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 savory and juicy flavor from the garlic and lemon that you'll stuff inside the duck cavity. SO GOOD! Cooking this duck does take some time and effort, which makes it a perfect holiday main dish or a special occasion dinner.
This recipe has very detailed instructions (with step-by-step photos) on how to prepare and cook the duck - which could be very helpful if you've never cooked the duck before. The duck will be roasted in the oven at 350 F for a total of 3 hours, and in addition to the beautiful duck, you'll end up with a lot of duck fat which I highly recommend you save and use for roasting vegetables, potatoes, and even cooking your breakfast eggs with it!
If you want a really beautiful and festive presentation for your holiday duck, use my recipe for Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash glazed with Cinnamon & Maple Syrup, with Pecans & Cranberries as garnish for the duck (this is what you see on the photo below). You can garnish the duck and decorate the serving platter with these colorful veggies - they will have all the holiday colors and flavors and will look very pretty with duck:
How to prepare a whole duck for roasting
Step-by-step photos and instructions start here (the complete recipe without photos is at the bottom of this post). I recommend that you read and look through these photos and then scroll down to the recipe box itself for more condensed version of the recipe (without photos).
If using frozen duck, make sure it's completely defrosted (defrosted in the refrigerator for a couple of days). Remove the giblets from inside the duck. Rinse the duck, inside and outside, with cold water. Pat dry with paper towels:
Set the duck on the working surface. Score the duck's skin on the breast side in a diamond pattern, making sure you only cut the skin, without reaching the meat. The 2 deep cuts to the right of the photos is the example of how NOT TO SCORE, but it's still OK, as I did not cut through the meat but did reach the meat in those 2 cuts on the right:
The duck breast should be scored in a diamond pattern:
This is what the duck should look like, breast side up, scored (see 2 deep scores on the right - try not to do that but it's OK as long as you don't cut into the meat itself):
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.
Put 5 chopped garlic cloves and lemon slices inside the duck cavity (these are just for flavor, 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 the duck legs with butcher’s twine or butcher's string (or, in my case, I just used folded aluminum foil to tie up the duck legs, because I forgot to get butcher's twine):
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).
How to roast a duck in the oven
You will be roasting the duck for a total of 3 hours at 350 F. 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 the honey-balsamic mixture).
- Roast the duck for 1 hour at 350 F, breast side up, then remove the duck from the oven, it should look like this after the first 1 hour of roasting:
2. Then, flip the duck breast side down, and roast for 40 minutes at 350 F breast side down. The duck should look like this - it's breast side down on this picture:
3. In a small bowl, combine ½ cup of balsamic vinegar with the freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon. Set the duck breast side up again on the roasting rack in the roasting pan. 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 at 350 F, brushing every 10 minutes with the mixture.
4. Now, in a separate small bowl, combine ¼ cup honey and 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar lemon mixture that you will have leftover from the previous step. Brush the breast side of the duck with this honey-balsamic mixture, and roast the duck breast side up 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).
The duck will really start to brown. In the end, the duck should be nicely browned with crispy skin like that (By now you would've cooked the duck for 3 hours at 350 F. ):
Untie the legs:
If you want a really beautiful and festive presentation for your holiday duck, use my recipe for Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash glazed with Cinnamon & Maple Syrup, with Pecans & Cranberries.
You can garnish the duck and decorate the serving platter with these colorful veggies - they will have all the holiday colors and flavors and will look very pretty with duck:
Thanksgiving side dishes
- Garlic and Bacon Green Beans - crispy and crunchy green beans sautéed with garlic and bacon in olive oil and butter on stove top.
- Creamy and Crunchy Salad with Peas, Bacon, and Pecans - easy and beautiful side dish for Thanksgiving!
- Dijon Mustard Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, Apples, and Gorgonzola cheese - Brussels sprouts smothered in heavy cream and mustard with bacon, apples, Gorgonzola cheese and nutmeg. Cooked on stove top.
Roast Duck Recipe
Ingredients
Roast Duck
- 6 lb whole Pekin duck
- salt
- 5 garlic cloves chopped
- 1 lemon small or medium, chopped
Glaze
- ½ cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 lemon , freshly squeezed juice
- ¼ cup honey
Instructions
- If you purchased frozen duck, make sure to defrost the frozen duck in the refrigerator for a couple of days. Once the duck is completely defrosted (in the refrigerator), take the duck out of the refrigerator 30 minutes prior to cooking to bring it more or less to room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 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. - see the instructions below).
Prepare the duck
- Remove the giblets from inside the duck. Rinse the duck, inside and outside, with cold water. Pat dry with paper towels.
- 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 garlic cloves and lemon slices inside the duck cavity (these are just for flavor, 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 at 350 F.
- After 1 hour of roasting, flip the duck on its breast and roast it breast side down (roast the other side) for 40 minutes, at 350 F.
- 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 at 350 F, brushing every 10 minutes with the mixture.
- Now, in a separate small bowl, combine ¼ cup honey and 3 tablespoons 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 at 350 F. 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).
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Need a beautiful side dish to go with your roast duck?
Make this delicious Thanksgiving Side Dish with Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Cinnamon Butternut Squash, Pecans, and Cranberries:
Ideas for Thanksgiving Salads
- Winter Fruit Salad with Maple Lime Dressing - the ingredient list includes red apples, pears, clementine oranges (or mandarin oranges), kiwi fruit, dried cranberries, and pomegranate seeds.
- Butternut Squash and Spinach Salad with Pecans, Cranberries, Pomegranate - perfect healthy Thanksgiving salad with Poppy Seed Honey-Lime Dressing.
- Honey Mustard Brussels Sprouts Salad with Cranberries and Pecans - this holiday salad is all about crisp, shredded Brussels sprouts tossed with slightly sweet honey mustard vinaigrette, dried cranberries and chopped pecans.
- Warm Quinoa and Brussels Sprout Salad in Honey Mustard Vinaigrette - this salad is loaded with pecans and cranberries. It is a nutrient-packed salad that is high in fiber and antioxidant properties. A perfect addition to a healthy menu!
Would orange work instead of lemon?
Lauren, yes, orange would work great!
Do you roast the duck covered or uncovered? Thanks
Jamie, I roasted it uncovered all the way!
It looks great but how can the nutritional information be correct at 2,862 calories per serving? That looks like calories for the whole bird.
Looking forward to serving it for our Thanksgiving dinner!
Stan, the calorie info includes the calories for duck fat that is released when the duck is roasted (duck fat is extremely high in calories). But, you obviously are not going to consume the duck fat with the duck. Even though some of the duck fat could be good for roasting the potatoes or eggs for the next several days.
I feel like you should have put “Glaze 1” and “Glaze 2” in the ingredients list, that way viewers know ahead of time to not mix everything (like me) and instead need to make two separate glazes.
You add the honey to the same glaze, but I don't think it would be much of an issue if you just started glazing the duck with the honey glaze right away - just watch the duck carefully so that it doesn't caramelize too much.
Just found this recipe and am very excited to try! I’ve only ever roasted chickens and turkeys, never ducks, so wanted to ask: can/should I brine the duck first? Or just a normal thaw and begin recipe?
Felix, I didn't brine the duck. It's just a normal thaw in the refrigerator and then proceed with the recipe! Enjoy!
Hi Julia, I am in the process of cooking a duck with this recipe for the second time. We raise our own meat, including duck so once I get sick of a couple drakes they go into the freezer. I like to find new recipes to keep my family interested in eating home cooked food and this one is a pleaser! Easy, staple ingredients, well explained, and never worried about disgracing the animal I’ve raised by bad cooking. Thank you!
I just love your thoughtful comment - thank you! 🙂 Glad you've made this recipe before and loved it! Since you raise your own duck, you can also try this duck recipe (or just use sauce from this recipe):
https://juliasalbum.com/duck-breast-with-cranberry-sauce/
You can also make this sauce for some leftover duck meat:
https://juliasalbum.com/creamy-mushroom-sauce-with-bacon-and-thyme/
Hi, and Happy Holidays to everyone! This is Julia, the author of this food blog. Please read this VERY IMPORTANT NOTE BELOW about roasting the duck ⬇️⬇️⬇️
➡️ 1) After 1 hour and 20 minutes of roasting, check the duck's internal temperature with an instant meat thermometer. If the temperature gets close to 145 F, skip to the next step (step 3 under section "Cook duck for 3 hours") and pour off all the duck fat jucies into a heatproof dish and start basting the duck with the balsamic vinegar + lemon juice + honey mixture (include honey right away).
➡️ 2) Once the duck reaches an internal temperature of 155 F, your duck is ready to be removed from the oven. If the skin is not crispy enough, at this point you can carefully and briefly (5 or 10 minutes) broil the duck - constantly watching as not to burn the skin.
➡️ 3) Remove the duck from the oven once the internal temperature reaches 155 F (and after you've briefly broiled it if needed). Let it rest, uncovered, on the kitchen counter for about 15 minutes. During this time the duck will continue cooking in residual heat until it reaches 165 F.
➡️ 4) The duck is considered safe to eat (according to USDA) when an internal temperature reaches 165 °F using a meat thermometer. That's when it's well done. If you take out the duck once the internal temperature is 155 F and let it sit for 10-15 minutes on the counter until it reaches 165 F - the duck will be well-done, delicious, and safe to eat.
➡️ 5) If you prefer to cook your duck rare or medium-rare, the internal temperature at which you take it out is 135 F. But it could be not safe to eat (according to USDA). Do so at your own risk. 🙂
➡️ 6) You can also tell by duck juices how well done is the duck. The duck is done to medium rare if the juices are pinkish when you carefully cut the duck in the fattest part. The duck is well done when juices run yellowish in color. But the meat thermometer is the most accurate measure of doneness.
➡️ 7) Ducks come in different sizes. This note should be helpful to account for different weights. The recipe as written is for a 6-pound duck. If your duck is half that size (3 pounds), your cooking time for a well-done duck would be 1.5 hours. If you like your duck medium-rare (at your own risk 🙂 ) the cooking time could be even lower. Use a meat thermometer.
➡️ 8) The huge calorie amount that you see in the nutrition includes the large amount of duck fat that's rendered when you roast the duck. You will obviously not eat this fat with the duck (it's rendered and then removed from the roasting pan). But you can save it and use some of it to roast the potatoes or eggs for the next several days. But, do not use it all - just a touch.
ENJOY AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!
Your saying cook the duck for 1hr 20 min instead of one hour then turn duck over for 40 min and skip step three?
Only, if the internal temperature of the duck measures 145 F, using an instant meat thermometer.
It's especially relevant for a duck that's less than 6 pounds.
My husband loved this and he is hard to please. Lol he is an avid duck hunter so I was a bit nervous to cook duck for him. He was very pleased! Thank you Julia for making our thanksgiving duck a memorable, tradition making dinner!