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We raise ducks for eggs.

About every other year we get a new batch of ducklings either from a friend who incubates or from incubating them ourselves (with our neighbor’s little incubator).

The trouble with these new ducks is they won’t all be females and obviously only the females lay eggs. So we end up with a few drakes that need to go in the freezer. Since these are egg laying ducks (most Khacki Campbell or Khacki/Blue Swede mix) and not meat ducks there is not much to them. They do not work very well for most duck recipes that I’ve found. Usually I use these ducks for soup which works well.

The last time I decided to make duck I wanted to try something different. It was the middle of August and much too hot for soup.

I scoured the internet and found a recipe for Chinese Stewed Duck. The recipe sounded delicious. The recipe written for a meat duck, judging by the pictures, but I figured that I could use the basic premise of the recipe to create my own dish. The end results were delicious and have become a regular part of our plans for using culled ducks.

Stewed Duck, Chinese Style

•  1 skinny stewing duck
• 2 cups water
• Salt & pepper
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/4 small onion, minced
• 1 to 3 inches grated ginger
• 1 T sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce or Tamari
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 1 T honey
• 2 cups broth (I used broth that was produced from the duck cooking all day)
• 1 quart water (plus additional as needed)
• 4 teaspoons Chinese 5 Spice powder
• Salt to taste

The first step was to stew the duck all day in the crock pot. I sprinkled it with salt and pepper and added the 2 cups water. See the picture below of it after the all day stewing. You can see what I mean about it not having much meat!

In a soup pot, heat the coconut oil and saute the onions for a few minutes.

Add the grated ginger and saute an additional minute or two.

Then add the sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic and honey.

Stir well.

Add the duck and coat with the sauce.

Then add broth plus 1 quart of water and bring to a boil. Skim if necessary.

Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and stir in the Chinese 5 Spice Powder.

Cover and simmer for an hour or so, checking every 15 minutes to see if additional water is needed (you want the duck mostly covered).

By this point, the duck should be falling off the bone. Turn off the heat and remove the duck from the pan. Cool until you can pick the meat from the bone. The bones can be put in the crock pot to be made into a slightly spiced duck broth.

Return the picked off meat to the sauce and heat through.

Serve over rice or similar base.  Not the most photogenic meal, for sure, (seems like nothing “brown” photographs very well at my house) but it was amazing.  Better than restaurant food!

What is your favorite duck recipe?

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