what's up you guys it's susie from heygrillhey.com and today we are cooking up
a smoked duck that is right perfect for your holiday table or at the end of hunting season
this is one you're going to come back to over and over again let's do it
this might be the easiest and most delicious recipe for smoked duck that you could ever have
it has five ingredients we're keeping it simple we're letting the duck shine and we're kissing it
with that wood smoke it's gonna be awesome but it is a two day process so set yourself aside
a little bit of time so that this duck can be absolutely awesome what we're essentially
doing is a dry brine for our duck that means we're going to have really moist juicy and well seasoned
breast meat and we're going to have nice crunchy skin on the outside with a maple orange glaze
with this one it really is all about technique so we're going to start with our dry brining process
i have about a five pound duck here the neck has been removed the giblets have been removed
anything else from the inside get rid of it grab yourself a skewer
or a small paring knife or even possibly the probe of your thermometer would work
and we're going to pierce the skin of our duck all over this will help the fat underneath the
skin render while it's cooking but it's also going to help our salt get into the meat itself
now when i say all over i mean all over the breast the legs the thighs you're probably
going to make a couple hundred tiny little holes all across the surface of this skin
so i love a dry brine turkey and i think brining is an awesome step for most poultry but duck has
a very thick fat layer immediately underneath the skin and that actually prevents most traditional
brining practices from working with duck so we had to get creative okay i feel good about it so
next we're gonna season the duck on all sides and even inside the cavity with coarse kosher
salt i'm probably gonna use about a third of a cup of salt for the entire five pound duck
now this seems like a lot of salt but rest assured you're not going to be eating all of
the salt what's going to happen is this salt is going to draw moisture out of the skin
and then ideally the way that this works is that it's kind of reabsorbed through the holes
and it seasons the dust meat from the inside out also tomorrow when this dry brining process is
over we're going to wipe off any of the excess salt so it's not going to be something that
you are actively consuming but it is going to give us a much better crispier dried out skin
and really moist well-seasoned meat that looks good this is going to go into the refrigerator
uncovered and i do recommend putting this in some kind of a pan that will catch any
of the moisture that's pulled out from the salt this needs to go i recommend about three hours
per pound for a dry brine so at least 15 hours this one i'm probably going to leave in there
closer to 20 by the time i'm able to cook it tomorrow i think you can leave it up to 24
hours and be totally fine we are about 18 hours of our duck in our salted dry brine it's time for
the next steps and i want you to come in and take a peek at what this duck looks like
now a lot of the salt on the surface remember we put on quite a bit of salt has actually liquefied
that means it pulled moisture from the duck breast just like we wanted it to do liquefied the salt
and then it's been kind of absorbed back into the meat itself we're gonna have really juicy
well-seasoned meat and this should help a lot with us getting that skin texture that we really want
so we're gonna pull our duck friend out of the pan and as you can see i'm glad that we used
you know this rimmed pan because there is quite a bit of liquid in the bottom that's not something
that you'd want to spill on your fridge so that was a good call there we're gonna put
it on a paper towel so we can dry the back side and then we're gonna pat the surface of the duct
down with the rest of our paper towels until it is totally dry and any of that excess salt has been
removed removed all the salt from the outside of our skin now we're going to prep the bird for the
smoker i'm going to tuck the wingtips number one so they don't burn on the smoker but number two
so they don't cover up any of that breast from having access to the smoke we want that nice
uniform color across the top of our deck so you can see how it lays nice and flat and we
have our whole breast exposed next i have one orange that i've cut in half i'm just
gonna stuff the cavity of our duck with these oranges that'll give us a nice aromatic flavor
while our duck cooks now we've got to smoke this bird i've got my smoker preheated to 275
degrees it should take about two and a half hours and my favorite and recommended wood for
this recipe is maple wood but honestly most woods will work here i tend to lean towards
the fruit or the nut woods i think they provide a really great flavor that goes well with the duck
we may have some more meat on the smoker also that's a different recipe
okay our duck at 275 degrees i think is gonna take based on times i've cooked it in the past between
two and two and a half hours we're looking for a temperature of 160 degrees fahrenheit in the
breast which is generally higher than you would take a duck breast if you were cooking it on
its own but where we're cooking the whole bird's skin on it'll still be really juicy really moist
really delicious and then we can make sure that those legs and thighs are where we want them also
friends we are exactly two hours into our whole smoked duck recipe and we are right about there
the temperature in the thickest part of the breast is at 160 degrees which means we're ready for our
next step but i want you to see what it looks like right now because it's not going to blow your mind
for real look at that on the money it's kind of
anemic looking not that golden burnished brown that we're used to with smoked food
furnished yeah but that's kind of what you get with poultry number one but also duck there's so
much fat under the skin it really doesn't render out and crisp at 275 on the smoker which is why
we need this next step we're gonna baste the outside of our duck with equal parts orange juice
and maple syrup now this is just a quarter cup of each so i have a half a cup of liquid i'm gonna
baste all over the outside and then we're heading inside to the oven and i'm actually gonna broil
the skin of our duck for just a couple of minutes until we get some really
nice golden brown darker color flecks on top
this is a very pretty duck i am not sad about how this turned out just those couple minutes
under the broiler really takes that skin to that beautiful dark bubbly color that you want and you
have all of that smoke flavor from it being on the smoker it's the best of both worlds
now we just get to you know to eat it it's my favorite part
oh no oops a piece fell off while i was slicing it
perfect level of salt so i actually recommend just taking off the whole breast
and then cutting individual slices here the beautiful thing about doing it this way
is that every piece look at that gets a little bit of that beautiful skin
this is gorgeous i'm just going to give us another little drizzle of this orange maple glaze
repeat with the other breasts you can also take off the leg and the thigh detach it from
the carcass but kind of leave it in the same spot and then if you want a really pretty presentation
once you get the legs off you can just leave them in the same spot
and then pop that sliced breast back on top just like this
and just serve a really pretty presentation i quartered some oranges
just laid down some fresh herbs
that is beautiful whether you're eating this for a holiday meal or a special occasion
or you just happen to go hunting and get yourself a duck this is an awesome whole smoked duck
recipe i think you guys are gonna dig it if you give this a try take a photo of this beautiful
photogenic bird post it on social media and use the hashtag #heygrillhey that way i can see it and
cheer you on your journey to becoming a backyard barbecue hero that's enough talk now i get to eat