Duck and orange – match made in heaven. Duck and red wine – match made in heaven. Combine the two and you get this mulled wine roast duck, which is absolutely phenomenal!
Duck is a fantastic meat – criminally underrated. It’s juicy, carries a great amount of flavour and it’s really very easy to cook too.
This roast duck recipe combines the classic flavours of mulled wine – red wine, orange, cloves, star anise and cinnamon – to create a really tasty meal. Perfect for Sunday lunch or over the festive period.
I served my roast duck with the mulled wine sauce, detailed in the recipe below, my truffle mash and some simple stir fried tenderstem broccoli. Trust me, that’s all you need!
Ingredients, Substitutions and Variations
- Duck – you want your duck to be around 1.8kg. For a larger or smaller duck, adjust the cooking time accordingly – ask your butcher if unsure.
- Orange – the orange will be used for the duck’s cavity and brings a gorgeous citrus flavour and sweetness.
- Olive oil – or use vegetable oil.
- Ground cinnamon, ground cloves, star anise, salt, sugar – this makes the spice blend which brings that delicious mulled wine flavour to this roast duck.
- Plain flour – this is used to thicken the sauce.
- Red wine – you can use any type of red wine, but the key rule is don’t cook with a red wine that you wouldn’t drink! If it tastes horrible to drink, it’s going to taste horrible in your sauce too.
- Orange – you use an orange in the sauce, too, for extra citrus flavour.
- Soy sauce – this brings a savoury note to the sauce. Use dark soy sauce if you can.
- Honey – to balance the sweetness. You could also use maple syrup.
Top Tips
- Keep an eye on your duck The top of the duck with the spice rub will blacken – and this is normal and fine – but make sure that the duck skin itself doesn’t burn. If it is starting to look very crisp, cover it with tinfoil for the rest of the cooking time.
- Resting time You MUST rest your duck! Don’t be tempted to skip this step. If you don’t rest it, the meat could be tough.
- Serving the duck This is a wonderful meat to have on its own as the star of a roast dinner, or you could have it as part of a big Christmas dinner along with some roast ham.
Mulled Wine Roast Duck
Ingredients
For the roast duck
- 1 duck giblets removed, approx 1.8kg
- 1 orange
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 3 star anise
For the red wine sauce
- 2 tbsps plain flour
- 150 ml red wine
- 1 orange
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp honey
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
- Start by making your spice rub. Combine the cinnamon, cloves, salt and sugar in a bowl. Put the duck in a large roasting pan. Drizzle over the olive oil, then rub the spice mix evenly over the surface. Cut the orange in half and put in the cavity, along with the star anise. Roast in the oven for 2 hours.
- After 2 hours, remove the duck from the oven. Cover with tinfoil and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
- To make your sauce, pour 75ml of the juices from the bottom of the roasting pan into a small saucepan. Put on a medium heat.
- Add the flour to the saucepan and whisk. Tip in the red wine and orange juice, whisk again.
- Gradually add 500ml cold water to the saucepan, whisking all the time until you have a gravy consistency. If it is too thick, add more water.
- Add the soy sauce and honey to the sauce, whisk.
- To serve, carve the duck, plate up and drizzle over the sauce, along with your chosen side dishes.
Looking for more festive recipes? Why not try:
- Fruity Christmas Cake
- Christmas Cake Porridge
- Christmas Mac and Cheese
- Leftover Ham Pie
- Classic Baked Ham
- Sausage and Cranberry Spaghetti
- Ginger Mince Pies
- Christmas Frittata
- Christmas Muffins
- Ginger Beer Baked Ham
- Mince Pie Cookies
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Looks so juicy with amazing flavors. Thanks for sharing.
I made this duck for dinner last night and it was delicious! So juicy and full of flavor!
This dish seems perfect for a cozy dinner party or a special holiday meal, offering a unique twist on traditional duck recipes.
This was so freaking good!! The skin came out super crispy, and the meat was juicy and had the best flavor from the red wine sauce! This is going on my list to make for the holidays!