Barbecued Duck for Easter

Easter is upon us and we attended a wonderful dinner party at our friend's - Adrianne and Matt's - place in Park Slope. As always, Matt made a perfect leg of lamb & friends were encouraged to brings sides to compliment. It is a large gathering of over 20 people so it helps to have a second main course, which I volunteered for.
We have a rotisserie, which my wife and I adore, and we also love duck, ergo BBQ Duck for Easter - two to be exact.
I basically went in the tradition of classic Chinese Roast Duck, which I got fresh in Chinatown. Pics of the process are below.

First I trimmed the ducks and removed excess fat.



Then I poured boiling water on them to tighten the skin making them easier to roast and crispier later on.


Here you can see that the skin is more taught and better for roasting. I stuffed them with oranges, garlic and ginger and made sure to prick the skin to allow excess fat to cook away.



Then i made a glaze using the Chinese Five Heavenly Spices (they seem to differ depending on what source you find. Linda was my source as she introduced me to it years ago, but denies it vehemently). I used Szechuan peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon, ground ginger & cloves. I reduced the spices in cooking sherry, honey, soy sauce, orange peel, scallions and loads of garlic until it was a nice sticky glaze.



I put them on the rotisserie and let them go for 3 hours, removing all the excess rendered fat at the bottom periodically. Every half hour, I put a layer of glaze which cooked into the skin and made a fantastic crust.



I then chopped up the ducks and sprinkled fresh scallions and cilantro over them for the party. Everyone enjoyed them and I was extremely pleased with the result.