Roast Duck With Bourbon-Smoked Paprika Rub Recipe

By Richard Thomas

Roasted duck breasts, rubbed with bourbon-smoked paprika
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

My wife loves duck, so I am often looking for new and interesting ways to prepare it. This recipe is a cooking with whiskey twist on a very basic recipe, with the kicker being the bourbon-smoked paprika from Louisville’s Bourbon Barrel Foods. If you like either roast poultry in general or duck dishes in particular, get your hands on some of that paprika and try this out.

Ingredients
Bourbon-smoked Paprika
1 duck, either whole or cut into parts (roughly 2 kg or 5 lbs)1 peeled onion
Butter
Flour

Place the duck on a platter and rub it with a generous helping of bourbon-smoked paprika, and then set it aside in the refrigerator for two to three hours.

Preheat your oven to 375 F (190 C).

If you are using a whole duck, prepare your roasting pan slicing an onion into thick disks, and laying these on the bottom of the pan to hold the duck out of liquid in the bottom of the pan. Pour enough water into the pan to cover the bottom, but not enough to submerge your onion disks. Place the duck atop the disks.

If you are using a cut-up duck, cut the onion into quarters and put it in the roasting pan with the duck parts. Pour enough water into the pan to half-submerge the lowest duck parts.

Roast for 1 hour, spooning pan liquid over the top(s) of the duck after 30 minutes. While the duck is roasting, make a roux by combining 1 tbls melted butter and 2 tbls flour in a saucepan.

After removing the duck from the oven, drain the pan of its liquid, now a combination of water, bourbon-smoked paprika and duck grease. Pour this into your roux and stir together while cooking on the stove over high heat to make a duck gravy. When the gravy begins to boil, take the saucepan off the stove and set it aside to cool and thicken.

Allow the duck and gravy have had 10 minutes to cool before serving.