Place szechuan peppercorn in a pan and roast them lightly until really fragrant. Remove from the heat and place into a spice grinder and ground into a powder. Mix this with Chinese 5-spice powder and salt
MARINADE & DRY:
Place the whole duck in a cutting board and cut off the head including the neck, feet, wings, and tail. Save these to make stocks. Rub the outside of the duck with half of the marinade mixture. Use your hands to really massaging the marinade into the skin. Marinade the inside of the duck using the rest of the marinade mixture. Place a cooling rack on a baking sheet and place the duck on top of the rack and loosely cover with a parchment paper and place inside the refrigerator for 48 hours to let it dry out
STEAM & DRY:
After 48 hours, rub the duck inside out with shaoxing wine and place the ginger and green onion pieces inside the duck
Prepare a steamer. Bring the water to a rolling boil and then place a bowl inside the steamer that is large enough to put the duck in. Place the duck, breast-side up, in the bowl and let it steam for 2 hours. Remember to check the water level in the steamer during the steaming process and refill as needed. After 2 hours, the duck will somewhat shrink a little bit and there will be plenty of juice in the bowl. I save this juice as stock for other uses. Place the bowl and the duck back inside the steamer and steam for another hour. At the end of the cooking, save more of the juice collected if any
Place the duck on a cooling rack place on a baking sheet and let it air dry for 3 hours
DEEP FRY or AIR FRY
Put the duck on a cutting board, breast side up, and use a cleaver to cut the duck into half. I cut out the backbone and save it with the rest of the trimmings to make stock in the future. It's easier to deep fry half of a duck instead of the whole duck
Prepare the starch solution by mixing everything in a bowl. Rub this all over the duck inside out. Let it dry again for 10 minutes
If you deep fry:
Heat up 3-4 inches of oil in a deep-fryer, wok, or deep skillet. Very carefully lower half of the duck into the oil, skin side up. Use a metal spoon to ladle the oil all over the top of the duck to evenly fry the top part too. Fry for about 5 minutes and then carefully turn the duck over and fry for another 5 minutes. Remove the duck into several layers of absorbent paper towel. Fry the other half of the duck
If you air fry:
Our air fryer is large enough to cook 1/2 of the duck at a time. Preheat the air fryer for 5 minutes on 400 F. I brush a little oil on the skin of the duck and place them inside the air fryer and fry for about 10-15 minutes. It should be nice golden brown. Repeat with the other half
SERVING:
Place the fried duck on a cutting board and cut into smaller pieces with bone intact and serve immediately