So, the wife wanted me to buy two chickens. I saw fresh Pekin duck, already halved and on sale for not much more than chicken, so bought one chicken and two duck halves. She wanted something simple to make for dinner. Alas, I had forgotten how hard duck is to cook.
I did some of this recipe:
I made a mirepoix of onion, carrots, and celery, and followed the recipe for step 1, though I had no fresh parsley. I did not do step 2.
I took the duck halves off and cut them into two each. I drained the liquid from the duck and used a gravy separator to separate out the liquid and leave the (prodigious amount of) fat. I cooked down the liquid, added salt and pepper (I added no pepper in step 1), then took off heat and added butter.
I seared the duck under the broiler as in step 5.
It was great! Even our kids liked the duck, and I thought the sauce was great.
4+ hours to cook, though. The only change I would make is to cook the duck less under the foil. Maybe 2.5 hours. It was slightly overcooked.
And I personally would try the rest of the recipe with olives, but I’m the only one in my family who likes olives.
