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One of the things I really wanted to try with Smaug was to cook duck. This summer my family and I were lucky enough to visit China, and we spent several days in Beijing eating Peking Duck every night. My kids love duck, and that was the main reason why I bought the rotisserie basket with my KK 23â€. But for the first time I was going to try it, I decided to take a very basic approach. Here’s what I started with. Prepping the duck was pretty straightforward. After taking out the liver, gizzards, heart, and neck from the inside of the duck, I took a big pot of water, sliced up an orange and put it in, and then added about 3 tbsp of honey. I brought the water to boiling, took the pot off the stove and into the sink, and dunked the duck in the hot water for 30 seconds. This step tightens up the skin. Next I took 2 tbsp of five spice powder and 1 tbsp of kosher salt, mixed them up, and dumped it inside the cavity of the duck and rubbed it around. I got Smaug stabilized at 375ºF. I had the heat deflector, drip pan, and main grate in place. During this time, I suspended the duck on a rack, patted it dry, and tried to get the skin as dry as possible. Once the grill was stabilized, the duck went on breast side up. The duck sat for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. At that point I checked the temperature, and found that I was above my target of 170º in the thigh. Rats. The skin wasn’t quite crispy enough, so I opened up the vents to bump the temperature up to 400ºF, and let the duck go for another 10 minutes. Here’s the result. The skin on the breast side of the duck came out really nice. The meat was a bit overcooked, as you might expect from the temperatures I got. I was surprised as to how well the fat rendered out of the duck without pricking the skin. The skin on the back of the duck, which was placed down during cooking, was not crispy enough. Next time, I’m going to keep a closer eye on the temperature of the duck. I plan for cooking at 350ºF, cranking up the temperature to 400ºF+ when I get to 160ºF until the thigh meat hits 170ºF. I think that the extreme efficiency of the KK 23†led to the duck cooking in less time than I anticipated. Still, this turned out pretty well given that I didn’t pierce the skin, or do the long air drying step or blowing air under the skin that’s part of the traditional methods of cooking Peking Duck. I think the rotisserie will help with getting the skin on both sides of the duck nice and crispy.