It's good that holidays are a frequent occurrence in our lives. And in honor of solemn events, we try to serve something unusual to the table, confirming our culinary abilities. And very often a festive dinner is decorated with poultry dishes. We invite you to learn how to cook Peking duck - a traditional Asian dish that is rapidly gaining popularity in Western countries.

What is it, Peking duck?

The recipe for this dish can be safely called ancient. It's no joke, it has been known since 1330, during the reign of the Chinese Yuan Dynasty, - it was then that Hu Sihui, the imperial physician, published a special method of cooking duck in his professional work "The Most Important Principles of Nutrition".

Presumably the homeland of the dish is the Chinese province of Shandong. From there, it came to the tables of the Yuan court in Beijing, the capital of China, earned great popularity and eventually became known outside the country under this name.

Before serving, the Peking duck is cut into pieces.

Peking duck is not just fried duck meat with spices. The peculiarity of cooking the dish is that you will need a lot of time and effort. But all costs will pay off in full.

There are two common ways to cook Peking duck that are traditionally used by modern chefs.

1. The duck is hung over the hearth and fried in this state on fire. Firewood must be from fruit trees, more often - pear, date or peach. The skin in the process of frying acquires a reddish color and shine, becoming covered with a crispy crust. The meat is saturated with fruity aroma, becomes tender and soft.
2. The duck is roasted in a closed oven, the temperature of which is very high at the beginning of the process. And gradually decreases over time. This method allows you to get a crispy skin and slightly fatty meat with a juicy taste without cloying.

There is another method called "chashao". It involves the presence of a special large fork, which is used to pierce the bird's carcass and hold it over the fire. But professional chefs have recognized that the two previous methods are much easier and more convenient.

It is unlikely that you can cook a real Peking duck at home. The traditional recipe requires a special oven and tools, so the recipes we offer are adapted to the average capacity of housewives. You probably have an oven or a slow cooker, and you can easily scald and dry a bird's carcass in your own kitchen.

Products for cooking

The peculiarity of Asian cuisine is its sharpness and spicy aroma. This also applies to Peking duck. Many spices and special sauces are used in its preparation. The traditional recipe includes, in addition to duck carcass, the following ingredients:

• dry sherry or rice wine;
• salt (required sea!);
• Sesame oil;
• ginger root (or dried ginger powder);
• soy sauce;
• star anise.

Note! If you are against the use of alcohol even for cooking, you can replace sherry or rice wine with rice or wine vinegar.

It is customary to serve Peking duck on thin pancakes made of dough, for which you need:

• 1 glass of flour;
• 2/3 cup of water and the same amount of milk;
• 1 egg;
• 2 tablespoons of oil.

In addition, Hoi-sin sauce is a must. It is very difficult to make it at home, so try to buy it from a supermarket or specialty store.

Hoi-sin sauce is a must-have ingredient for Peking Duck

But if you are not afraid of experiments, you can try to make such a sauce yourself. For him you will need:

• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil;
• 3 tablespoons of dark soy sauce;
• Chinese seasoning "5 spices";
• 1 teaspoon of hot chili pepper, wine vinegar and garlic powder;
• salt.

Mix foods and boil them. Better yet, buy ready-made Hoi-sin sauce to make the dish truly traditional.

And to decorate the dish before serving, you will definitely need green onions and fresh cucumbers. It looks like this: the finished duck is cut (Chinese chefs traditionally cut 108 pieces), the meat is placed on pancakes smeared with Hoi-sin sauce. Nearby you need to put a few pieces of cucumber, onion feathers, and roll the pancake into a tube.

Professional Chinese pokara, when cutting Peking duck, cut it into 108 pieces

Step by step recipes

We offer you several simplified recipes. We recommend choosing a Peking duck carcass for cooking: it is not very fat, unlike others, and besides, it has a thin skin. You also need to consider that cooking Peking duck will take you more than a day.

Traditional oven recipe

For this dish you will need:

• 1 duck carcass of medium size;
• 2 liters of water;
• 1 piece of ginger root;
• 60 ml rice wine (or sherry);
• 60 ml soy sauce;
• 1 tablespoon five spice seasoning (“Five spices”);
• 3 tablespoons of honey;
• 2 star anise;
• 1 pinch of salt.

Duck carcass, carefully gutted, rinse well and dry with a towel or napkin. Trim excess fat - most of them in the neck and tail. Lay the carcass on a wire rack with a tray.

Prepare the duck carcass and place on the grill

To prepare the marinade, pour water into a saucepan. Cut the ginger root into circles and place in a saucepan along with honey, rice wine, soy sauce, star anise and 5 spices. Boil and cook for no more than 5 minutes so that the aroma of the products does not go away with the steam.

Prepare the marinade

Scald the duck carcass with marinade on each side. At the same time, the skin should tighten slightly and darken.

Scald the carcass with marinade on all sides

Take a clean dry pan. Place a bottle filled with water in it.

Put a bottle of water in a pot

Place the duck vertically on the bottle. Put the resulting design in the refrigerator, where it should spend at least a day. If you don't have a suitable bottle or don't have enough space in the refrigerator, place the carcass on a wire rack so that the air has an even access to all parts of the duck.

Put the duck carcass on the bottle so that it stands upright

The next day, remove the carcass from the refrigerator and leave at room temperature for at least an hour. Turn on the oven in advance: by the time the duck gets into it, the temperature should be 200 degrees.

Rub the duck with salt and carefully place breast side up on a rack with a tray. Send to the oven and wait for complete readiness. When the skin is browned, pierce the carcass with a knitting needle: if the juice flowing out is completely transparent, then the dish is ready. It usually takes about an hour and a half to bake. Take the duck out of the oven, let it rest for 40 minutes, cut the meat into slices and serve to the guests as we described above!

One of the traditional ways of serving duck in Peking style is in pancakes or pita bread, with cucumber and green onions.

This recipe is quite simplified, you can easily cope with it. For comparison, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the method of cooking Peking duck in the oven, as close as possible to the traditional one. You will see how difficult it is for Chinese chefs to manipulate poultry carcasses.

A duck weighing about 2.5 kg is rubbed with salt and left at least overnight so that it is well salted. In the morning, the carcass is given a hot bath: it is repeatedly dipped in boiling water or poured from a kettle. Then they are left to dry.

After that, the duck carcass needs to be “purged”. For this, a special pump is usually used, but it can be replaced with a syringe with a thick needle. The skin is pierced and air is forced under it - so the skin will move away from the meat. The processed carcass is rubbed with honey and left to brew for an hour.

A marinade is prepared from soy sauce, sesame oil and honey. They need to coat the duck inside and out. And this is done every half hour for 4 hours, that is, 8 times.

For baking, you can do without a bottle of water. To do this, you need to make the following design in the oven: on a baking sheet in which water is poured, install an oiled grate on which to put the duck. The temperature in the oven should be around 250 degrees. The duck is fried for 40 minutes, after which you need to lower the temperature to 160 degrees and leave for another 60 minutes. After that, the duck is turned over and baked for another 30 minutes.

with apples

For this recipe, you will need the same products as in the previous paragraph, just buy additional apples - Antonovka or Semerenko, these sour varieties are great for duck meat. Well, the cooking method will be slightly different.

Prepare the duck: cut off the paws and wingtips, if any (such complete carcasses cannot be found in stores - only on the private market).

Prepare the duck carcass

Be sure to remove fat from the tail, neck and breast: excess can spoil the dish.

Remove excess fat

Scald the carcass with marinade, as in the first recipe, and dry with a towel. Put on a jar or bottle, spread with honey and leave for at least 3 hours. Honey should be liquid - candied is not suitable!

Put the duck on the bottle and let it dry, smearing it with honey

It's time to determine the duck in the oven. Pre-stuff it with apple slices. Put as much as will fit in the abdomen.

Stuff duck with apple slices

After that, the abdomen must be sewn up so that the duck is soaked with apple juice from the inside without losing moisture. Grease the carcass again with honey. Wrap the tips of the legs and wings in foil.

Sew the belly of the duck, wrap the legs and wings with foil

Cover the whole carcass with a sheet of foil, press firmly so that there are no gaps left. Feel free to send in the oven for 1 hour at a temperature of 200 degrees.

Cover duck completely with foil.

While your duck is languishing and thinking in the heat, mix 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and 2 tablespoons of honey.

Prepare Peking Duck Sauce

Meanwhile, the duck carcass has already rested enough in the oven. Take it out and brush it all over with the prepared sauce.

Brush half-cooked duck with sauce

Return the duck to the oven, uncovered with foil, this time until fully cooked. In an hour and a half, the skin on the carcass will brown and become crispy.

Look how browned the duck is in the oven!

Now Peking duck with apples can be taken out and butchered. Serve to the table in the traditional way or as you wish, for example, with boiled potatoes and pickles!

Cut up duck and serve any way you like.

With oranges

We suggest you try duck with oranges. This method of cooking poultry is not very popular with us, but in vain. Orange gives the meat a rich delicate aroma and a very pleasant taste. Moreover, you already know how to cook Peking duck, and this recipe is not much different from the previous ones.

In addition to the ingredients listed in the classic recipe, you will need:

• 2 large oranges for filling;
• 1 large orange (juice) for glaze;
• juice of 1 orange and 1 lemon for marinade.

Prepare the carcass, as in previous recipes. Dip it in a marinade of lemon and orange juice, honey, rice wine, soy sauce, star anise, salt and 5 spices. Leave for a day in a cold room. Do not forget to turn over from time to time - the duck should be evenly soaked with marinade on all sides.

Take a deep baking dish, grease it with oil and place the duck with the belly up. Stuff with slices of two oranges. Sew up the belly so that the oranges do not escape from the duck when baking. Send the form to the oven for 2.5 hours at a temperature of 190 degrees. When the second hour of cooking goes, you will have to water the carcass every 15 minutes with the juice that has flowed out of it.

Meanwhile, make the glaze: mix the juice of 1 lemon with honey and wine (2 tablespoons each), and cook until the liquid is reduced by half.

Drizzle the finished duck with icing and serve with oranges

When the duck is ready, let it cool slightly, remove the orange slices from the abdomen and pour the glaze over the carcass.

In a slow cooker

It would be foolish not to try to use this miracle of kitchen technology to prepare such a dish. A multicooker will greatly facilitate your work and simplify the cooking process.

A whole duck simply won’t fit in the multicooker bowl, so take half the carcass. In addition, 3 more tablespoons of honey and salt to taste. Instead of marinade, use ready-made Hoi-sin sauce.

A whole duck carcass will not fit in a slow cooker, so take some part of it

Wash and cut the carcass, wipe each piece with salt and refrigerate for 3 hours. When the time has passed, take it out and brush with honey. The carcass should spend 1 hour in this state at room temperature.

It's time for Hoi-sin sauce. Dip each piece well in it. And for another 2 hours, leave the meat alone.

Now put the pieces in the multicooker bowl, pour in just enough water so that it does not reach the top layer of meat by a third. 3 tablespoons of sesame oil and soy sauce for taste and aroma, and you can turn on the “Stew” mode for 2 hours.

That's all, now the duck can be served on the table.

Video: Cooking Peking Duck

That's the whole secret of juicy and spicy Peking duck. Perhaps we have not reached the level of skill of Chinese chefs, but we have come much closer to the mysteries of Asian cuisine. Tell us in the comments if you have ever cooked this dish, what difficulties did you encounter? We hope you and your friends will like Peking Duck. Bon appetit!

Elena 12/29/2018 8 1.9k.

Today we will talk about a dish that has long been a delicacy among the Chinese aristocracy. It was then that they began to cook it in restaurants and learned about it in other countries. Peking duck is a rather unusual recipe and it is believed that it is impossible to cook it at home.

Yes, there is some truth in this, because according to the original recipe, the bird is fried in special wood-fired ovens exclusively from dates, apple trees or pears. It is these trees that do not give much smoke when burned and give the duck a special flavor.

The meat is tender, juicy, and the main highlight of the dish is a shiny dark brown crisp, its sugar color evenly covers the entire carcass.

Do you really need to go to China to try such a delicacy? It's not obligatory. It is also not necessary to look for a Chinese restaurant, in the hope that such a dish is prepared there. It is quite possible to make it at home.

Of course, you can bake a bird in another way, for example,. But let's still try to make Peking duck at home. Yes, we cannot repeat the original recipe, but there are ways that are adapted to our conditions.

Peking duck - a classic recipe at home

Since we don’t have special wood-burning stoves, we will use what we have - an oven. Why is the recipe a classic, you ask, since we are already deviating from the rules. Not only the moment of baking is important here, but also the preparatory process.

I must say right away that this method is not a quick one, so it is important to know that before the Peking duck gets to your table, you will have to pay attention to it for a couple of days.

Do not be afraid in advance, you will not have to stand over it all this time. Read on and you will know all the secrets.

Ingredients:

• duck - 2 kg.
• honey - 2 tbsp. l.
• dry white wine - 1 glass
• 3 art. l. rice vinegar
• cane sugar - 1.5 tbsp. l.
• teriyaki sauce - 1.5 tbsp. l.
• carnation
• fennel
• cinnamon
• pepper mix

By the way, Beijing is not only a recipe for cooking, it is also a breed of bird. They are less fat than regular ducks, more meaty and have thin skin. But this does not mean that it is possible to cook according to this method only from poultry of this breed. They say that some Chinese honestly admit that in Russia this dish is more tender and tasty.

We conclude that you can cook from our ordinary ducks, the main thing is not to buy large specimens. The optimal weight is 2-2.5 kilograms, they are not so fat and they have enough meat.

Step by step recipe with photos:

1. Wash the bird well, especially attention should be paid to the inside. Although ducks are already gutted, they often leave a lung inside, so you need to take it out and then rinse it well inside.

2. And you also need to cut off excess fat and sebaceous glands on the tail. In principle, this procedure can be omitted, this is, as a rule, at the request of the cook.

There is no harm from the sebaceous glands, but in some breeds they give the cooked meat a slight musk flavor.

3. Pour water into a saucepan, add a little cloves, fennel, cinnamon, put a mixture of peppers, bring to a boil. Put the oven rack on the sink, put the duck. Collect boiling water with aromatic seasonings in a ladle and pour over the carcass 4-5 times, then turn over and do the same on the other side.

Why do you need to arrange a "bathhouse" for the bird? Thanks to this procedure, the pores on the skin expand and the carcass marinates better.

4. While the pores are open, use tweezers to remove, if necessary, stumps and hairs so that the skin becomes even and smooth. Let the duck rest.

5. Prepare the marinade: mix honey, dry wine, rice vinegar, sugar in a bowl. Warm it up a bit to dissolve the sugar.

6. Dry the bird with paper towels, coat the outside with sauce, salt well inside. Put the carcass on the bottle and apply the sauce. Put the bottle with the carcass on some container, as juice will drain from it. Send this design to a cool place for 12 hours.

This is another secret to cooking Peking duck - drying the skin for a long time. Chinese cooks hang carcasses in rooms with running fans. This procedure is necessary so that the skin stretches, dries up and then, when baked, you get a golden, crispy crust.

7. The dish is baked on a wire rack, it must be greased with vegetable oil and put on the second level. Place a deep baking sheet on the first level, pouring water into it. Place the duck breast side down on the grill, cover with foil and bake for 50 minutes at 180 degrees.

8. Remove the foil, turn the bird breast side up and cook for another 50 minutes.

9. Cut the finished bird into portions, put on a dish.

Step-by-step recipe for Peking Duck in Orange Sauce

They say that Chinese cooks do not disclose the original recipe for the marinade. Perhaps for this reason, there are different versions of it. The main thing is to ensure that the duck is baked properly and the skin is tasty and beautiful. So try making an orange flavored marinade.

Required products:

• duck - 1.8-2 kg
• zest of one orange
• cognac - 2 tbsp. spoons
• honey - 2 tbsp. spoons of honey
• orange juice - 1 tbsp.
• soy sauce - 3 tbsp. l.
• ground ginger - 1 tsp
• ground black pepper - 1 tsp.
• orange juice - 1 tbsp.
• duck fat - 3 tbsp. l.

Cooking method:

Peking duck - a recipe for cooking at home in the oven

Another recipe using citrus fruits. Here they are used not for pickling, but for stuffing poultry. Although according to the classic recipe, Peking duck is not made with stuffing, but we cook at home, why not try it as an experiment.

Composition of products:

• duck - 1.5 kg.
• sea ​​salt
• sweet grape or rice wine - 2 tbsp. l.
• honey - 2 tbsp. l.
• lemons - 3 pcs.
• grapefruits - 2 pcs.

Step by step cooking recipe:

Easy Homemade Peking Duck Recipe Up Your Sleeve

Supermarkets now sell many different Chinese food products. Various sauces are very popular. They can be used not only as a spicy additive to ready meals, but also used in the process of their preparation. The recipes above have already used soy sauce, this recipe uses Unagi sauce.

The classic composition of unagi includes: soy sauce, sugar, leeks, mirin, carrots, mitsukana, yeast extract, honey and starch. All ingredients are mixed, boiled for a long time and a honey-salty zest of Japanese cuisine is obtained.

Agree, many of the ingredients of this sauce are familiar to us and are great as a marinade for Peking duck.

Products for the recipe:

• duck - 2 -2.5 kg.
• brown sugar - 1 tbsp. l.
• Unagi sauce - 3 tbsp. l.

How to cook:

Important point! Baking times and temperatures shown in recipes may vary slightly due to the fact that every oven is different. Therefore, watch the cooking process, especially if you are doing it for the first time.

Peking duck breast in a frying pan

The author of this recipe does not claim to be the chef of the famous dish, but you can pay attention to his method. The main thing is that you will need no more than half an hour to prepare it, and this is with the preparatory process. So if you want to surprise your friends with a new original dish, a step-by-step recipe with photos will help you.

Why is the name “in Beijing” for this recipe? It's all about Coca-Cola. A dark-colored, sweet drink flavored with vanillin, cinnamon oil, lemon and clove oils may well be a suitable sauce for poultry. How to use this drink, read on.

Required products:

• duck breast - 1-2 pcs.
• salt pepper
• coca-cola - 0.5 cups

How to do:

Did you know that duck fat, when consumed in moderation, is good for the human body. It removes carcinogens, improves metabolism, enhances immunity, and gives energy.

Video on how to cook Peking duck with apples at home

A classic of the genre is stuffing a bird with apples, so why not make this option with a Peking duck. True, the author of the video uses them not only for taste, but also in order to stretch the skin of the bird as best as possible so that it turns out tasty and crispy. See video for details.

How to serve the dish and how to eat

The history of the dish is long and sends us back to 1330, when the cook and nutritionist of one Chinese emperor published the recipe in his writings. Over the years, changes have been made to the recipe, the serving of the dish has changed, and over time it has turned into a real ritual.

The Chinese even joke that the tale of the ugly duckling is a Peking duck tale, when an ordinary bird became a national treasure.

How is the dish served in expensive Chinese restaurants:

• first, the whole cooked bird is shown to the client;
• then it is cut into thin slices. When cutting, each piece of meat should be with a skin. It is believed that one duck should make 108 pieces;
• from the remains of the carcass, customers are offered to cook something, most often they prepare a delicious soup;
• poultry meat is served complete with tortillas (usually rice), cucumber, cut into thin slices, young green onions and sauce;
• they eat this dish, unlike others, with their hands, without using Chinese chopsticks. You need to take a cake, put a slice of meat, cucumber, onion, pour over the sauce and wrap it in a cake in the form of an envelope or a tube. If you do not know how to do it correctly, the waiters will always help you.
• Peking duck is usually washed down with drinks such as white duck broth, tea, beer, Chinese vodka or red rice wine.

How to serve poultry at home? It can be done in the same way as traditions require it, but it can also be done in the usual way, by laying a whole beautiful duck on a dish.

You got acquainted with different recipes for cooking Peking duck at home. An interesting way to bake and serve, worthy of a place in your collection of family dishes. Be sure to try to cook the bird in this way.

Good luck with your experiments and bon appetit.

Everyone has heard the name of this dish, but not everyone knows what a real Peking duck tastes like. This is understandable: we ourselves know how to cook poultry meat, without bothering with Chinese subtleties. But we will tell you what this dish is in this version, how to cook a duck with a Chinese accent, and also how to adapt this dish to our domestic conditions.

The classic Peking duck recipe has its own distinctive features, which few people observe today, but for information we will describe them:

• the skin of a bird is rubbed with honey, while under the influence of forced air it is separated from meat and fat;
• cooked in the oven on cherry twigs;
• the whole process is long - about two days, if everything is done "according to science";
• specially trained people in restaurants for a long time comprehend the art of cutting roast duck in the form of the thinnest slices up to 120 (each is attached to a piece of skin);
• Rice cakes for Peking duck are prepared and served separately, as well as Hoisin sauce.

In the home version, the dish will not turn out to be “real”, but in the conditions of restaurants it is easy. It is usually cooked either over a hearth fire, where firewood from fruit trees burns out, or roasted in a special oven, lowering the heat from maximum to minimum.

Peking duck in the oven is cooked at home according to an adapted recipe:

• Take a carcass weighing up to two or slightly more kilograms, 3 tablespoons of honey, a little salt.
• Prepare a marinade from a spoonful of oil (preferably sesame), the same amount of honey, and a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce.
• Separately, prepare Peking Hoisin Duck Sauce by combining a tablespoon of oil, 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, a teaspoon each of chili, garlic powder and wine vinegar. Salt everything and add some Chinese aromatic spices.
• Wash the carcass, dry, coat well with salt and leave for 12 hours.
• Dip the duck in boiling water or quickly scald it from the kettle, then get wet and start pumping air from the syringe under the skin - this will separate the meat from the skin.
• Spread duck outside with honey, and after an hour, spread inside and out with marinating mixture (it is given above). Repeat this a few more times every 30 minutes for 4 hours.

1. Heat the oven to 250 degrees.
2. Place a baking sheet filled with a little water. Put an oiled grate on it and a duck on it.
3. The bird is fried like this for 40 minutes. Then the temperature should be reduced by a hundred degrees and fry for another hour. Do you think everything? By no means! Turn the carcass over and bake for another half hour. Now it's ready!

Traditional Peking duck marinade

You can pickle a duck in completely different ways, but the classic way is still the same.

Here's what the most common version looks like:

• 6 art. spoons of soy sauce;
• 1 st. a spoonful of garlic powder;
• 1 st. a spoonful of wine (rice) vinegar and a mix of peppers;
• 2 tbsp. tablespoons of sesame oil;
• 1 st. a spoonful of a mixture of spices (traditionally it includes star anise, ginger root, cloves and a little anise).

Everything is mixed and used cold. There is also a hot marinade, which is cooked in boiling water. Finely chopped ginger root, vinegar with honey and soy sauce are added to it.

Recipe for cooking on the grill

In nature, you can surprise your friends and acquaintances by offering them, instead of the usual barbecue, an excellent duck with Chinese notes, cooked on the grill. In addition to fire and food, you will need a skewer.

Such a bird is being prepared as a traditional barbecue - without fire, in the heat of a fire.

But the carcass must be marinated for a couple of hours in a special composition.

For him, per liter of water we take:

• a couple of tablespoons of fruit vinegar (apple or wine);
• three spoons of honey;
• a couple of teaspoons of salt;
• spices (marjoram, cloves, star anise);
• a couple of chopped onions.

In the same marinade, you can also soak pieces of duck for barbecue. This will speed up the pickling process, although this option can hardly be called a traditional Peking duck.

Unusual Peking duck with apples

This is a dish already adapted to the taste preferences of Russians. Apples in it complement the oriental taste of the dish with the aroma and sourness of our gardens.

You can simply cut the fruit into medium pieces and stuff the carcass by sewing up the cut. And you can cook a festively elegant dish with apples as a side dish. Fruits are better to take sweet and sour varieties. You also need a little mustard, honey, soy sauce, spices and salt. Usually in this way they cook duck, chopped into large pieces.

How to cook duck according to this recipe:

• marinate poultry pieces in a mixture of honey and soy sauce for at least an hour;
• put apples cut into quarters on a baking sheet or in a mold;
• lay out the duck and pour the rest of the marinade;
• wrap with foil or put the form in a baking sleeve;
• keep in a well-heated oven for 40 minutes.

In orange glaze

A little imagination and the duck will become even more piquant. Try to add a touch of orange and a touch of cognac - the aroma will be very special.

1. At night, leave the carcass in the cold, grated with cognac and salt.
2. Next, grate the orange zest and mix with honey.
3. Coat the bird with the mixture and leave for another three to four hours.
4. Bake in foil over medium heat.

Drain the resulting fat from time to time, and an hour after the start of baking, grease the bird with orange juice with soy sauce (3 tablespoons of sauce per glass of juice). Repeat one more time, frying the duck until tender.

In a slow cooker

A tender, fragrant and soft duck is obtained in a slow cooker. Of course, it does not repeat the classic Peking duck cooked on a spit or in the oven, but it also turns out delicious. And most importantly - this option is a win-win!

The duck is cut into pieces. For the marinade, a standard set of spices is taken:

• by 4 tbsp. spoons of soy sauce and spices;
• half st. tablespoons of vinegar and the same amount of red hot pepper;
• salt 1 tbsp. spoon;
• glass of water;
• a little vegetable oil;
• 1 st. a spoonful of dry ground garlic;
• hot pepper - 1 tsp

What to do:

1. Salt the bird and refrigerate until morning.
2. Coat with honey and wait another hour.
3. Roll in a mixture of all other ingredients except water.
4. Put the pieces in a slow cooker, add water and set to cook on the extinguishing mode. If the duck is damp, it is better to extend the cooking time.

Complement the taste with classic plum sauce

Plum sauce goes well with tender duck meat. It is not difficult to prepare it, for this you need to boil a kilogram of plums, removing the bones in advance. You can immediately put grated ginger on a fine grater during cooking (to taste, but not much), a little cinnamon and a couple of star anise fruits. Rub the boiled plums through a colander or sieve, boil, add at the end three-quarters of a glass of sugar, three tbsp. spoons of soy sauce, half a glass of fruit or rice vinegar and 4 garlic cloves. This sauce is suitable for harvesting for the winter.

How to eat Peking duck?

Any food, and especially the Peking duck, is a ceremony for the Chinese.

There are two serving options - duck with tortillas or pancakes, or, more rarely, with hollow sesame buns.

If you find yourself in a Chinese restaurant, then you will most likely be brought a dish with the thinnest slices of duck and pancakes (tortillas).

1. Pancake should be generously spread with sauce (plum, soy or Hoisin).
2. Put a piece of duck on it.
3. Next, put a few feathers of green onions or leeks.
4. And then - cucumber straws.

All this is wrapped in a tube and eaten with appetite. The same ingredients are placed in the bun.

What to serve with: rice cakes or pancakes?

Butchering and serving the duck is a special skill. It is cut as thinly as possible. The piece is stacked with a leek and thinly sliced ​​cucumber and wrapped in a pancake smeared with Hoisin sauce.

The pancake is baked from a simple dough (150 g of flour and a little vegetable oil are taken for half a glass of hot water).

1. The kneaded dough should be left for half an hour, then divided into pieces and rolled out a thin pancake from each.
2. Lubricate all the blanks with sesame oil, fold in a foot and bake in turn.

In addition to pancakes, duck is also served with rice cakes, as well as soup made from its bones and other parts.

Table setting for serving food

To design the dish in line with its Chinese spirit, try to follow the traditions both in serving and in dishes.

• Sauces are served in small gravy boats or bowls.
• In a separate plate, chopped strips of fresh cucumbers are offered - long and not sluggish.
• Green onions (or leek rings) are placed nearby with long feathers.
• Pancakes should be warm and served on a flat dish.

And in the center of the table a duck is placed on a grill and with a pallet. Beauty! And incredible flavor!

In search of wuxianmian seasoning, I walked around the market for a long time and tortured smiling Tajiks or Azerbaijanis (who can tell them?) for the presence of an important component of Peking duck. The good-natured guests of the city widened their eyes in surprise, but after a moment, with a specific southern accent, they offered to purchase a mixture of five peppers. Of course, I tried to explain that I needed a bouquet of CHINESE spices, and not ground peppercorns. But the sellers, who spoke Russian rather weakly, happily nodded and said that I was lucky! After all, their seasoning is made in CHINA. In the end, I didn't buy anything. But that's a completely different story (c).

Due to the complexity of cooking, it is almost impossible to bake duck meat the way it is cooked in Beijing and other cities in China in a conventional oven. The carcass of a very well-fed, large bird was prepared for several days. With the help of special furs, the space between the skin and the meat was filled with air. The abdominal cavity was pumped with water. Lubricated with marinade and hung in the open air until the skin dries. The dish was baked in special ovens at a high temperature. Of course, it is difficult to achieve an authentic taste, but you can try. I suggest you find out what a Peking duck is. The first recipe at home - step by step, with photos and tips, is quite simple to perform. The second is a little more difficult, but closer to the classics. Choose!

Peking style homemade duck with honey and ginger

Ingredients:

Main:

Sauce:

How to bake duck in Peking style (step by step recipe with photo):

Take a fat, large carcass and prepare it for baking. Shorten a neck that is too long with a culinary hatchet. Cut off the "tail" in which the aromatic glands are concentrated. If it is not removed, the baked bird will have a specific flavor. Pluck out the tough "stumps" from the feathers. Chop off the first phalanx of the wings as desired. Or wrap them in aluminum foil before putting them in the oven to prevent charring. If the duck is not gutted, remove the entrails. Wash the carcass well. Dip for 2-3 minutes in slightly boiling water or pour boiling water over the sink. Pat dry with paper towels inside and out. Add salt to sherry (do not stir until dissolved). Rub the mixture on the skin and inside of the duck. Put the bird on the grill. Place a tray under them. Put in the refrigerator for 12-18 hours.
Then brush the duck with honey or thick sugar syrup. Send again to a cold place for 8-12 hours. To prevent the bird from absorbing foreign odors, carefully wrap it with cling film.
Preheat the oven to 180-190 degrees. Turn on steam cooking. For conventional ovens: fill a baking sheet with clean water and place on the lower shelf in the oven. The liquid will gradually evaporate, providing the necessary conditions for baking the Peking duck. Wrap the pickled carcass in several layers of foil. Place breast side up on the grill. Cook 80-90 minutes. Mix pepper and ginger powder. Pour in the oil and 1 tablespoon (!) of soy sauce. Stir. On a note: You can use fresh root instead of ground ginger. Peel a small piece (about 4-6 cm long). Grate it on a fine grater. Add to the rest of the sauce ingredients.
Take out the duck. Open it up. Turn off the steam (remove the pan with water). Brush the bird with the sauce. Place on a metal grill (back down). Send to bake again. Cooking time - 20-30 minutes. Be sure to place an empty heat-resistant container under the roasting duck, where the rendered fat will drain.
Mix honey (syrup) and the remaining soy sauce until smooth. Get the duck. Apply the mixture to the duck skin with a cooking brush. Send to the oven. Bake for 20-30 minutes. If there is a grill (top heating) mode, turn it on a quarter of an hour before cooking.
Cut the finished bird into portions. Serve according to the Beijing tradition with homemade onion pancakes, plum sauce, fresh herbs and vegetables. Duck baked according to this recipe is juicy inside and crispy outside, fragrant, spicy and tender. The rendered fat can be stored in a closed container in the refrigerator and used for cooking purposes.

Preparing an Almost Classic Peking Duck (Chinese Adapted Recipe)

Required products:

How to cook duck meat in Peking style (a simple step-by-step instruction with a photo):

Wuxianmian is a Chinese herb that contains five types of spices. You can buy it ready-made or make your own at home. The classic version consists of cinnamon, cloves, fennel seeds, Sichuan pepper and star anise. The components are mixed in equal amounts (by weight). And they shrink. Store seasoning in a sealed bag.
Mix syrup with pepper, seasoning, vinegar (wine), soy sauce. Stir. You will get a not too thick fragrant mixture. It is advisable to cook not a frozen duck, but a chilled one. But if you don’t have to choose, defrost the carcass in the most gentle way - in the main section of the refrigerator. This will take about 12-18 hours. Wash in cold water. Dry the bird. Process - remove the tips of the wings, the remnants of plumage, the rump.
Brush duck on all sides with viscous sauce.
Pour salt into starch. Stir. Sprinkle on the duck and lightly rub into the skin. "Put" the carcass on a tall glass or small jar. This is necessary so that the sauce dries well everywhere. Put in the refrigerator for 1-1.5 days.
This is how the skin will dry out after 36 hours of “rest”. It is important not to cover the bird with anything, otherwise the marinade will not take on a crust. Eliminate the simultaneous presence of products with strong odors in the refrigerator with duck. Type in a large saucepan 5-6 liters of drinking water. Bring to a boil. Scald the duck. After the liquid has drained, place it on a wire rack or put it on a skewer. Preheat the oven to 210-220 degrees. Turn on the top and bottom heat (if available). Cook for about 75 minutes. If the skin on top starts to burn, cover it with a sheet of foil. Then lower the temperature to 150-160 degrees. Bake until tender (about half an hour).
Allow the duck to rest for at least 10-15 minutes before serving. Serve as a main course with rice and sour, sweet and sour sauces as a side dish. The classic Chinese serving also includes thin Mandarin pancakes.

Frozen duck must be thawed. It's better to do it gradually. First, take it out of the freezer and keep it in the refrigerator for a day at a temperature of +3...+4°C. Then leave it to thaw for another 10-12 hours at room temperature. When the duck is completely thawed, cut off the upper phalanges of the wings with a knife or scissors for poultry.

Remove all excess fat from the duck - it is most of all in the neck and tail area. The fat that is under the skin, after proper processing, will melt and flow out during baking in the oven.

You need to cook the duck starting a day before it is served on the table. Boil the kettle, hang the duck by the neck (preferably on a hook, but you can just hold it vertically) and pour boiling water over it so that the skin of the duck turns white.

Let the water drain and pat the duck dry with a paper towel. Take dry sherry or Chinese rice wine and rub it on the inside and outside of the duck. Leave it to lie down for 5-10 minutes.

Take coarse sea salt and rub the duck with it - inside and out. After that, the duck should be placed in the refrigerator for 12 hours, without closing anything. It is best if it is in a vertical position - suspended or mounted on a bottle. Blood will flow from the duck, so you need to put a plate under it.

After 12 hours, take the duck out of the refrigerator and brush the outside with honey. Honey should be spread over the surface in a thin even layer. Put it back in the fridge (again, preferably upright) - let it dry for another 12 hours.

Preheat oven to 190°C. Place the duck, breast side up, on a rack with a baking sheet underneath. Pour a glass of cold water into a baking sheet and cover the duck with foil so that the entire structure is tightly closed along with the baking sheet. Place it in the preheated oven for 1 hour.

Mix the ginger with sesame oil, pepper and soy sauce until you get a thick paste. Remove the duck from the oven, remove the foil and remove the baking sheet with the liquid, brush the duck evenly with the resulting mass with a brush. Raise the oven temperature to 260°C. Place the duck on the wire rack back into the oven for 25 minutes. Make sure it doesn't burn!

Remove duck from oven and brush with 2 tbsp. l. honey and 1 tbsp. l. soy sauce. Turn off the heat and turn on the grill. Place the duck on a rack in the bottom of the oven for 5-10 minutes. until crispy. Remove duck from oven, let cool. Carefully cut all the meat off the bones and cut it into small pieces so that the crust is on each.