I like French cooking. I also like Julia Child. So when I saw that Melissa Clark has a series on New York Times Cooking about "The New Essentials of French Cooking", I decided to cook them all! Now being the foodie nerd that I am, I also looked up Julia Child's recipes for Coq au Vin, and I ended up somehow combining the two recipes.
Julia has a recipe for any kind of wine you want to use for your chicken (Coq au Riesling is probably next on my list), but I went with a burgundy red because 1) it was the only red wine I had in the house and 2) I wanted the deep flavours of a red wine infused in my chicken.
Apparently people have been braising chicken in wine since Ancient Rome (it's on wikipedia, Julius Caesar knew of this recipe!). and now it's finally my time to do it too. This recipe will definitely become an essential in our house too, especially if I'll get some red wine and not know what to make with it (usually a glass or two of wine is my limit...), but next time I will double or triple the veggies.
Ingredients (6-8 servings):
- 1kg chicken thighs and legs, preferably with skin
- 750 ml burgundy red wine
- 30ml cognac (or brandy)
- 1/2 cup lardons or bacon (I used lardon made by my grandpa)
- 2 carrots
- 4 small onions or one big one
- 500g brown mushrooms
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp flour
- butter
- 1 tsp sugar
- bay leaves
- salt & pepper
- parsley to garnish
Method:
Start by prepping your chicken - I had to cut and separate my chicken thighs and legs. Season with salt and pepper on each side. Melissa Clark marinated the chicken in wine, but Julia doesn't and I didn't either.
Chop the lardon into bite-size pieces. Heat up a heavy-bottomed pot, add the lardons and let them cook in their own fat - or add a bit of butter, it's a French recipe! Remove the lardons on a paper towel.
Add the chicken in the same pot, cooking them 3-4 minutes on each side in the lardon fat. Then remove the chicken to another plate.
Meanwhile thinly dice half of the onions and all the carrots. Chop the mushrooms into bite-size pieces.
Add a bit of butter to the pot, add the onions and the carrots, with a pinch of salt, and cook together until the onions are clear. Add half of the mushrooms and a bit more butter and cook until everything is lightly browned.
Stir in the garlic (minced or using a garlic press), tomato paste and flour and cook for another minute or two. Move all the veggies to one side of the pot and add the cognac. Now you should flame it - I didn't, I just cooked down the alcohol.
Add the wine, bring to boil and simmer for 8-10 minutes. Then add the chicken, bay leaves and lardons in the pot. Cover with a lid and cook on a low flame for 1 hour, turning the chicken halfway through. Cook for another 10 minutes or so uncovered to thicken the sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Melissa Clark also makes a side dish with the other half of the mushrooms and onions, but this time the onions are chopped into bite-size pieces as well (actually she uses onion pearls but I couldn't find those anywhere). Then in a pan, melt some butter and add the onions with the sugar and a pinch of salt. Cook on low heat, then add the mushrooms and raise the heat to medium-high. Cook until mushrooms are browned.
Serve the coq au vin with the onion & mushrooms side dish. Garnish with chopped parsley.
You can eat the dish with toasted bread or with a root veggie mash (like we did the next day - and that recipe is coming soon, although it's basically mashed potatoes with 2-3 more root veggies added in the mix).
Enjoy!