Weeknight Crispy Duck Pancakes with Hoisin and Cucumber

⏱ 150 min · Serves 4

All the joy of Peking duck without the week-long air-drying. Duck legs are slow-roasted until the meat shreds and the skin shatters, then piled into warm pancakes with sticky hoisin, crunchy cucumber and spring onion. Messy, generous, and gone in minutes.

Per serving: 785 kcal · 42.0g protein · 72.0g carbs · 38.0g fat

Ingredients

• 4 duck legs (about 1.2kg total)
• 2 tsp flaky sea salt
• 1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
• 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
• 20 Chinese pancakes (shop-bought, frozen or chilled)
• 6 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 cucumber, deseeded and cut into thin batons
• 6 spring onions, shredded lengthways
• Handful of fresh coriander leaves (optional)

Method

1. Heat the oven to 160C fan / 180C conventional. Pat the duck legs very dry with kitchen paper and prick the skin all over with a fork, avoiding the meat.
2. Mix the salt, five-spice and white pepper and rub all over the legs. Sit them skin-side up on a rack over a roasting tin.
3. Roast for 1 hour 45 minutes, pouring off the rendered fat into a jar once or twice (save it for roast potatoes).
4. Stir the honey and Shaoxing wine together, brush over the skin, and turn the oven up to 200C fan / 220C conventional. Roast a final 15-20 minutes until the skin is deep mahogany and crisp. Rest 10 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, loosen the hoisin with the sesame oil, rice vinegar and 1 tbsp warm water so it drizzles easily. Arrange cucumber, spring onion and coriander on a platter.
6. Steam the pancakes for 4-5 minutes over simmering water (or follow the packet), keeping them covered and warm in a clean tea towel.
7. Pull the duck meat off the bone with two forks, chopping the crisp skin into shards and mixing it back through the meat.
8. Let everyone build their own: a smear of hoisin, a pile of duck, cucumber, spring onion, then roll up tightly and eat immediately.