Christmas Duck

Ok, if you haven't already bought a duck for Christmas Eve, I suggest you get on that. I did a dry run yesterday and produced a little miracle meal if I must say so myself. The menu consisted of grilled duck, carmelized potatoes, red cabbage and brussel sprouts with bacon...all smothered in homemade gravy.

Lets begin. I bought the duck from Shop Rite a few weeks ago and froze it. Friday night I took it out to thaw. The duck contains a fair amount of sodium so I did not add any more salt to it. In fact, all I did to prepare was sprinkle a bit of pepper over it. Its been pretty cold here recently so I made sure to use plenty of charcoal to keep the heat up. My goal was to cook it at around 350 degrees for about 2 hours. Once again I used my meat thermometer which worked out nicely. As always keep your coals to one side of the grill and your duck to the other. Underneath the duck it is also good idea to put an aluminum pan to collect the juices. You'll want to use these juices for the gravy. Even if you don't plan on making gravy you may want to do this anyways to avoid a big duck fat mess in your grill.

The duck was actually finished a little sooner than 2 hours. I then took the bird off the grill, covered it in aluminum foil and towels, and let it rest for about 10 minutes. This gave me time to prepare my brussel sprouts and bacon side dish. I actually got the idea for this from several different Food Network shows. The different shows basically had different takes on the same recipe. Here is my take. I took a good hunk of bacon and fried it in a skillet with half an onion. Start by slowly heating the bacon to let it release some fat before cranking up the temperature to get it nice and crispy. I then removed the bacopn and onions and sauteed my brussel sprouts which I had halved. After about 10 minutes the sprouts were pretty much done. I then tossed the onions and bacon bake in along with 3 cloves of chopped garlic. Salt and pepper to taste and you will have one killer side dish.

Here was the final plating. If my real Christmas dinner comes out half as good, it going to be one darn good year. Merry Christmas!