Arroz de Pato (Portuguese Duck Rice)

Arroz de Pato, or duck rice, is a traditional Portuguese dish that has totally found a fan in me. Shredded duck meat is baked with rice and chorizo until it gets a crispy topping, and it’s served with orange wedges to balance it all out. It’s a hearty dish that definitely falls into the comfort food category – no wonder that it comes from the North of Portugal, where winters tend to be cold and people cook lots of stews and baked rice in their ovens.

I first had duck race in a tasca in Lisbon, and I was stunned by the lovely freshness that a squeeze of fresh orange juice provided to this dish: it instantly lifted it and harmonized perfectly with the smoky chorizo that infuses the baked rice.

In my show ‘Bom Dia Anne’, we enjoyed arroz de pato in a local restaurant near the small northern town of Mondim de Basto. They had prepared a huge duck rice for us, and my crew was more than happy to dig in (we didn’t manage to polish it off in the end!). You can watch it here.

While it’s not hard to make this dish, it does require some time. I tend to make the broth and shred the meat a day in advance, and then assemble it all on the day I want to eat it. The dish can stay in the fridge for a day before baking, so it’s a great one to prepare ahead for a big meal with many people.

You can watch me eat arroz de pato in this episode of my show ‘Bom Dia Anne’.

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Ingredients

For the stock:
4 duck legs
1 onion, peeled + quartered
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
Greens from 1 fennel bulb
1 bay leaf
½ tsp black peppercorns

For the rice:
450g Carolino rice
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
75g chorizo, finely diced
125ml dry white wine
800ml duck stock (see above)
Salt and pepper, to taste

For the duck:
½ fennel bulb, finely diced
50ml dry white wine
½ tsp fennel seeds

Also needed:
100g chorizo, thinly sliced
Fresh parsley, chopped
Orange slices, for serving

Method

Serves 8

Prepare the duck and stock (this can be done a day ahead):

Season the duck legs with salt and pepper and fry in a large frying pan, skin-side down until the fat is released and the legs are nicely browned (approximately 5 minutes). Turn over on the meat side and sear briefly for 2 minutes until browned.

Put the duck legs in a large saucepan, pour the duck fat into a little bowl and set aside.

Add the onion, carrot, fennel greens, bay leaf and black peppercorns to the duck legs in the saucepan and cover with water. Season with salt, cover and bring to the boil.

Once boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the duck legs for 2 hours until the meat is soft and comes easily off the bone.

Take the meat out of the stock and reserve the stock for the rice. Leave the meat to cool for 15 minutes before removing the skin and pulling off the meat. Discard the skin and bones.

For the rice: Pour a tablespoon of the reserved duck fat into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Fry the onion over a medium heat with a pinch of salt for 3 minutes. Then add the garlic and diced chorizo and fry for another 2 minutes.

Add the rice and toast for a minute, then add the white wine and briefly cook until most of the liquid is absorbed. Add 800ml of the reserved duck stock (taste if it’s salty enough). Bring to a simmer, then cover with a lid and simmer for 18 minutes until most of the stock has been absorbed.

While the rice is cooking, prepare the duck. Heat another tablespoon of reserved duck fat (or olive oil) in a saucepan and fry the diced fennel and fennel seeds with a pinch of salt for 5 minutes until soft. Add the white wine and cooked until absorbed. Add the shredded duck meat and 200ml reserved duck stock and heat through, so the duck is soft and moist.

Once the rice and duck are ready, assemble the dish.
Put half the rice at the bottom of a large oven dish. Cover with the duck and a second layer of rice. Bake immediately or set aside to bake from the fridge.

If baking immediately: preheat the oven to 200°C fan. Bake the dish for 8 minutes, then take out of the oven and distribute the chorizo over the top. Put back in the oven and bake for 10 minutes until the chorizo and the rice are crispy.

If baking from the fridge: Preheat the oven to 180°C fan and cover the dish with foil. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil, raise the oven temperature to 200°C fan. Bake the dish for 8 minutes, then take out of the oven and distribute the chorizo over the top. Put back in the oven and bake for 10 minutes until the chorizo and the rice are crispy.