Did I for real sous vide a whole duck? Indeed I did. At first I was a little skeptical that I could do it, and I’m not going to lie, I did have to work out a couple of logistics first. But here are the results and I want to tell you it turned out amazing.
Ingredients:
- Duck (duh)
- Gochujang
- Chinese Black Vinegar
- Honey
- A tangerine (could use an orange just as easily)
- Oyster sauce
- Soy Sauce
- Chinese Five Spice Powder
- Garlic
Instructions:
First, spatchcock the duck.
This is much easier than it seems at first glance. Basically you’re going to take a very sharp pair of kitchen shears and cut on either side of the backbone, removing it (save it for stock!) Then you just smash the bird flat. It helps if you crank the breastbone a little.
The reason I wanted this duck spatchcocked is because I wanted the maximum amount of charred duck skin possible, and this was the ideal way to do that.
Next prepare your sous vide bag.
Add the duck and the ingredients to the bag. For this application, I highly recommend these expandable vacuum seal bags. You could probably do it in a non-expandable but you’d have to wrangle with it.
Next, freeze the bag and all the contents solid. The reason is due to all of the liquids in the bag. In order to get a good seal, you’re going to want to make sure that the liquids stay down inside the bag so as not to interfere with getting a good seal. Freezing helps this a lot.
I use an older style Anova Sous vide machine, this is a more current model but similar.
I also use this this sous vide container, this lid, and this neoprene insulator. It’s a super-slick setup that I’m very happy with!
After cooking.
After cooking (as always with sous vide) the meat is cooked but looks SO anemic. You want to pat it dry so that the skin crisps up.
Then cook under the broiler for a minute or two. Watch it closely. I like my duck skin SUPER crispy so I cooked it a little darker than some people might like it (we always tell the kids “color is flavor”!) so that it got very crispy. Although it looks a little dark, the flavor was amazing, and even the kids didn’t whimper about the flavor!
I took the sauce from the bag and cooked it on the stove (without the tangerine) and served it over the duck and rice. This turned out AMAZING and I highly recommend it.
If you like this recipe you will also like:
- Sous Vide Lobster and Shrimp
- Sous Vide Prime Rib
- Sous Vide Beer Mushroom Pork Roast
- Sous Vide Pork Roast With Asian Plum Sauce
- Sous Vide Minted Leg of Lamb
- Myer’s Rum Smoked Sous Vide Pork Loin
- Sous Vide Creamy Chicken Marsala
- Honey Mustard Sous Vide Chicken
- Sous Vide Short Ribs
- Sous Vide Ranch Chicken
- Sous Vide Asian Pork Loin
Sous Vide Asian Duck
Equipment
- Sous Vide Immersion Circulator
Ingredients
- 1 duck spatchcocked
- ¼ cup Gochujang
- ¼ cup honey
- 3 tablespoons good soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons Chinese Black Vinegar
- ½ teaspoon Chinese Five-Spice powder
- 1 tangerine sliced in half
- 2 cloves garlic smashed
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to sous vide bag and freeze. Seal bag tight. Cook at 134 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 hours in sous vide. Remove duck from bag and pat dry. Broil under broiler until skin is crispy. Slice duck and serve with warmed sauce from bag and rice.
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