Best for: A project duck with a perfume of tea and spice.
Sichuan tea-smoked duck is one of China’s great special-occasion dishes: marinated, smoked over a wok of tea leaves, rice, and sugar, then finished until crisp. This backyard version keeps the sequence and swaps the wok for a foil smoking pouch on the grill, finishing the duck over direct heat so the skin crisps the way the original’s final frying does.
Grill: Two zones — indirect low heat with smoke; 275°F, then direct medium heat to crisp. Equipment: Grill, heavy-duty foil, tongs, instant-read thermometer.
Ingredients
30 minutes Marinate: 8 hours. Rest: 15 minutes. Total: 10 hours 5 minutes.
Duck and marinade
- 1 whole duck (about 4 1/2 lb), or 4 duck leg quarters
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 2 teaspoons fine table salt
- 2 teaspoons five-spice powder
- 1 teaspoon ground Sichuan pepper
- 4 scallions, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
Tea smoking mixture
- 1/2 cup black tea leaves (such as lapsang souchong or any black tea)
- 1/2 cup uncooked long-grain rice
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 star anise, crushed
- 1 teaspoon whole Sichuan peppercorns
Directions
Rub the duck inside and out with the soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, salt, five-spice, and Sichuan pepper, and stuff the cavity with the scallions and ginger. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight.
Fold the tea leaves, rice, brown sugar, star anise, and peppercorns into a heavy-duty foil pouch, poking a few holes in the top. Set the pouch directly over the coals or burner of a two-zone grill heated to 275°F.
Pat the duck dry, set it breast up on the indirect side, and close the lid. Smoke for 45 minutes, until the pouch is spent and the skin has taken a deep amber color.
Continue grilling indirect, lid closed, for about 30 minutes more, until the thigh registers 165°F — or cook leg quarters the same way, about 15 minutes less.
Move the duck over direct medium heat for 5–8 minutes, turning once, until the skin crisps and darkens.
Rest for 15 minutes. Carve into pieces through the bone in the Chinese style, or slice the breast and serve the legs whole.
Grilling tip: Lapsang souchong is already smoked, so it doubles the perfume; with plain black tea, the rice and sugar in the pouch are what make the smoke fragrant instead of harsh.
