Prep Method...
I prepped this as I watched our Cowboy's give it away.....
Anywho... I washed the bird inside and out and stood the bird up on end to let it drain. (I could not get the neck of the bird out, so I left it in there... don't know if it was attached or not.) Using paper towels I dried the bird as well as I could inside and out.
I made double the amout of the marinade/sauce mixture since most of the comments I read stated that they wished they would have made more. I poured the mixture into the cavity of the bird and basted the outside and let stand for 1 hours as stated in the recipe.
Heated oven to 350. Placed bird on a rack and pricked the skin in several places (being careful to not pierce the meat) to drain the fat.
After first 20 minutes of cooking, checked bird and saw that my sauce was drying up to a sticky mess so I added 1 cup of water to the bottom of pan. Basted bird and repeated this process every 20 minutes or so for 2 hours. (Actually I cooked it for 1 hour and 40 minutes.) The bird got darker and darker and the broth got thick and gooey... removed bird from over, tented loosely with foil and let set for 10 minutes.
I set the duck between DH and myself and I went to town! The sauce was really dark and messy, so by the time I was done eating, I looked like a 2 year old that just had my first chocolate bar in July...
I was amazed that there was not more meat on the bird than there was... it was almost like eating a cornish hen. Which is fine, just surprised is all.
I got about a half cup or more of duck fat... yum! and I have reserved the carcass for some duck stock. Which leads me to a question that I will need to post about!
HTH amy!!! Gonna go get me another duck and try out some other recipes!!!