Crispy Aromatic Duck (Ped Op Nam Pueng / Ped Peking)

เป็ดปักกิ่ง

Every British Chinese takeaway menu has it, and most Thai restaurants list it too: half a duck, shredded tableside, wrapped in pancakes with cucumber, spring onion and hoisin. The name in Thailand is ped pak king — Peking duck — and the technique is ancient: dry the skin, glaze it, roast it until it cracks like glass.

The UK version differs in one respect. Here the duck is usually deep-fried after steaming, which shatters the meat into shreds; in the original, the duck is roasted whole and carved so the skin comes off in lacquered shards. The recipe below is the original, with the quick fried version in the variations.

The Recipe (serves 4 · ~1 days (mostly resting))

Allergens: soy, gluten, sesame · Suitable for: dairy-free

For the duck

For the glaze bath

To serve

The Method

1. Season and rest. Clean the duck and pat it completely dry. Pound the garlic, coriander root and pepper, then mix with the five-spice, sugars, soy sauces, oyster sauce and wine. Rub the mixture inside the cavity and over the skin. Rest in the fridge overnight, uncovered, so the skin dries.
2. Glaze and dry. Bring the glaze bath ingredients to the boil, then ladle it over the duck several times until the skin tightens and colours. Hang or prop the duck so air reaches all sides, and leave to dry for 2 hours (a fan helps). Dry skin is what crisps in the oven.
3. Roast. Roast at 180°C for about 60–75 minutes, until the juices run clear and the skin is deep mahogany and blistered. Rest for 15 minutes, then shred the skin and meat together with two forks.
4. Serve. Serve the shredded duck with warm pancakes, cucumber, spring onion and hoisin — everyone assembles their own.

The three-day truth

Restaurants make this look casual. It is not. The duck needs an overnight uncovered rest to dry the skin, a glaze bath, then a two-hour air-dry, then the roast. Skip the drying and you get a braised duck — good, but not the dish you paid for. The good news: almost all of it is waiting time.

The glaze bath

The classic trick is ladling boiling water, sugar, vinegar and honey over the duck until the skin tightens and turns pale gold. The vinegar breaks down the skin's surface so the fat renders through it in the oven — that is what makes the crackle.

Serving

• Pancakes: Warm shop-bought pancakes, or homemade: 200g flour + 120ml boiling water, kneaded, rested, rolled thin and dry-fried
• Extra: Steam the pancakes over the roasting duck's resting pan if you want to be fancy

Cook's Tips

• Overnight drying is not optional if you want shattering skin — a wet duck steams in the oven.
• Maltose gives the classic lacquer, but honey thinned with a spoon of water works nearly as well.
• The UK 'aromatic duck' is often deep-fried until the meat shreds; the roast method above is the Thai-Chinese original and gives the same effect with less mess.

Variations

• Honey roast duck (ped op nam pueng). Skip the five-spice, marinate in honey, ginger and star anise for 24 hours, and roast low and slow — see our separate recipe.
• Deep-fried quick version. Prick the skin, steam for 45 minutes, dry, then deep-fry whole until crisp. Faster, and what many UK kitchens actually do.

Sources

This recipe is translated from the following Thai-language sources. Where they disagree, we've said so.