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Coq au Vin
Ingredients
  • subheading: Red Wine Marinade:
  • 1.2 litres / 1.2 quarts red wine, preferably a pinot noir or Burgundy (Note 1)
  • 1 carrot, sliced
  • 1 onion, sliced (brown, yellow, white)
  • 3 cloves of garlic, crushed/smashed
  • 12 black peppercorns
  • 3 sprigs thyme
  • 1 bay leaf (dried or fresh)
  • 1.5 kg / 3 lb chicken pieces, bone in and skin on (Note 2)
  •  
  • subheading: Stew:
  • ⅓ cup  vegetable oil
  • ½ cup brandy (or cognac)
  • 2 oz unsalted butter
  • 7oz speck or bacon diced
  • 12 pearl onions (Note 3)
  • 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped or minced
  • 3 eschalots, thinly sliced (Note 4)
  • 2 cups beef broth / stock
  • ½ cup plain flour
  • 8 parsley stalks + 4 thyme sprigs + 1 bay leaf, tied together with string ("bouquet garni") (Note 5)
  • Salt and pepper
  • 250g / 8 oz small button mushrooms
  • Freshly chopped parsley, to serve
Steps
  1. Place Chicken Marinade ingredients together in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to overnight.
  2. Drain chicken, reserving wine. Strain wine and discard carrots etc.
  3. Pat chicken dry, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  4. Heat a large heavy based dutch oven or large deep skillet over high heat. Add half the oil, then brown the chicken on both sides.
  5. Drain excess fat. Add brandy. Optional: Carefully light brandy with a match - the flame will die once the alcohol is burnt out. Otherwise just simmer until the liquid is mostly evaporated. Remove chicken from dutch oven.
  6. Reduce heat to medium. Add remaining oil + butter. When melted, add speck and onions. Cook for 2 minutes, then add garlic and eschalots. Cook until the onions are light golden.
  7. Add flour and mix in. Add half the wine then stir to dissolve the flour sludge into the wine. Then add the remaining wine + beef broth. Mix and bring to simmer. Then add the herbs and chicken, cover and cook over low heat for 1 hour 20 minutes or until chicken is tender.
  8. Remove lid. Add mushrooms, then simmer for 15 to 20 minutes until liquid reduces to desired consistency and mushrooms are soft. Adjust salt and pepper.
  9. Serve with creamy mashed potatoes, sprinkled with fresh parsley.
Notes
  • 1. Coq au Vin is traditionally made with lighter red wines like burgundy, Côtes du Rhône, pinot noir and beaujolais. However, it is still really delicious made with more full bodied red wines! I doubt I would know the difference.
  • I'm an advocate for using good value wines for slow cooking recipes because I reserve the good stuff for drinking! For this one, I really urge you to make the effort to find the discount barrel at the liquor store and get the best value reds you can because the red wine flavour is quite key in this!
  • 2. I don't recommend making this with boneless skinless breast because it will be quite dry. I like to use pretty much every other part of the chicken for this one! My butcher dejoints chickens for me and I take the juicy parts.
  • 3. Pearl onions are baby onions. You can use the bulb of spring onions as well. I couldn't find them / forgot to hunt for them so I just used small pickling onions that I had.
  • 4. Eschalots are small onions that are not as acidic as the traditional large onions, and becomes sweet when cooked. It's not a deal breaker if you use normal onions though!
  • 5. Bouquet Garnis are a bundle of herbs used in French cooking that is usually made up with parsley, thyme and a bay leaf which is what I have used. There are many variations of this using other herbs so feel free to add your touch. Tying them together makes it easier to pick out later, but isn't critical.
  • 6. This Coq au Vin recipe is from "Manu's French Bistro" by Manu Feildel. I made a few minor changes to the recipe, as follows:
  • * Scaled down slightly from 6 to 4 to 5 serves, to match the serving sizes of the other recipes in my 3 part French Menu (French Onion soup to start, Coq au Vin for main, Creme Brûlée for dessert)
  • * Added beef broth. Some recipes, like Manu's, do not use broth at all but many do (e.g. Julia Childs!). I like the extra depth of flavour it adds, and also makes up for not using an expensive red wine!
  • * Manu's recipe says to add the mushrooms in at the beginning but I like my mushrooms with a bit more shape to them so I add them towards the end.
 

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