How to Make Coq au Vin at Home

When you think of Coq au Vin, do you think "this must be a difficult French dish to prepare?" If you do, you are making a big mistake. This dish is simple to prepare and very economical. In years past, the farmer would make this meal with an old unproductive rooster. Today you can’t find a rooster in the supermarket, young, old or unproductive. Instead we might try substituting dark meat chicken.

Coq au vin is much more about technique than it is about a recipe. While endless variations are possible, this one happens to be very tasty indeed. Although as written, this is a two-day process, it is not imperative to refrigerate overnight if you really want to eat it the same day you make it. This coq au vin recipe goes with my second Squidoo lens called Coq au Vin. If you want to learn more about the history of this dish, see some a great video on how Chef Alton Brown prepares it, plus Julia Child’s version, I recommend you check out my Coq au Vin Squidoo. And please remember to give it 5 stars if you like it.

Serves 4-6, depending on how hungry everyone is

Ingredients

3 oz. thick-cut bacon, cut cross-wise into ½ inch pieces
Butter or neutral oil, as needed
3 dark meat quarters, or thighs and legs to fit in one layer in the bottom of a Dutch Oven
1 ½ oz. all purpose flour
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
2 medium carrots cut in small dice
2 medium celery stalks, cut in small dice
1 medium-large onion cut in small dice
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs fresh thyme (or ½ teaspoon dried)
2 sprigs fresh parsley (or 1 teaspoon dried)
3 cloves of garlic
5 pepper corns
1 bottle dry red wine
Chicken stock, homemade or low-sodium canned, as needed
8 oz. peeled pearl onions, whole
8 oz. button mushrooms, small ones cut in half, large ones cut in quarters

How to Make Coq au Vin at Home

In the bottom of a large Dutch oven, fry bacon pieces until crisp. Drain and reserve bacon. You should have 1 - 2 tablespoons bacon grease in the bottom of the pan. If not, add a little butter or neutral vegetable oil.

Depending on how much fat you like, you can remove the skin from the chicken pieces. Sear chicken pieces on all sides until golden brown. Reserve.

Again, add butter or oil so you have 1 - 2 tablespoons fat in the pan. Sauté the peeled pearl onions with a little salt and pepper until golden brown. Reserve. Add more oil or butter to the pan, if necessary, and sauté the mushroom pieces with a pinch of salt and pepper until golden brown. Reserve.

Add the carrot, celery, onion, and a pinch of salt and pepper and cook over medium heat until the vegetables are beginning to soften and turn golden. Add the flour, and whisk and cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook another minute or two. Deglaze the hot pan with a cup or so of wine.

Put the chicken back into the pan. Add the rest of the wine. Cover the pot and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat the oven to 300 degrees, F, and add enough chicken stock to the pot to almost cover the chicken.

Tie the bay leaves, thyme, parsley, garlic cloves and peppercorns together in a square of cheesecloth and add to the pot. Submerge the bouquet garni in the cooking liquid.

Cover the pot tightly and let braise in the oven until the chicken is very tender, about 3 hours.

At the end of the cooking time, remove the chicken and the bouquet garni from the pot. Reserve the chicken and keep warm. Throw the bouquet garni away. Do not get the two confused and throw away the chicken.

With an immersion blender, blend the sauce until smooth, and then reduce on the stove top by about ¼ or until a nice saucy consistency. Taste the sauce and add more salt and/or pepper, if needed. Add back the reserved onions and mushrooms and heat through. Add the chicken back to the pan and stir everything together.

Spread the bacon pieces on a baking sheet and heat them up in the oven.

You can serve this dish alone, with crusty bread or even over buttered egg noodles.

Garnish each serving with some of the hot bacon, crispy bacon pieces.

As a follow up to my last post about Chef Liz Scott’s incredible cookbook, The Sober Kitchen, I want to share with you her recipe for Chicken with Mock Marsala Sauce. As one of the most popular and frequently requested recipes on my site, Chef Scott takes this classic Italian recipe and provides you a alcohol free version that should satisfy anyone who tries it.

Chef Scott is a professional chef and caterer who specialize in preparing foods rich in nutritional needs for anyone recovering from illness and disease including alcohol and drug dependence. As a graduate of The French Culinary Institute in New York City, she has focused her talents by helping others in recovery.

Chicken Mock Marsala from The Sober Kitchen

Chicken and Veal Marsala are typically made with the fortified wine, Marsala, combined with chicken or veal stock and reduced to a pan sauce. Sometimes mushrooms and cream are also added.

You can see another version for Chicken Marsala with the classic wine on my web site. I even wrote an ecookbook called Chicken Marsala Perfected with the help of my friend Chef Ricco. It is more than a recipe but a cooking lesson for sautéing and making pan sauces.

For Chef Scott to make a “Marsala free” version, she needed to find a way to substitute ingredients that would replicate the flavor provided by Marsala wine as well as thicken the sauce.

A combination of white grape juice and sherry vinegar is “a standard wine substitution” and “with a dark, full-flavored broth, you’ll get the consistency and color”. She then added a little vanilla to “wake up the sauce”. Combined, these ingredients will make a delicious mock Marsala sauce that will have your family and friends guessing what are the ingredients.

Chef Scott’s cookbook, The Sober Kitchen is filled with creative ideas like this. I have been reading her book for the past few days and am amazed at how much I am learning about nutrition and how my diet affects my personality. Liz doesn’t come across as one of those boring experts. Just the opposite, her writing is very conversational and filled with simple suggestions that have me thinking about food in a new way.

Here’s her recipe for Mock Chicken Marsala. Chef Scott says if you are going to add mushrooms, “brown them quickly in the pan after you remove the chicken fillets and before you add the juice and stock.” Be sure to slice the mushrooms thin.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup olive oil
1-pound thin-cut chicken breast fillets
Salt and pepper to taste
All-purpose flour for dredging
½ cup low-sodium beef broth or veal stock
¼ cup white grape juice
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1-tablespoon nonalcoholic vanilla extract

How to Make Mock Chicken Marsala at Home

1. In a large nonstick skillet, melt the butter in the oil over medium heat. Sprinkle the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper and lightly dredge in flour, tapping off any excess. Fry the fillets, without crowding, until lightly browned, about 3minutes per side. Transfer to a warm platter and set aside.

2. Add the broth, grape juice, and vinegar to the skillet, increase the heat to high, and stir, scrapping up any browned bits from the bottom. Cook until the liquid has reduced by half, than stir in the vanilla and taste for seasoning. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve immediately.

Don’t Throw Out That Roasted Chicken Carcass

Question: When you roast a whole chicken for dinner or buy a rotisserie chicken at the market, what do you do with the carcass after cutting most of the meat off?

I bet many of you just toss it. I often do but last night I again realized what a mistake this is. Instead use it to make a simple chicken broth you can use to make a quick and easy chicken soup. It cannot be easier and the flavor is so much better than anything you can buy in a can.

I’m not talking about making a classic chicken stock that does take time to do properly. I’m talking about covering the chicken with water in a large saucepan or small soup pot and let it simmer for an hour or more with the lid mostly on.

You can remove most of the already cooked meat and just simmer the carcass or leave whatever meat is on the bird and remove it after you are done. Whatever is easier for you.

Last night, I let the carcass simmer for about a 1-½ hours while I helped the kids with their homework and worked out. When it was done and the liquid had plenty of flavor, I removed the carcass and any remaining bones from the liquid and added some chopped carrots and celery.

While the carrots and celery were cooking, I removed most of the edible meat from the bones and reserved it until the carrots and celery were tender but still a little crunchy. I could have added leeks or fennel or broccoli but this was for my oldest daughter and me and this is what she wanted. You can add whatever you like or want to clean out of the refrigerator. It’s going to be good.

When the vegetables were done, I added the reserved chicken meat and some store bought cheese tortellinis that I just cooked for my younger daughter who doesn’t like chicken soup. I could have added cooked pasta; egg noodles or even cooked the pasta in the chicken broth. It could not be easier. This is a classic shortcut meal.

This simple chicken soup was incredibly flavorful. So much better than any commercial soup you can find. The flavors are fresh and clean without all the salt and artificial flavorings.

And to think, I almost threw out that carcass.