Amazing Crispy Sweet Chilli Duck Recipe To Celebrate Chinese New Year 2018
Chinese New Year falls on the 16th February this year, a Friday! Ditch your usual Friday night Chinese take-away this week and give our Amazing Crispy Sweet Chilli Duck a try. If you love Chinese food then our Crispy Sweet Chilli Duck Recipe is not to be missed. We’ve combined sweetness and spice to bring you a totally delicious dish that is perfect to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
Why not try our Crispy Chinese Chicken With Orange or our Steamed Sea Bass With Ginger & Spring Onions. These tasty homemade Chinese recipes are equally as delicious our Crispy Sweet Chilli Duck and include ingredients that symbolize prosperity and good fortune! Fish signifies prosperity and oranges are said to be a symbol of luck and good fortune. 
Chicken, pork, duck and fish are often eaten as part of the celebration as they are said to bring an abundance of blessings for the year ahead. The cow symbolizes wealth, abundance and selfless giving, and is well-loved and protected by the people so eating beef isn’t so popular!
This recipe also works well with chicken or beef but for our Chinese New Year celebrations we opted to use duck as traditionally, the Chinese do not eat beef because the cow is considered a sacred animal believing that the cow is a gift from the gods. Our Crispy Sweet Chilli Duck dish is so much tastier than a take-away and really easy to prepare too, simply follow our recipe below; 
Crispy Sweet Chilli Duck
Serves – 4
Preparation Time – 20 minutes.
Cooking Time -10 minutes
350g Duck breast, very thinly sliced into strips
5 Tbsp Cornflour
2 Tsp Chinese five-spice powder
1 Egg, beaten
80ml Sunflower oil – hot
1 Red pepper, thinly sliced
1 Large carrot, sliced into matchstick size pieces
4 Spring onions, sliced, green and white parts separated
2 Garlic cloves, crushed
Thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, cut into thin matchsticks
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar, or white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp sweet chilli sauce
3 Tbsp tomato ketchup
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tsp dark brown sugar
Serve with cooked noodles.
Optional
1 red chilli, thinly sliced
Handful of cashew nuts.
Method;
- Mix the cornflour and Chinese five spice together in a small bowl. Whisk the egg in a separate bowl.
- Take the duck strips and dip in the egg allowing excess to drip off before dipping into the cornflour. Continue to evenly coat each slice of duck.
- Heat the sunflower oil in a wok until hot. Add the flour coated duck strips and fry until golden. Drain and place in a bowl layered with kitchen roll, this is soak up any excess oil. Set to one side.
- Discard some of the oil, you’ll only need a little in the pan at this point. Add the carrots, ginger, garlic, bulbous white parts of spring onions and red peppers to the wok. Stir fry for a few minutes until starting to soften, tossing regularly to prevent burning.
- In a small jug mix together the rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, ketchup, honey, brown sugar and a tablespoon of water.
- Add the sauce to the veg and bring to the boil. Once boiling turn down to a simmer and cook for 1 minute before adding the crispy fried duck. Mix well until all pieces are covered in sauce.
- Serve in warm bowls on top of a bed of noodles. Sprinkle with the remaining spring onions and optional sliced red chilli and cashews.
Author Tips;
Always test the sauce prior to adding to the wok so you can tweak the levels of spice to suit. To make the dish extra spicy add half a red chilli to the stir fried vegetables, simply slice into small rounds and stir fry with the vegetables. You could also add a little extra sweet chilli sauce too.
Recipe inspired from bbcgoodfood.com
Chinese New Year 2018 is the year of the Dog. Also referred to as the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival it is a time for friends and families to reunite and wish each other good fortune, health and prosperity in the year ahead.
Wishing you all a peaceful and prosperous year ahead!
