Of the various type of meat that is popular in Asian kitchen, duck is often considered a bit of an after thought in this country. While you can find pork, beef, chicken, and mutton in almost every supermarket, duck is usually a bit harder to obtain.

The fact is, duck is just not a very popular meat here, and my best guess is the “duck smell” that many dislike, and that it is also less versatile and at the same time, more expensive than chicken.

ingredients for stew duck
ingredients for stew duck

That being said, stew duck is one of my favorite poultry dishes. My mom used to make this a couple times a year during festive seasons, and most of the time we’d finish the whole duck rather quickly.

As it turned out, while the process takes quite some time, stew duck isn’t a particularly difficult dish to cook.

This recipe is one that I find pretty simple to follow, and yet yield a pretty good result.

first boil the ingredients in a frying pan
first, boil the ingredients in a frying pan

The ingredients are simple enough to obtain, and this is for half a duck that should sufficiently feed up to 3 person.

  • half a duck
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 2 star anise
  • half a dozen cloves
  • 3-4 slices of ginger
  • 1 bulb of garlic
  • 1 lemongrass
  • 3 tablespoon of dark soya suace
  • 2 tablespoon of sugar
  • salt to taste
  • 1 cup of water
  • pepper

stew the duck for about one hour, cut before serving
stew the duck for about one hour, cut before serving

Cooking instructions:

  • rub salt all over the duck and let sit for at least 15-20 minutes
  • in a frying pan large enough for the duck, heat up water & dark soya sauce
  • add cinnamon, star anise, cloves, sugar, ginger, pepper, and lemongrass, bring to boil
  • reduce fire to simmer, and add duck, garlic
  • use a soup ladle, pour sauce over duck to cook the exposed portion
  • turn the duck over every 15 minutes and cook for about an hour
  • add water if it gets too dry
  • cut and serve!

Teow Chew Stew Duck
and here’s half a duck, cut and served

The duck will shrink a bit after cooking. I prefer to cut them into bite size before serving, but that can get a little tricky when it’s piping hot.

The stew duck goes well with white rice, and for those who loves garlic, you’ll also enjoy that bulb of garlic that is now soft and soaked with rich ducky flavor!

haze, KY, vinn
Haze, KY, and Vinn who is obviously enjoying herself!

Happy cooking! For those who doesn’t care about cooking, you can have some good stew duck at Fatty stew duck at restaurant Okay, or the stew duck stall at PJ State.

KY cooks – Home Made Stew Duck Recipe
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21 thoughts on “KY cooks – Home Made Stew Duck Recipe

  • October 23, 2011 at 10:51 pm
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    your recipe looks delicious … seems really succulent! 😀 but yeah, i think duck is way nicer than mutton. between the two, i’d order duck in a heartbeat 😀

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    • October 23, 2011 at 11:22 pm
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      Sean: i thought you’d order both. hahaha.

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    • October 24, 2011 at 2:08 am
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      Ah Hon: good question, I think it’ll be different, doubt you need to cook chicken as long as duck.

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  • October 24, 2011 at 1:24 am
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    eh where u buy duck?

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    • October 24, 2011 at 2:09 am
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      kimberlycun: got it at the taman megah wet market.

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  • October 24, 2011 at 5:02 am
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    if you were to use a whole chicken, would you cook it whole or butterfly it or cut 2 halves?

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    • October 24, 2011 at 10:47 am
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      lulu: I guess it depends on the size of the wok u have, I’d probably butterfly it

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  • October 24, 2011 at 5:13 am
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    this is my favorite dish to eat. good to go with thick wheat noodles. hehe

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    • October 24, 2011 at 10:47 am
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      Michelle: ya, it does sound good with wheat noodles!

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  • October 24, 2011 at 7:32 am
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    I noticed that there are A LOT more duck stalls in Penang.

    I had a couple of great duck dishes when I was there a couple of days back. There’s also quite a few duck stalls in Sarawak – I know a few good ones in Kuching and Sibu.

    I like duck, it tastes good to me. 🙂

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    • October 24, 2011 at 10:48 am
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      Huai Bin: I guess perhaps duck isn’t as prominent in Cantonese cuisine?

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  • October 24, 2011 at 10:16 am
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    looks super delicious! I would eat the entire duck! hehe

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    • October 24, 2011 at 10:48 am
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      ciki: and you’d have to run for 3 hours straight after? hahaha

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  • October 24, 2011 at 11:07 am
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    Are you teowchew? Cos stew duck is one of the main teowchew dishes.

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    • October 24, 2011 at 11:19 am
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      Brian: I’m actually hokkien 😀

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    • October 24, 2011 at 11:19 am
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      Nikel: turned out pretty good 😀

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    • October 24, 2011 at 4:50 pm
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      Tey Cindy: hahaha you too maaa

      Reply
  • October 27, 2011 at 5:57 pm
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    yum yum! when are you cooking the 10 course dinner? Call me ya, I’ll contribute the 11th dish. hehe

    Reply

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