Easy Peking Duck Recipe

I’m not a great cook but I like to have a go - as long as it doesn’t mean all day in the kitchen. So it was vital to find an easy Peking duck recipe for our new dining club. Several of us get together and each one will have a turn at cooking dinner. Last week was a yummy chicken machboos lesson and dinner which was going to be hard to beat. But knowing that the hosts’ favorite dish is Peking duck gave me a slight edge.


Found an excellent, quick and easy recipe which I tweaked a bit and voila! Don’t think it beat the chicken machboos but we did enjoy the duck starter. Of course not a true Peking duck which takes days of boiling, hanging, drying and blowing the duck up to seperate the skin from the meat.


Easy Peking Duck will serve 4-6 as an appetiser
2 kg duck (freezer dept at TSC or Lulu’s)
Chinese five spice 3 tbs (spice aisle at TSC)
Minced ginger about 3 tbs
Salt 3 tsps
Honey 2 tbs
Hoisin sauce 2 tbs (Chinese food aisle at TSC or Lulu’s)


Frozen duck will need at least 24-36 hrs to defrost. Remove any hairs, giblets and clip the wings half way down. Wash it well in and out, dry it off, generously salt it in and out, rub in Chinese five spice in and out, rub in the ginger in and out, leave some ginger in the cavity. Pour over the mixed honey and hoisin sauce. Cover in foil and place in pre-heated oven at 170 degrees for two hours. Baste and remove fat every 20-30 mins. For the last 10 mins remove foil, turn up oven to 220 until duck has browned and become crispy.
Leave it to rest for 10 mins. Cut or shred into pieces, placing crispy skin and meat apart on same plate.


Serve with pancakes (recipe below or buy from a Chinese restaurant ;O)
Finely sliced, de-skinned, matchstick cucumbers
Finely sliced matchstick spring onions
Hoisin sauce


Take pancake, spoon on a dollop of hoisin, few spring onions, few matchstick cucumbers and duck then roll and eat.


Pancake recipe  serves 4 to 6
•300 g flour
•1 tbsp sugar
•240 ml boiling water
•6 tbsp sesame oil or veg oil
•some flour for dusting


Put the flour and the sugar into a bowl. Combine them together with your wooden spoon then add the boiling water. Mix together, until it forms a sticky dough. Next, generously sprinkle the dough with some flour. Then dust the work surface and spoon the dough into the flour. Begin to gently fold the dough. Then knead it for a few minutes. Don't be afraid to add more flour to the dough, if necessary, as it might still be too sticky. Continue to knead until the dough takes on a smooth, non sticky, elastic consistency. Finally, cover it with a clean, damp tea towel and set it aside for 30 minutes, to rest.


Uncover the dough and cut it in to small equal sized amounts, flour a board and roll out very thin circles approx 10-12 cm diameter. Brush one side of pancake with oil. Cook in a hot frying pan 1.5 mins on each side. Keep in wrapped foil to keep warm and moist until needed. Can be reheated in a bamboo steamer.


I had cooked the duck prior so they could munch whilst I got on with the entrees. I followed the duck with Mongolian beef, stir fried veg and noodles and rice. For dessert some special home-made chocolate truffles. Feeling quite chuffed with myself but very happy my turn shouldn't come around again for at least 6 weeks.