Peking duck available year-round at Sun Wah BBQ, Lao Sze Chuan
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Just because the Chinese New Year is over, that doesn't mean you can't enjoy one of china's best-loved dishes: Peking duck.
In fact, you don't even need to visit Chinatown. He says there are a pair of restaurants in the city offering this multi-course dish every day.
For the past 28 years, the cooks back in the kitchen at Sun Wah Barbecue have been elbow-deep in duck. They buy from a fifth generation farm in Indiana, going through about 1,000 ducks a week, all prepared the same way.
"So when we get our ducks in they are cleaned, they are butchered, and then we marinate them with a mixture of five spice, sugar, salt a little bit of MSG and the sauce is actually a garlic and bean paste sauce," said Kelly Cheng, whose family owns Sun Wah.
With the cavity sown up they place an air hose between the skin and meat to separate them.
"So that it's puffy when it's cooking and also it helps the skin crisp-up properly after glazing," Cheng said.
From there, it goes into a large pot of boiling water for a couple of seconds.
"The hot water actually seals off the pores so that air doesn't leak out while it's drying and during cooking," Cheng said. "Then we glaze it with a little bit of rice wine vinegar and maltose solution."
They hang in front of a blower for three to four hours, then into a cooler, and finally, into a vertical oven until the skin is brown and crisp. The ducks are wheeled onto carts, then methodically sliced tableside with some of the breast meat intact. You then assemble a mini-sandwich by smearing homemade hoisin onto puffy gua bao buns, adding the duck and some skin. Then scallions, carrots and pickled daikon radish. Delicious.
The carcass is brought back to the kitchen and remaining meat is stir-fried with rice for a second course. Finally, the bones are used to make a clear soup with fuzzy squash for a third and final course.
On Michigan Avenue, Tony Hu recently opened another branch of his Lao Sze Chuan; but unlike his Chinatown original, this one features a giant duck oven, just like the ones in Beijing. The duck is prepared much the same way, by blowing air between the skin and meat.
"The oven cook about 60 minutes, then after that we serve on table we have three courses like what we did in Beijing," Hu said.
The first course is the crispy skin served with brown sugar for a fatty-sweet bite. Then the breast meat and skin are sliced so that you can make a tidy package, using thin pancakes, smearing on hoisin, then some cucumbers or scallions. The final course is a hearty soup made from the bones, embedded with pea shoots and goji berries. Hu says a half duck feeds two to four; a whole duck twice that many, but some guests come solo and still order a lot.
"Some Chinese people come from Canada or New York, they come for whole duck," Hu said.
So even though Chinese New Year is over and we are not in Chinatown, doesn't mean you can't find great Peking duck in the city all year long; just make sure you bring a couple of friends to help you eat it all.
It's best to always call ahead to pre-order the duck so they don't run out.
Sun Wah BBQ
5039 N Broadway St.
(773) 769-1254
Lao Sze Chuan
520 N Michigan Ave
(312) 595-0888
