The Ultimate Guide to Making Crispy, Amber-Hued Peking Duck at Home

A step-by-step guide to making the ultimate Peking Duck—complete with crispy, flavorful skin and tender breast meat—at home.

We realize this is a longer video, so we wanted to give you a quicker way to navigate between steps. Have fun, and get cooking!

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And while you’re at it...

[Pinksugarelephant]

I'm glad this recipe uses standard kitchen equipment. I always have my air compressor handy on the counter.

[ihavetwofaces]

"Is this duck poached, smoked, roasted, fried, or air compressed?"

"Yes."

[sercancelenk]

Day 53: I am still cooking the Peking duck, my guests have already perished. I can't keep doing this any longer.

[FatLittleButterfly]

"a recipe you can do at home, and every time its incredible" *whips out air compressor* ohwell, maybe i can try using my bike pump

[comeon]

As a local from Beijing, we don't use ducks that are lean. The ducks selected for the dish are called 填鸭（tianya). They are basically fed 24/7 to keep them fat so that the meat can be rich and tender when cooked. And we normally use only 甜面酱(tianmianjiang), a kind of bean sauce, as dipping sauce. Complemented with fine slices of green onion and cucumber, wrapped in paper-thin 荷叶饼(lotus pancake), every single bite is a fusion of flavors.

Basically, cool video and great adaptation of Peking duck with some changes, but you cannot do this properly at home.

[jiaminqian]

I tell you, the chef is not Chinese but the recipe is legitimate. The fact he uses maltose instead of sugar, tells me how authentic this is. I made this tonight and it blew my mind. I air dried it for 3 day and it’s totally worth the wait. I followed every step of it. It came out good. Thank you for sharing. -some random Chinese lady who lives in the US and misses Chinese food.

[Verse]

this was so easy to follow! It's quite a gift to be both a great chef and a great pedagogue.

[shannonsage]

I love peking duck but to be honest, there are just some things I'll leave to the professionals and this is one of them.

[babaadv]

Selecting a duck: 0:43s
Preparing the duck: 1:13s
Skin Separation: 2:36s
Poaching: 3:33s
Making the glaze: 4:20s
Drying: 5:29s
Smoking: 5:58s
Roasting: 6:46s
Frying: 8:15s
Carving: 8:49s

[dikstertrikster]

I'm not a cook and i was fascinated with this vid. impressed me no end.

[tanyainglis]

Thank you for posting this. You made a very intricate process seem manageable for a novice home cook like myself to accomplish at home. I will be trying this. Looks fantastic.

[ProHomeCooks]

holy hell, that rub is insanity! making that asap. Thanks for putting in the time for such a complex and unreal recipe. It aint easy to find this shit on the internet and you just broke it down like a boss!

[benplatiel]

"Paint me like one of you're pekin ducks" -that duck

[saurodeepb]

This is by far the most methodical video for cooking Peking Duck. Great job!

[conorbmcgovern]

A lovely understatement - "It's looking good". No, it's looking absolutely amazing!

[vivianezq]

I'm Chinese and I approve this method . Good job.

[toutlesag]

This is not an authentic most-straightforward Pecking duck recipe, but quite EXCELLENT!  Thank you very much!  (Since all cultures evolve,  recipes evolve too,  as in "food culture".)  This is a combination of 3 most famous Chinese recipes for duck: the original Pecking duck 北京烤鴨 (preparation, marinade technique, air compression, blanching, hang dry in cold for at least 1 day, roasting, etc.), the Sichuan smoked duck 樟茶鴨 (flavoring, smoking,  and final deep frying), and the Yanzi-River cuisine crispy duck 香酥鴨 (malt glaze on skin, and deep frying).

[mememcmeme]

Love how it says duck for list of things you need. Nice to see they're looking out for those of us that aren't as... Perceptive.

[stephenadamsmusicalinterpr]

That looks freaking awesome. Knowledge and tools create beautiful things.

[barristanselmy]

The people at Chef Steps are the most devoted people i have ever seen. The way this duck was prepared. I'd pay 50 for it. This is where it's at, none of this rushed bullshit, this is what you want to eat, this is why i respect these guys so much. Juicy pink interior, perfectly crisped skin. Nice light apple smoked flavour. The best on You Tube.