Whole Roasted Duck 2.0

I had my cousins Alexa and Jenna over last night and since they've started cooking over the last few years - they've tried this recipe for themselves. Jenna pointed out to me that I don't have every step down on my blog so I am going to edit it to make it correct.

If you would like to see a tutorial on how to make the dumplings: go to the Klein and Dine youtube channel. :)

Ingredients:
5 lb duck (I usually serve a quarter duck per person so figure out how much you need. And I suggest rounding up because it's really good and it's just as easy to make one as a few)
1 part caraway seed
2 part salt
1 part pepper
1 onion per duck - cut into large chunks


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 300. In a small dry skillet, toast the caraway seeds over medium heat until fragrant. Add seeds to a small bowl and combine with salt and pepper. Set aside.

2. Clean duck by removing innards and any excess skin or fat. With a knife, carefully cut slits in the duck fat - making sure to only cut fat and not the skin. Using a fork, poke small holes in fat of the duck all over.

3. Cover duck inside and out with salt, pepper and caraway seeds. Place onion, roughly chopped, into the duck cavity.

4. Place duck in a large roasting pan on a rack breast side up. Pour 1 inch of water into the bottom of the pan. Cover pan with lid or aluminum foil and place in oven for 1 hour. Two times throughout the hour (try to evenly space this) carefully prick the skin/fat of the duck. Use a fork and gently make holes in the fat of the duck. This will render out the fat and give you crispier skin.

5. After the hour is up, take out the duck and flip it on the rack so it is now breast side down. Cover again and place in oven for 45 minutes. Make sure to prick fat twice throughout this 45 minutes.

6. Remove duck from oven and turn up heat to 425. Right before putting duck back in the oven, take lid off. Prick the skin again and place in oven for about 20 minutes or until skin is crispy and golden brown.

7. Once the skin is crispy, remove duck from oven and flip it over so it is breast side up again. Return to oven until skin is crispy about 20 minutes. You may need to turn on the broiler for the last few minutes to get the skin super duper crispy.

8. While the first part of duck skin is crisping, start making and kneading the bread dumplings. You will want to put the dumplings in 5 minutes before the duck is finished so the duck has time to rest while dumplings finish cooking and everything will be done at the same time.

9. Once duck is crsipy, remove pan from oven. Place ducks on a serving platter and cover loosely with foil to keep warm. After resting for 15 minutes, cut duck into quarters using a pair of kitchen scissors.

10. After pan juices have cooled, strain and pour into a gravy boat for serving. Make sure to use juices on duck and dumplings for extra flavor.

11. Once everything is finished, place all on a table and serve!!