How to Make Duck à l'Orange the Right Way

Modern duck à l'orange recipes often call for a syrupy-sweet sauce. But the original form of the dish calls for an acrobatic balancing act of acid, bitter, sugar, and fat, perfectly suited to cutting through the richness of the roasted duck. Daniel Gritzer shows you some classic French techniques to make a spectacular sauce for your holiday bird.

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[cawashka]

I never thought that “canard à l’orange” takes so much work to make. Makes me appreciate the dish even more. Absolutely delicious!

[lexymayawithfriends]

I did this dish for New year eve and I made the change to use chicken instead of beef for the stock and it was very tasty. I followed the rest of your tips and I got an amazing dish. Thank you!!!

[Pneuma]

For duck a l’orange recipe, I came here first. Man, I love your passion for great food, I get it. I make bone broth every winter. If we get sick, forget the chix soup, it’s the bone broth every time. I make a big one, using chicken feet, marrow bones, knuckle bones, whatever I get my hands on, it’s broth jello, until heated up, add some salt, delicious! Also, when making bone broth, I put in about a cup of ACV, it extracts everything! Cinnamon sticks, star anise, fennel seeds, chiles, whole allspice, cardamom, a bunch of stuff! It’s heavenly! Oh yeah, forgot to mention I simmer it for about three days, only while we’re up and about of course. 🤪💜. Hope somebody out there tries it, it’s worth the time and patience, and so healthy! Just keep adding only bottled water, if you can, from start to finish, bottled water only.

[paulakaochari]

The last time I had this dish was like, 36 years ago at a now closed restaurant that made Duck l'orange, soooo delicious.
I hope mine comes out as well.
I have had, Thailand style duck soup, it too was wonderful.

[herman_the_vermin]

For the broth. I recently tried the difference of the instant pot (like I've always done) and then did a 16 hour simmer on the stove. The 16 hour made it so much more delicious and full bodied. I've never had a better tasting broth. The instant pot is great and convenient and I'll use it again, but I'll always prefer it over the stove

[HappyMornings]

My bone broth has been cooking for almost two days. Cant wait to make this bomb recipe!

[Belzedar]

That was really intense and detailed. Can't fault it.

I'm going to just slather some marmalade on the duck before I roast it. I figure if I use wild rice, the others will be so busy complaining about the black things in the rice, it'll keep them distracted.

[bergamt]

So you're saying *don't* use the orange sauce packet that comes stuffed in the duck

[RaspK]

Bitter oranges are *amazing* for culinary applications; there are tonnes of recipes where there are still used, especially in the Mediterranean. The fact that bitter orange trees can be grown from seeds and have *_any_* other citrus eyes grafted onto them is one more reason, but generally you should know that you'll find bitter orange trees throughout the region, quite notably in Greece. You can juice them to flavour chickpea soup, various desserts, turn them to jam (the original British marmalade is made with bitter oranges, after all), make all sorts of other desserts or sauces from them, including candied peel, preserved the rind or unripe young fruit in a thick syrup where they've been boiled in, and so much more!

[danielt]

So common in the 70s, so hard to find today. My daughter served it to me for my birthday. It took me right back 45 years to the days of my youth.

[homumu]

Why seriouseats channel just got 258k subscribers so far? it deserves way more that that number

[GrainneDhu]

I learned something! My mama used to roast both duck and goose with a sauce made of Keiller's orange marmalade. Heated up so it would flow smoothly plus some orange zest to offset the bird (my mama's reasoning). She said it was the ordinary way to serve duck or goose in her native Lancashire. I had no idea that it was so closely related to duck a l'orange.

It wasn't until I moved out of my parents' household that I learned of the horror of that American made stuff that is called marmalade. They don't even have orange rind in it most of the time!

[KcGoldenKnights]

Thank you for the explicit explanations of the ingredients and directions. I used a different recipe because I didn't see yours first. But, I will definitely try this recipe soon. Really enjoyed this video and had to rewind the smoking duck, lol! Love this.

[GT-ywue]

Most peelers have a mini peeler on the side for gouging out little bad bit of potato for instance. It works perfect for scraping the pith out too after peeling the orange skin with the peeler.

[ChefKevinRiese]

Yeah! Dont forget to drain the pan every thirty minutes to prevent that grease fire!

[misskriss]

Great video. Thanks for the instruction and the benefit of watching your awesome personality.

[Pneuma]

If I ever do make this dish (I hope), it will be this recipe, thank you, Serious Eats!

[sandman]

Hail the master!! :-) Thank you for all the great advice! I wish I were there, to taste the result.
I had the amateur version of this dish made a few times and had great feedback from my "victims". Still, I try to make it reasonably authentic with perhaps just a few shortcuts for practical reasons. Unfortunately I can't get bitter oranges where I live but I have a calamondine orange tree which produces seemingly impossible amounts of fruit. It feels very similar to the description of bitter oranges (bitter and sour) and I used that, for a substitute, instead of oranges and lemons. (...but used normal oranges for the zest.) I think the results were good and it contributed to the creation of that perfect balance of this dish is famous for. I agree that it is sooo disappointing when you are given a purely sweet version of Duck à l'Orange!
BTW, some people tell calamondine is only good for cooking but when they are fully ripe, they are not too bad to eat or juice it and mix it with something. They also make an amazing jam which is easy and quick to make. That's my plug for calamondine but go, Duck à l'Orange! ;-)

[elvy]

Omg! Totally making this for Thanksgiving, tired of the turkey....plus is 2020 so everything goes lol

[aznsugarg]

CHRISTMAS MEANS CARNAGE!— Ferdinand, the Duck.