A question about duck

I’m not a great fan of duck, but because it’s a local favorite I smoked one once just to see if I could, those who ate it gave it a thumb’s up, I smoked it in my WSM with the water pan empty and foiled, I must say it was a lot of work, I followed the directions exactly (except for the food coloring) and it had a beautiful golden color.

Canard laqué (Golden Duck)

Combine ingredients together and marinate duck overnight:

¼ cup of rice alcohol
3 tbsp of honey
¼ cup of soy sauce

Remove from marinade, rinse and dry.

Mix together;

1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp water
¾ tbsp soy sauce
pinch of salt
8 cloves of garlic minced 1 large pinch of Chinese 5 spice
2 ½ tbsp honey

Brush on duck and wrap in plastic, minimum 1 hr

Remove from plastic wrap and smoke at 300° until temp reaches 140°

Mop every 10 minutes with mixture of;

5 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinese 5 spice
3 tbsp honey
1 tbsp peanut oil
1 tbsp alcohol vinegar
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 tbsp cornstarch
5 drops of red food color (optional)

Raise temp to 350°, I did so by turning the door upside down and propping it open about an inch and a half.

Cook until temp in breast is 167° remove from smoker and tent with foil for 15 minutes.

Gene

I cooked a couple a while back I did not do anything special, spritzed them every so often I usually run my smoker about 200-225.

I will try to find my notes, but I think I took them to around 175 so they did not dry out.
(minimal internal is 165) keep spritzing and watch your internal it goes up pretty quick.
I did not care about crispy skin, I just pulled it for tacos.