Oven-baked duck legs in barbecue sauce

I’ve never used bottled manufactured bbq sauce. The reason is that the first time I read the recipe in the book Joy of Cooking, I realized that I had all the ingredients in my pantry, then I went ahead making the sauce. I firstly used the sauce for my first hamburger, and the result did surprise me a lot. The 2nd time, I used the sauce to marinate the chicken wings for our bbq gathering with friends. My friends were so excited about this time’s chicken wings as they had never tasted such a wonderful flavor at the other bbq gatherings before. This persuaded me that the recipe for this basic bbq sauce was perfect. Therefore, I never mind the bottled bbq sauce on supermarket shelves. Making homemade bbq sauce is very simple once you have all ingredients ready.

This time I marinated the whole duck legs in homemade bbq sauce for 1 day, then I baked them in the oven. I took them out of the oven occasionally to brush bbq sauce over the legs. Baking temperature was about 350F to 375F until the meat attained a perfect color. After beming marinated for such a long time, the meat was very tasty, flavorful and tender. Even when I was writing this post, I wished I could have another barbecued duck leg to please my stomach

Barbecue sauce recipe: (from Joy of Cooking)

Ingredients: (make 4 cups)

- 1  1/2 cups tomato ketchup

- 1 cup cider vinegar or red wine vinegar

- 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

- 1/4 cup soy sauce

- 1 cup light or dark brown sugar

- 2 tbs dry mustard (I used Colman’s mustard)

- 1/4 cup chili powder (I used cayenne pepper, but reduced the amount)

- 1 tbs grated peeled fresh ginger or 1 tsp ground ginger

- 2 garlic cloves, minced

- 2 tbs vegetable oil

- 3 lemon slices

Method:

- Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan. Set over medium low heat, simmer, stirring often, for 5 minutes.

- Remove the lemon slices, if desired.

- This sauce can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.