Crispy Duck

Asked by Elvis!. Answered on 20th March 2013

Full question

Hi. I am going to try to cook Nigella's Crispy Duck recipe but I'm using just a crown rather than a whole duck. How long will it take to cook? I imagine it would be less?

Our answer

A "crown" of poultry is the whole breast of the bird, still on the bone. It will cook more quickly than a whole bird and will, obviously, feed less people than a whole duck. Fortunately duck has quite a lot of fat, even on the breast area, so the meat stays moist when the meat is cooked very thoroughly.

You do need to cook the breast until it is tender enough to be shredded with forks and also until the fat has rendered completey away. We would suggest that the crown will need around 3 hours of initial cooking, followed by the 30 minutes of high heat blast at the end. You could also use duck legs instead of a whole duck and as these are quite small they should need about 2 to 2 1/2 hours of initial cooking, followed by the 30 minutes on high heat.