Kentuckyaki Roasted Duck Under a Brick

I love a good roasted duck. The crispy skin, the medium rare meat, who can pass that up? But getting everything perfect isn't easy. If the skin is nice and crisp, the interior can be overdone and tough. If the interior is perfect, the skin often doesn't have time to reach crispy perfection.

Over the years, I have tried several ways to roast a duck and have finally settled on a way that allows both to get done at the same time. The method involves ducks split in half, a preheated cast iron skillet, and a couple bricks wrapped in aluminum foil.

The marinade for this one is an Asian-inspired, teriyaki-based blend of flavors with a hint of citrus. I use the outstanding soy and teriyaki sauces from Bourbon Barrel Foods. These sauces are microbrewed from locally grown non-GMO grains and left to age and ferment in once-used bourbon barrels. The resulting flavor is outstanding, salty and savory, with a hint of sweetness from the charred oak staves of the barrel. If you can't find the Bourbon Barrel Foods version, just use your favorite teriyaki and soy.

The easiest way to split the ducks is to lay them, breast up, on a cutting board and slice down through the center of the breast to the keel bone with a heavy spine knife or meat cleaver. Once you encounter the keel bone, simply give the spine of the knife or cleaver a sharp tap or two with a wooden rolling pin to slice all the way down through the backbone.

Marinate the ducks at least four hours or up to overnight. The marinade amount is enough for two or three large ducks, in this case, mallards and a black. Figure on a half duck per person.