Refined and elegant roasted duck with port cranberry sauce is a stunning alternative to a Christmas roast turkey, and perfect for a smaller family. Make it the celebratory centrepiece and enjoy rich and succulent duck meat, sharply elevated with a vibrant, winter berry red sauce. Just add all your favourite festive trimmings.

Should this roast duck recipe spark a love affair with fowl, set a lunch date with a seared duck breast sandwich. I layer mine with artichokes and roasted red peppers on a chewy ciabatta.

Close up shot of roasted duck on a platter with cranberries and potatoes

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Roasted duck

Let me tell you what I love about roasted duck for Christmas dinner:

It’s perfectly proportioned for my family of four- meaning no crowbarring leftovers into an already stuffed refrigerator, no uncomfortable overeating, and no food waste!
Its dark meat is rich and satisfying, a welcome reprieve from traditional roast turkey.
It’s lip-smackingly fatty which, as well as being guiltily delicious, keeps the meat moist and tender.
Crispy skin! It yields wafer-thin skin that tans into a perfect, salty crisp.
The duck fat can be used to roast the potatoes while it’s cooking- the most convenient holiday hack ever!
And because it’s a bit more expensive, it feels like an occasion-worthy treat.

My roast duck recipe brightens the game-bird flavour with Christmassy mandarin halves and garlic. Putting them inside the cavity releases a fragrant steam while roasting that will infuse the meat and keep it juicy.

Top down view of roasted duck with potatoes and cranberries next to gravy

Port and cranberry sauce

Roast duck is often partnered with sour-tasting fruit; cherries or orange usually. I’ll eat duck with anything, but now we are coming into cranberry season. Port and cranberry are time-honoured Christmas flavours and combined create a gleaming garnet sauce that elevates this roast duck recipe in more ways than one.

Port is a sweet and fortified wine that is almost syrupy. It has mulled notes of raspberry, chocolate and cinnamon making it sweet, cosy and warming. It’s in direct contrast to the wintry cranberries, which are tart and bright.

Combined they make a gloriously sweet and sour sauce that lifts the duck from the depths of gaminess, resulting in a lighter dish that feels more digestible.

And the recipe is so simple. Basically, 5 ingredients thrown in the pan and left to boil and bubble down to a soft, but still berry-textured, ruby sauce.

Top down view of slices of roast duck with potatoes on a plate

Recipe tips and notes

Ducks look invitingly plump and meaty uncooked, but a lot of that is bone or fat which will melt.
One whole roast duck can be divided into 2 breasts and 2 legs. With all the classic holiday sides, it’s an ideal meal for a family of four.
To render that fat, prick the skin all over so it can escape to the roasting pan below.
Catch that fat! I place the duck on a wire rack within the roasting pan. This lifts it out of the draining fat so the underside doesn’t get soggy, and it forms a ready-made potato roaster.
Add your roast-ready potatoes to the pan of spitting fat about an hour before the cook time is up, and you’ve killed two, ahem, birds, with one stone.
These roasties will be crunchy on the outside and rich with the unctuous flavour of duck fat. A decadent dish indeed, and time-saving.
To achieve a shield of delightfully crispy skin, pour a whole kettle of boiling water over the uncooked bird and then let it dry completely before roasting. It’s a revelation!
For a supremely flavoursome and juicy duck, I stuff the cavity with halves of orange and garlic. The flavours infuse the bird from the inside out and keep it moist. Don’t forget to season with salt too.
Traditional homemade gravy is gorgeous with any roast meat, but I switched up the flavours with port cranberry sauce. It’s tart and tangy which counterbalances the signature richness of roasted duck.

Close up shot of whole roast duck on a platter with potatoes

Serving suggestions

I’d say there are two paths to the perfect Christmas roast duck dinner. First, the more conventional consisting of; roast potatoes, either cooked in the duck fat itself or oven space-saving crispy air fryer potatoes; two veg, roasted rainbow carrots with pistachios and lemon garlic green beans; and a good gravy on the side.

Or the lighter and less conventional; fresh and herby hasselback potatoes with gremolata, or simple new potatoes with butter and parsley; and a vibrant winter salad of red cabbage, kale and pomegranate. I am leaning towards sharp flavours that are lively and bright to keep up with my cranberry sauce and slice through the strong-tasting and aromatic duck.

Process shots of whole duck being cooked in the oven

Leftovers and storage

With little meat to spare on a roast duck, most likely there won’t be any leftovers to speak of. On the off chance, they can be covered and kept in the fridge for 3-4 days.

However, the port and cranberry sauce is a sandwich-loving wonder sauce, that keeps a long time and should definitely be saved. Serve it cold on Boxing Day, slathering it on ham, cheese or bacon sandwiches, or put a pot out with the cheese board. It will keep covered for up to 10 days once refrigerated.

Other roast recipes to try