Wine + Chicken=Easy French Cooking. Coq au Vin {Recipe}

Julia Child once said, “The best way to execute French cooking is to get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken.” So, while there won’t be any whacking, it’s kind of what we’ll be doing today. French cooking featuring chicken and lots of booze. We’re going to make one of my favorite dishes. Coq au Vin. It is a classic French dish that literally means “chicken in wine”. Well, actually…no, it doesn’t. Does anyone know what “coq” really means? Get your heads out of the gutter, people. “Coq” actually means “rooster”, but nowadays the dish is made with chicken. It also calls for an entire bottle of wine. Half for the recipe and half for the cook. Coq au Vin has been hijacked by fancy chefs though and if you search for recipes, you will see that most versions take hours and hours to cook. I’ve seen recipes that call for two days of prepping and cooking. Yeah right! Those people obviously don’t have a three year old hanging onto their leg in the kitchen begging to “help” mommy cook.

Those la-ti-da chefs don’t know what they’re talking about anyway. Coq au Vin was originally a peasant dish. A simple dish with simple ingredients. The result is not simple though. Coq au Vin is divine, hearty, and rich. It is the perfect Sunday family dinner, but it’s also more than suitable for company. Your family and guests will thank you. They will think you’ve been slaving away in the kitchen for hours. They will revel in your French culinary skills. It’s one of those dishes that you become known for. Don’t worry. I won’t tell them that this version of Coq au Vin only takes an hour to make–half of that being unattended cooking time. Yes, I know an hour sounds like a long time. It’s definitely not a busy weeknight meal, but really…if you can chop some veggies–you can make Coq au Vin.

Ingredients

* 4 thick bacon slices, cut into 1-inch pieces
* 4 chicken drumsticks
* 4 chicken thighs
* 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
* freshly ground black pepper
* 1 cup finely chopped onion
* 1 cup chopped celery
* 1 cup chopped carrot
* 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
* 4 garlic cloves, minced
* 2 bay leaves
* 1 tablespoon tomato paste
* 2 cups dry red wine
* 2 cups chicken broth
* 8 ounces button mushrooms, sliced in half
* 6 ounces frozen pearl onions
* 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
* 2 Tbsp butter
* 2 Tbsp all purpose flour

Directions:

Cook bacon in a large heavy bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp.

Remove bacon from pan and drain most of the bacon fat from the pan, leaving only a slight film of fat in the pan.

TIP: If you skip draining most of the bacon fat, then the sauce will be way too greasy at the end.

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.

Add chicken to the pan; cook a few minutes on each side until nicely browned. Remove chicken from pan.

TIP: The browning of the chicken is one of the most important steps in this dish. Not only does it lock in flavor, but it also prevents your chicken from turning purple when you add the wine later on. If it happens, no biggie–it doesn’t affect the taste, but you know…you’ll be serving purple chicken.

Add mushrooms, pearl onions, onion, celery, carrots, thyme, garlic, and bay leaves to the pot. Cook 5 minutes until vegetables soften a little.

Stir in wine and tomato paste…

Crank the heat to high and bring to a rapid boil. Cook 5 minutes or until wine is reduced by half.

Add broth…

and return chicken and bacon pieces to pan. Bring to a boil. Then, cover the pot, reduce the heat, and simmer for 30 minutes {or until chicken is done}.

While the Coq au Vin is simmering, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the microwave. When butter is melted, add 2 tablespoons of flour to the butter and mix with a fork.

Remove chicken from pan. Turn the heat up to high and whisk in the butter/flour mixture to the pot. This is called a roux and it will thicken the sauce. Allow to cook for 2-3 minutes and then return the chicken to the pot.

TIP: Your sauce should coat the back of a spoon. If your sauce isn’t thick enough after adding the butter/flour mixture and allowing it to cook for a couple of minutes, then just make and add another tablespoon. of the mixture

Voila! You’ve made Coq au Vin!

TIP: You’ll notice, that besides the salt you sprinkled on the chicken, there is no extra added salt. This is because the bacon is salty. However, this will depend on how salty your bacon is so make sure to taste the sauce at the end–if you feel it needs a little salt, then add some.

Before serving, make sure to take the bay leaves out of the pot {these are no fun to bite into}. Serve over rice, egg noodles, or potatoes. Sprinkle with parsley and enjoy!

Until next time, Bon Appétit!