Polish Roasted Duck {Kaczka Pieczona}
On today’s menu is a traditional Polish roasted duck kaczka pieczona [cah-chkah pyeh-choh-nah], stuffed with a mixture of livers and gizzards, the most traditional way of preparing duck, as far as I know. This is a method I learned from my grandma Stasia, who was born and grew up in central Poland, a small village of Oraczew Wielki, right outside Sieradz. I recently visited relatives there and they still prepare duck this way. The trip inspired me to cook duck this way at home, and present to you a recipe that goes back decades.
Duck is readily available in Poland year-round, to me though, it sounds like a good fall/winter dish. Duck is often served for special occasions, like Christmas Day, wedding, a special anniversary, and often paired with duck blood soup czernina [my recipe here]. We eat it about once or twice a year. Preparing duck is not difficult, and there is zero room for error. It will always come out!
Polish Roasted Duck {Kaczka Pieczona}
Ingredients
- 1 duck
- 1 tbs of salt
- 2 tsp of freshly ground pepper
- 1 tbs of dried marjoram
- Stuffing*:
- 10 oz / 30g of chicken and/or duck livers
- 10 oz / 30 g of chicken and/or duck gizzards
- 1 keiser roll
- 3 whole eggs
- 4 oz / 100 g of butter
- 3 tbs of fresh parsley
- 2 tsp of salt
- 2 tsp of pepper
- Additionally:
- Needle and a natural thread for sewing up the duck
Instructions
Rinse duck and pat dry. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and marjoram. Leave out of the fridge to bring to room temperature.
Rinse livers and gizzards, set aside to drain. Place kaiser roll in a container with a cup of water, let it soak it up.
Put livers and gizzards through a meat grinder, at the end, squeeze water out of the kaiser roll and also put through the grinder.
To the stuffing mixture, add eggs, diced butter, chopped parsley, salt, pepper and mix until well combined.
Preheat oven to 350℉/180℃.
Prepare needle and thread. Place duck in a baking dish. Spoon stuffing into the duck, fill as much as you can. Fold ducktail up and sew up with the needle and thread to close the cavity. It doesn't have to be pretty, the idea is to keep the stuffing from flowing out.
COVER baking dish and bake 2.5-3 hrs (about 30 min per pound / about 1 hour per kilo). Baste with juices that duck produces about every hour. Take cover off for the last 20 min and let the bird brown.
Rest for 10–15 minutes before serving.
Notes
* If you are not into liver and/or gizzards, stuff with fresh apples and pears. Wash apples and pears, quarter them and place in duck cavity, no need to sew duck, in this case.
Duck will be super soft and moist, fall-of-the-bone goodness.
Serve it with potato dumplings kluski śląskie or kopytka and a side of fried red cabbage with apples, fried cabbage, fried beets or beetroot salad.
Happy cooking and smacznego!
Anna
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