Coq au Vin
A French classic. Intensely savory, flavorful, and with a well-balanced acidity from the wine. Looking at the ingredients, it's not surprising that this dish tastes amazing -- it's hard to imagine a bad dish that combines chicken, bacon, mushrooms, onion, and wine. I've never had this dish at a restaurant before, but I was very pleasantly surprised by the sauce. This dish is heavenly over a bed of starch, like potato puree.
Active Time: 50 min
Total Time: 1 hr 30 min
Ingredients
> chicken thigh (4-6, ideally large, bone-in, skin-on)
> bacon (4-6 oz, sliced into small pieces)
> button mushrooms (~12 large, quartered)
> shallots (4, roughly diced)
> garlic (2 cloves, finely diced)
> red wine (~1.5 cups)
> chicken stock (~1 cup)
> thyme (10 sprigs)
> butter (1 tbsp), flour (1 tbsp)
> salt, pepper
> parsley
Instructions
1. In a large, oven-safe pan, cook bacon over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp, about 8-10 minutes. Remove and reserve bacon using a slotted spoon.
2. Generously season both sides of chicken thigh with salt and pepper. Turn the heat up to high and thoroughly brown both sides of the chicken thigh. Remove and reserve. Drain off all but 1 tbsp of remaining bacon fat.
3. Turn the heat down to medium-high and saute the shallots, mushrooms, and garlic with a little bit of salt. As the mushrooms and shallots release water, lightly scrape the fond off the bottom with a spatula. Cook until well-caramelized.
4. Add 1 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of flour. Stir and cook until the flour is completely incorporated, a few minutes.
5. Deglaze with red wine, making sure to carefully scrape all the fond off the bottom. Add the thyme sprigs. Turn heat up to high and reduce by about a third. Add the chicken thighs back to the pan, and add about a cup of chicken stock.
6. Once the braising liquid begins to simmer, transfer the entire pan to the center of a 375 degree oven. Cook for roughly 45 minutes or until the chicken is tender (adjust accordingly to the size of your chicken thighs). Remove the pan from the oven, and set aside the chicken.
7. Reduce the braising liquid until the desired consistency is achieved. Make sure to skim off any rendered fat off the top during the process. Taste for seasoning and adjust as necessary.
8. Serve the chicken over a starch, and generously spoon over the mushroom/bacon/shallot sauce over the top. Optionally, top with some chopped parsley. Serve and enjoy!
Notes/Tips:
> Potato puree is my starch of choice to serve with coq au vin. The creamy texture and rich flavor pairs perfectly with the sauce.
> Adjust cooking time accordingly, depending on the size of your chicken. The recipe is for relatively large chicken thighs.
> Many of the ingredients are fairly flexible. Feel free to use different parts of the chicken - I personally prefer thigh but drumstick, breast, wings, etc work just as well. Just make sure that they're roughly of the same thickness to ensure that they cook in the same amount of time. Similarly, feel free to substitute other cured meats like pancetta for bacon, and onions for shallots. As long as you have chicken, bacon, mushrooms, shallots, and red wine in some form, you're probably good.
> The addition of butter and flour essentially makes a make-shift roux, which helps thicken the sauce somewhat. The amount of butter/flour that I add makes a sauce with a texture like a pan sauce; if you want something thicker feel free to add more butter/flour.