Five Spice Duck with Roasted Mango Sauce

Ingredients:
1 5 lb duck

for the dry rub:
zest of one lime
2 tablespoon 5 spice powder
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1/2 tablespoon pepper
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

for the mango sauce:
1/2 cup cubed mango
1 whole mango
1 1/2 inch knob fresh ginger, grated
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon bourbon
zest and juice of 1/2 lime

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Place the whole mango on a pan and bake 1 hour or until soft. Remove and allow to cool for one hour. Meanwhile, whisk together the rub the dry rub into the skin of the duck. Refrigerate 1 to 2 hours. Reduce heat to 325. Place the duck on a roasting rack on a roasting pan and roast for 2 hours or until cooked though*. Meanwhile, scoop the roasted mango out of the skin. Place in a saucepan with the cubed mango, cornstarch, ginger, bourbon and soy sauce. Heat, stirring occasionally until a thick sauce forms. Serve with the duck.

*If you would like to reserve the duck fat for another recipe, drain it off the bottom of pan every 1/2 hour to 45 minutes and pour into a heat safe container. Duck fat is amazingly tasty to cook with.

My thoughts:

My husband is obsessed with duck. Obsessed! But it is somewhat hard to find at the store and often very expensive. We’ve been wanting to make one for ages as I had actually never cooked a duck before and he loves them so. We had come across a reasonably priced duckling during a free trial visit to a big box store and snapped it up. I wanted to make sort of a modern version of the kitschy ’60s staple duck a l’orange and thought mango would be perfect fruit to pair with duck. After attending the mango festival last year I have become a firm believer that everything tastes better with mango! So I decided to make “duck a la mango” with a Chinese twist instead of a French one. The roasted mango has an almost caramelized flavor and soft texture that is wonderful in the sauce while the fresh mango provides some texture contrast. The duck, of course, is excellent. Succulent and with just a hint of spice.

11 Comments

  1. I’ve never cooked duck even once, but it’s so delicious. This sound very tasty!

  2. i am obsessed with duck too! this looks amazingly delicious. the skin is perfectly crispy!

  3. i love duck but always just head into chinatown. never thought to make it at home! awesome.

  4. That looks amazing!!!!

  5. Just curious, since I’m heading out to the woods to camp this weekend, would this recipe work over a grill?

    😀 Everything tastes better cooked by fire!

  6. Aerie:
    I don’t see why not, but duck is very fatty so you’d have to be careful of splatters.

  7. I love duck, but I can never find it! I thought it was illegal to sell it in Maryland – I can’t believe you were able to get some 🙂 It looks delicious!

  8. Yummm! That looks soooo good. I love poaching the duck’s liver in the fat that comes off the roast. Another great use is to make pommes frites.

  9. This sounds delicious – I think I might try it with grilled chicken – I’m sure the rub and mango sauce would be good there as well!

  10. I’ve always been able to find adequate ducks (pekin) at great prices at grocery stores targeting the Asian demographic.

  11. Made this recipe a couple of days ago. Yum! Cooked it on the BBQ(Weber) with indirect heat.

    Left overs were great also.

    Kalynn(no relation (that I know of now)to the Kalyn in the last post.