Coq au Vin
Chicken Braised in Red Wine with Bacon and Mushrooms
The dish was designed for a tough old cockerel that needed hours in wine to become edible. With a modern chicken it is quicker and gentler: the bird is marinated in red wine, browned, and braised with bacon, mushrooms and small onions until the sauce is dark and glossy.
The American magazine's recipe marinates a jointed chicken in red wine with sliced onion for 4 to 12 hours, cooks the bacon, mushrooms and pearl onions separately, sears the chicken, thickens with flour, adds stock and the wine and braises with a bouquet garni.
The Dijon recipe uses a farmyard cockerel of about 3 kg, a whole bottle of Burgundy, 250 g each of lardons and mushrooms, and flames the bird with marc before simmering it for about two hours.
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 1 free-range chicken, about 1.6 kg, jointed into 8 pieces
- 750 ml dry red wine
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 1 carrot, sliced
- 1 bouquet garni (thyme, bay, parsley stalks)
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil
- 250 g smoked lardons
- 250 g pearl onions or small shallots, peeled
- 300 g button mushrooms, quartered
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 250 ml chicken stock
- 15 g butter
- Fine sea salt and black pepper
Method
- Marinate Put the chicken, sliced onion, carrot and bouquet garni in a bowl, pour over the wine, cover and refrigerate for 4 to 12 hours. Lift out the chicken and pat it dry. Strain the wine and keep it and the vegetables separately.
- Cook the garnish Heat the oil in a heavy casserole and fry the lardons until golden. Lift out. Brown the pearl onions in the fat for 8 minutes, then the mushrooms for 5 minutes. Lift out and set aside with the lardons.
- Brown the chicken Season the chicken and brown it in the same fat, skin side down first, for 4 to 5 minutes a side. Lift out. Cook the drained onion and carrot for 5 minutes.
- Braise Stir in the flour for 1 minute. Add the wine and stock, scraping the base, then the chicken and bouquet garni. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook gently for 40 to 45 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the juices run clear (75°C in the thickest part of the thigh).
- Finish Lift the chicken onto a warm dish. Boil the sauce for 5 to 10 minutes until it lightly coats a spoon, whisk in the butter, and return the chicken with the lardons, onions and mushrooms. Heat through for 5 minutes and serve with boiled potatoes or noodles.
Food safety
Chicken must be cooked through, with no pink at the bone and clear juices (75°C in the thickest part). Wash hands and surfaces after handling the raw, marinated chicken, and never reuse the marinade unboiled.
The wine matters. Use something you would drink.