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.