (and a good number of lingonberries remain on the skin of the duck), pour most of the rest of the jam mixture onto the duck, reserving about 1/4 of a cup; let the duck sit for 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
6. Remove the outer skin from the onion half, then cut it into quarters; stuff the duck with the onion pieces.
7. Combine the reserved lingonberry sauce with the honey; pour the honey/sauce over the duck (get some inside, too, and try not to dislodge too many lingonberries), then drizzle with sprinkle with the chopped green onions.
8. Roast covered at 350 degrees F for 1 hour, basting occasionally with drippings, then add the hard cider to the bottom of the roasting pan; roast un-covered an additional hour, basting occasionally.
9. Serve with rice pilaf or wild rice, and vegetables.
10. *Tomake an excellent dark broth: take 4 cups water, the giblets from the duck (neck, heart, liver, kidney), the onion that was inside the roasted duck, and the roasting pan drippings (and any leftover bits of roasted duck you're willing to use, such as the wings) and put it all in a crockpot on low for 8 hours; strain well and refrigerate for use within 3 or 4 days, or put into ice cube trays and freeze.
11. Note: you can substitute other types of berry jam for the lingonberry.

Reviews

[Cook A.C. Chitwood]

I cooked this for my fiancee's birthday and it it was a hit. I had to cook the duck longer than in the recipe but it came frozen and must not have thawed all the way out over night. The lingon berries go great with the duck too, it reminded everyone of Thanksgiving dinner. If you like duck you should try this out.

[Chef BennyBoo]

AMAZING...this is a great recipe it works with chicken (which I mistook for a duck, that's how cooking illiterate I am). Anyways I ran out of garlic so I used about 1 1/2 tablespoon of garlic salt and I didn't have any hard cider so I used white wine (a nice Riesling, you know what they say "if you won't drink it than don't cook with it"). The chicken was so moist and full of flavor, which is amazing because I always over cook my chicken, I would say this recipe is foolproof!

[Steingrim]

It was a nice surprise when we had this dish. I like lingonberries a lot and it was very nice to use them with the sauce. (We get our lingonberry preserves at Ikea.) We made a really flavorful broth with the leftover duck and keep it in the freezer, preserved into frozen cubes. We'll have duck more often!