Roast Duck Legs with Cherry & Red Wine Sauce

Ingredients

• 4 duck legs
• 200 ml chicken stock
• roasted potatoes or mash, to serve
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 200 ml red wine
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp flaky sea salt
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp Chinese five-spice
• 300 g fresh or frozen cherries, pitted
• 1 tbsp red currant jelly
• Steamed seasonal greens, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C. Pat the duck legs bone-dry with kitchen paper — water means steam, and steam means flabby skin instead of crackling. Score the skin in a cross-hatch, cutting through the fat but not into the flesh, then rub the five-spice and flaky sea salt all over, working it into the scored skin. Season generously — duck legs are thick and need it.
2. Sit the legs skin-side up in a roasting tin and roast for 45 minutes, until the skin is deep mahogany and the fat has puddled out into the tin. You're rendering, not just cooking — that slow fat release is what gives you crisp skin without basting.
3. Lift the duck onto a plate. Carefully pour off most of the duck fat into a heatproof jar (save it — best roast potatoes of your life).
4. Set the tin over a medium hob. The brown sticky bits welded to the base are pure flavour — that's your fond. Pour in the red wine and scrape them up with a wooden spoon until they dissolve into the liquid. Add the chicken stock, crushed garlic, thyme sprigs and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Cook the garlic just until fragrant — don't let it burn in the hot fat, or the whole sauce turns bitter. Let everything bubble for about 5 minutes, until the raw wine edge has cooked off.
5. Stir in the cherries and redcurrant jelly. Taste the sauce now — it should be sharp, fruity, savoury. Adjust the salt and pepper before the duck goes back in, not at the table. Nestle the legs back into the tin skin-side up, keeping the crisp skin proud of the sauce so it stays crackling.
6. Return the tin to the oven for 30–40 minutes, until the duck is fork-tender and the sauce has reduced to a glossy, cherry-laden gravy that coats the back of a spoon. Swirl in the butter off the heat — it gives the sauce its mirror sheen and rounds out the acidity. Taste one more time and adjust.
7. Plate the duck legs onto warm plates with roasted potatoes or creamy mash alongside, spoon the cherry sauce generously over and around, scatter the fresh thyme leaves across the crisp skin, and finish with a generous crack of black pepper.