Tips for Smoking a Duck on KJ

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I’ve seen everything from 225-400, so I could really use some advice there.

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For duck on the grill I'd rather cook on the higher end of that temp range than the lower end. I'd probably cook it somewhere between 325-400 if it were me.

Lower bbq cook times break down tougher cuts of pork, beef, goat, mutton, etc.. Duck is tender to begin with and not a lot of internal fat to break down.

Generally depends on what kind of duck you are cooking. For farm raised I'd shoot for something more toward medium rare. I just usually grill the breasts when I grill duck. Not sure how difficult or easy it would be to cook a whole duck with items stuffed inside the cavity to medium rare. It might leave the meat by the bone closer to rare

From my notes: Used a paring knife to make several holes in the skin to allow fat to drip out. (Dad Cooks Dinner has a good tip here: Come at the duck from a very low angle, almost parallel to the skin. More like slicing and much better than "stabbing." It also avoids accidentally piercing through to the meat.)

I've only cooked them in a Weber grill with rotisserie. Temp got up to 400 or so at the start.

On meat temp, DCD blog says: "The duck is fully cooked when the temperature in the thickest part of the thigh is 180°F; total cooking time is about 90 minutes." He adds that if you want duck breast medium-rare, don't roast a whole duck; buy and cook breasts separately. The roasted whole duck will end up with breasts well done - if not, the legs are too tough to eat.

My notes show at one hour it hit 165 in the thigh, but was shy in the breast. Let it spin another 30 and ate. It was great.

I've roasted whole duck like this several times, but only kept notes on the first one. You will want to stretch the cook time to render out the tons of fat. Some even pierce the skin and then dunk the duck in boiling water a few times before cooking to get started melting that fat.

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if you want duck breast medium-rare, don't roast a whole duck; buy and cook breasts separately. The roasted whole duck will end up with breasts well done - if not, the legs are too tough to eat.

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This is the truth. Its hard to get whole duck perfect like that with m-rare breasts and not rare or overcooked legs.

You want it at a higher temp to crisp up the skin generally. But you could do that at the end also.