Duck n Chicken

Pot Licker · July 2006

I have the opportunity to cook a birthday meal for my folks (who recently purchased a medium egg Yea) But the rest of the siblings are still without belief of the eggs ability, So I want to a duck and a chicken, I understand that for duck low and slow is the best method. 250 deg direct for four/five hours and I have cooked chicken at 300 for two/three. Should I cook these birds at the duck temp/time or open the lid after a while and throw the duck on? Thanks for the help.

An Egg Downunder · July 2006

Pot Licker,[p]I've only slow smoked a duck once - and that was in my old vertical smoker. But I have never seen so much fat come out of a single bird so I would question whether it should be cooked direct.

gdenby · July 2006

Pot Licker,[p]My experiences with duck is that it takes longer to cook than chicken, because it has so much fat. I haven't tried one direct. With a drip pan under one, it sounded like a deep fryer doing a batch of 'taters. I would expect one cooked direct to start a grease fire.[p]gdenby

Unknown · July 2006

Pot Licker,
I do a couple of domestic ducks every few months; I cut out the backbone and save it for stock, use a 250-300F fire, with inverted platesetter (legs up) and a heavy pan to catch the drippings; my favorite wood is pecan, and I brine them overnight with the recipe below - note that wild ducks can be very different from the farm-raised kind(s), and this is all assuming you'll be using the farm-raised kind[p]Direct (as others have noted) isn't the best way; besides the flareups and greasy smoke nastiness, you also lose the duck fat that would otherwise accumulate in the drip pan[p]*Carefully* pour out the rendered fat into a heavy container (not plastic - glass is best, like the Pyrex refrigerator dishes), let it cool, and you will have the finest frying medium I know of - for example, small-diced red/new potatoes sauteed in duck fat are superb ... and don't even get me started on scallops[p]
Tea Marinade/Brine for Duck[p]Lots of loose green tea leaves (I like to use "Gunpowder Green Tea" in the can)
Orange juice (about 1 cup)
Red wine to cover the duck
Black pepper
Kosher salt - about 2 tbsp[p]Mix all in large nonreactive bowl or large ziploc container (I prefer the ziploc); add the spatchcocked (?) duck(s), and let it sit regrigerated overnight, ensuring that the brine covers the duck[p]When ready to cook, leave the tea leaves on the skin of the duck, especialy the breast,, and cook it cavity-side down to protect the breast meat ("maigrets")

Pot Licker · July 2006

ToddM, Thanks for the insight, on the duck. Any thoughts on doing a duck and chicken together, or is it like Ghost buster light beams that should never cross?

BOBF · July 2006

Pot Licker,[p]When you have a lot of time and want to experiment, you may want to do a turducken. I have also just deboned a chicken and debreasted a duck removing most of skin and fat, put the duck breast inside the chicken, sewed it up and cooked them that way. You are not going to get a crispy duck skin, but the dark meat is good and it should come out moist. Like I said, this takes some time and a little practice, but you will be surprised how good it can be.

Unknown · July 2006

Pot Licker,[p]I like duck just-pink rare, but not "rose'" or anything like that (i.e., pink juices and quite rare at the bone), so I'd think that the answer is "maybe": if you like the well-done, fall-apart chicken like you can get at rotisserie counters, it would probably be great (it will also have a smokier aspect to the taste); if you like the roasted chicken with crispy-ish skin and light, juicy meat, you may need to do the duck first, then pull it and let the Egg get closer to 400 before cooking the chicken[p]Never having actually done both on the same occasion, I can only guess at the dual-bird truth, altho' some folks here have done a TurDucken, so search for that in the Archives[p]try it both ways and see for sure what you like best - it's not like you'll have problems with the leftovers from either way

Duck n Chicken

Comments

Categories