Sichuan Crispy Duck (Xiangsu Ya, 香酥鸭)

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Chengdu Challenge #24:  Crispy Duck for Luck

Happy Year of the Monkey! Chinese New Year calls for lucky food, food that calls down health, wealth and happiness for the new year. But be careful what you wish for.

The Chinese eat dumplings shaped like gold ingots, whole fish because the word for it sounds like the word for surplus, long noodles to symbolize long life, and a whole chicken to represent family togetherness. I’m especially interested in laying the groundwork for family happiness and togetherness in the coming year, so I wanted to include the chicken in our New Year’s meal.

When Fongchong lived in rural Guangzhou, it was her job at the New Year to pluck the feathers out of the chicken after it had been killed and scalded by her foster brother. Our chicken would not be that fresh, unfortunately, but even if it were, a whole chicken is just not that exciting to us. We have whole roasted chicken all the time in the West.

What we don’t have all the time, a type of poultry that is a real treat, is duck. So that will work for our New Year’s happy-family wish, right?

Everyone knows the Chinese make the best duck, specifically Peking duck and Sichuan tea-smoked duck. I believe Peking duck is best left to the professionals in Peking, and tea-smoked duck is borderline too difficult for home cooks. It’s one of those dishes I always think I’m going to make, but never actually do. I like a cooking project as much as anyone–or I wouldn’t have an authentic Sichuan cooking blog–but I rarely have the time for an all-day recipe. Plus, even though I have a well-stocked Sichuan pantry, it does not include camphor laurel leaves, straw, pine and cypress branches, which are the smoking materials called for along with jasmine tea in Sichuan (China) Cuisine in Both Chinese and English.

However, super delicious Sichuan crispy duck (香酥鸭, xiāngsūyā) is very doable. And in fact, I’ve had crispy-skinned duck served to me far more times in Sichuan than tea-smoked duck. The procedure is basically the same, but crispy duck omits the smoking step and retains just the marinating, steaming and deep-frying. It still takes some forethought, but it is not tricky at all if you have basic Chinese cooking equipment—a wok, a lid, a steamer rack that sits in the bottom of it, and a bowl that will hold the duck but still fit in the wok. (Or some similar steamer contraption that will hold a duck.)

woke id, stammer rack in wok
Make sure your wok lid will still fit snugly with the duck in the wok.

The first step is simply marinating the duck in Shaoxing wine, aromatics, Sichuan pepper and five-spice powder. There’s a large variation in the taste of five spice—which is generally comprised of star anise, fennel, cinnamon, cloves and Sichuan pepper, but which may be a different mix of Chinese spices. Just make sure you like the one you buy, or make, as you will definitely taste it in the final product.

The marinated duck goes in the steamer for an hour and 15 minutes or longer, depending on the size. It should be completely cooked through and tender but not falling apart, as that will make it hard to deep-fry. Keep an eye on your steamer to make sure it always has sufficient water and that your duck juices are not overflowing your bowl. You may have to pour some juice off. Save it! You’ll have delicious duck juice and fat for other uses.

steaming whole duck
Put the marinated duck in a bowl that will fit in the steamer. I made mine fit in a glass pie plate.

After the duck is steamed, lift it upright to let the juices from the interior run out. Then transfer to a cutting board, dry it off with a paper towel and let it cool. For handling the duck, I use tongs stuck up in its inside or just pick it up by its legs, which is less likely to tear that precious skin.

The final step is to deep-fry the duck to crisp up the skin. Use enough oil to come half-way up the duck and deep-fry on each side until it is deep golden brown and crisp, about five minutes per side. You’ll want to be careful when flipping the duck, though it’s not as scary as it sounds.

deep-frying Sichuan Crispy Duck
I should have used a bit more oil here, so the bird wouldn’t have any uncrisp parts.

For our first meal of Sichuan crispy duck we served it simply with vegetables and rice. The Cookbook suggests serving it with sweet wheat paste (tianmianjiang), though I have never seen it served with any sauce in Sichuan. It usually just comes chopped up on the plate with the optional condiment of chili flakes. I used both condiments for this effort, but preferred just a touch of the chili on each bite. If you use the sweet wheat paste, I would dilute it a bit with Zhenjiang vinegar and sesame oil. Or you could just use hoisin sauce, which is similar.

Sichuanese do not serve their duck with those thin Mandarin pancakes used for Peking duck, but you can if you like. More likely, it would be served with bao, or steamed buns. For our second meal of the duck, we used the leftovers to make duck bao, garnished with simple cucumber pickle, scallions and hoisin. We made our own bao, which I highly suggest, since they have a much more yeasty, sweet, rich taste than the store-bought versions. Check out my bao recipe (via David Chang).

Sichuan Crispy Duck in foldover guabao-style steamed buns for duck buns
The fact that this bao is not perfectly shaped let’s you know it is homemade and much more delicious than the factory-made ones.

You may have noticed that I cooked the Sichuan crispy duck whole, but I served it already cut. That probably defeats the purpose of my New Year’s wish for family togetherness. But it turned out not to matter. After the meal, I went back and checked my source about Chinese New Year’s food to see if duck was on it. It was. But it doesn’t symbolize family togetherness and happiness.

It symbolizes fertility.

Uh oh.

For more Sichuan fried meat dishes, see my Sichuan Pepper-Studded Little Crispy Pork (Xiaosurou, 小酥肉) and Chengdu-style Chongqing Chicken With Chilies (Laziji, 辣子鸡)!

Sichuan Crispy Duck (Xiangsu Ya, 香酥鸭)

By: Taylor Holliday | The Mala Market | Inspiration & Ingredients for Sichuan Cooking
Adapted from Sichuan (China) Cuisine in Both Chinese and English, published in China in 2010 by the Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine and the Sichuan Gourmet Association.

Ingredients 

  • 1 whole duck (minus head and feet)
  • 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
  • 2 teaspoons sliced ginger
  • 4 scallions, cut into sections
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground Sichuan pepper (see note)
  • 1 teaspoon five-spice powder
  • 3 cups canola or peanut oil

Instructions 

  • Rinse the duck and make sure you retrieve anything packed inside, such as the neck and giblets. Put those aside for another use if you wish. Dry the duck off and put it in your steaming bowl. Pour the Shaoxing wine over both sides of the bird and sprinkle all over with the salt, Sichuan pepper and five-spice powder. Arrange the ginger and scallions inside and on the duck. Leave to marinate for two hours.
  • Bring water to a boil in your steamer and place the bowl with the duck inside it. Keeping the water at a low boil, cover tightly and steam. Check periodically to make sure you have sufficient water and top off with boiling water from a kettle when water level is low. Also make sure your bowl does not overflow with duck juices; you may have to dip some out. Check bird after about one hour and 15 minutes. The juices should run clear and the meat should be tender. Continue steaming if necessary, but not so long that duck starts to fall apart. Remove duck from the steamer bowl, standing upright so that the juices run out, then transfer to a cutting board. When it is cool enough to handle, dry it off with a paper towel and leave to cool and dry completely. Retain the duck juices and fat for other uses.
  • Remove the scallions and ginger. Heat wok until you see the heat rise from it, then add about 3 cups canola or peanut oil. Heat to 375°F (190°C) and gently lower duck into the oil, breast side down. Fry until it is deep golden-brown, about five minutes. Carefully flip it over and fry the other side. When both sides are golden, lift bird up and allow oil to drain from the interior. Transfer to a cutting board and allow to rest and cool briefly. Carve into nice pieces and arrange on a platter. Serve with condiments of hoisin sauce, Sichuan chili flakes or Sichuan pepper salt.

Notes

Ground Sichuan pepper: Sort Sichuan peppercorns and discard any black seeds or twigs. Toast in a dry skillet or toaster oven until pods start to smell very fragrant, but do not brown them. Let peppercorns cool, then grind in a spice grinder or in a mortar & pestle to your desired coarseness. Sift out any yellow husks that don't break down. Sichuan pepper powder will retain its potent flavor and numbing punch for only a few weeks.

Tried this recipe?

 

About Taylor Holliday

The Mala Market all began when Taylor, a former journalist, created this blog as a place to document her adventures learning to cook Sichuan food for Fongchong, her recently adopted 11-year-old daughter. They discovered through the years that the secret to making food that tastes like it would in China is using the same ingredients that are used in China. The mother-daughter team eventually began visiting Sichuan’s factories and farms together and, in 2016, opened The Mala Market, America’s source for heritage Sichuan ingredients and Chinese pantry essentials.

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14 Comments

  1. I prefer duck breast cooked in the Western fashion so I usually make this with just duck legs. It’s way easier and quicker to make and arguably more delicious. Never made them with bao before though, I’ll have to try that!

    1. Well, our duck had legs too. But after I carved it they weren’t pretty enough to photograph. 🙂 Definitely would be easier to prepare with legs though.

  2. Wow, we’re very in sync! I read about this recipe a few weeks ago and was dying to try it out. But I ended up using the method in cooking smaller chicken cuts (breast and thighs). I have a question, do you baste the duck while deep frying it? The cookbook instructed to baste the bird with a ladle throughout the frying process. I think the basting speeds up the frying process and keep the bird from overcooking. However, I won’t feel comfortable recommend it to readers, as the process might be dangerous for novice cooks.
    Can you share the book cover of Sichuan (China) Cuisine? I personally own a few Sichuan cookbook written in Chinese, but the recipes are not always reliable. I want to locate the book you mentioned in the recipe. Thanks.

    1. Hi Maggie. Nice to hear from you! The recipe did not say to baste the duck while frying and I did not. Why mess with that hot oil more than you have to? One recipe I read elsewhere said to fry on lower heat for 10 minutes on each side, but this recipe instructed 375° to 400°, which made quick work of it. As for the book, it is long out of print, but other readers have told me they have found stray copies on Chinese websites under that name, so I bet you can.

  3. Adorable! I do believe that cooking a whole duck is not done nearly enough as it should – there are so many ways, roasted, steamed, fried, … and they’re all delish. I’m so glad that yours came out so well for the new year!

    1. You are right, Chenyun! After making it this time I realized I should do it more often. It’s not as hard as it looks!

  4. As I read the article accompanying the recipe, I began to ponder using my electric deep-fryer for this. The heating element will boil the water for the steaming, with the whole duck sitting above the water in the cooking basket. Then dry it out, pour in the peanut oil and deep-fry the bird. Our fryer will handle up to a 14-lb. turkey, so a duck should be no challenge.

    Any thoughts?

    1. Well, I don’t have an electric deep-fryer to test this, but why not? It seems like it would make the whole thing easier and produce the same results. Do let us know how it goes!

    1. That’s a good question! Since I don’t have access to wild duck I really don’t know. A quick look online tells me that both the meat and fat are quite different than domesticated duck, but if you have a lot of them, perhaps you should experiment. And do let us know how it goes!

  5. I made this for Easter. We had been travelling the week before so I wanted s.th. easy to make (and it really is easy to make; so little prep and very little time in the kitchen), which is why I skipped the buns and opted for some Gochujang fried rice, which – together with some Asian greens and pickled cucumber and daikon – proved to be perfect. Thank you so much for the recipe!

    1. Hi Bianca,

      It does sound perfect. Thanks for sharing your menu, and glad to hear you found a recipe that might seem intimidating not so!

  6. What does it mean when the Sichuan pepper is roast and ground? Do you buy it like that or is there some process?

    1. Hi Giancarlo, thanks for reading! We have some more detailed instructions for this process at the bottom of the recipe, in the Notes. You take the fresh, red Sichuan pepper, dry-toast it in a skillet to bloom the spice aroma, let it cool, then grind it yourself with mortar and pestle or hand-grinder. We do this because pre-ground Sichuan pepper loses its numbing quality and flavor within weeks of being ground, meaning store-bought ground huajiao will never be as good as fresh-ground!