Roasted Duck with 

Herbs de Provence

This whole roast duck is a wonderfully flavoured dish to serve for family events and dinners. Flavoured with a mixture of herbs and spices, it requires minimal prep and guarantees perfectly cooked duck every time.

Ingredients:

• 2 onions peeled and thick-sliced from top to bottom
• 6 Fresh thyme sprigs divided
• 4 Fresh rosemary sprigs divided
• 2 tablespoons olive oil divided
• 1 3-4 pound duck
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried Herbs de Provence
• ⅓ lemon
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 cup white wine
• Veggies for accompaniment

Instructions:

1. Cover a large sheet pan with alluminum foil and spray the foil with nonstick spray. Chopped finely 3 thyme sprigs and 2 rosemary sprigs on the  and drizzle with 1-tablespoon olive oil, mix well. 
2. Pat the duck with paper towels to remove any excess moisture, and set it on the sprayed rack or oven-proof flat bowl.
3. Rub the remaining 1-tablespoon oil all over the chicken and liberally season it, inside and out, with kosher salt and black pepper.
4. Sprinkle the breast-side of the chicken with 1½ teaspoons Herbs de Provence, 1 teaspoon lavender and 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper.
5. Set the chicken, breast-side down, on the rack, and season the top-side (now the backbone side) with the remaining Herbs de Provence, pepper.
6. Place the half lemon, garlic, 3 thyme sprigs and 2 rosemary sprigs in the inside the duck. At this point, the duck can be cooked after the oven preheats, or it can be refrigerated (uncovered) up to one day ahead.
7. Adiust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 220°C. Set the chicken on the baking sheet in the oven and pour the wine (or broth or water) into the rimmed baking sheet.
8. Cook 20 minutes, and reduce the oven temperature to 180°C. Rotate the duck and cook an additional 40 minutes. If the duck if browning too quickly, loosely tent the duck with foil, and cook another 20 minutes. The duck should be dark golden brown.
9. If the chicken needs to cook longer, check the temperature every 5 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. The total time can be anywhere from 1 hour 20 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes.
10. Transfer the duck to a cooling rack, cover loosely with foil and let sit for 5 minutes.
11. When cool enough to carve, cut the duck into pieces and place the pieces on a serving platter.
12. Drizzle with pan juices and serve with toasty bread and green salad.

Notes:

• For the sauce, I sautèd champignons with full cream milk.
• For the accompaniments I pan-fried baby carrots and green peas with salt and pepper.