Coq Au Vin
Even if you know nothing about French cuisine, you almost certainly have had coq au vin at some point in your life. Literally translated as “rooster/cock with wine”, this traditional French dish was first popularized in North America in the 60s in Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle and Julia Child’s groundbreaking two-volume cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Making coq au vin is relatively straight-forward, though it is fairly involved. Unlike many of the recipes I share, this one requires about 90 minutes of active work — so it’s better suited for a weekend (when you can listen to an audiobook and relax), then trying to prepare it on a work day in-between calls. Start-to-finish, making coq au vin takes about 3 hours, so start around 3:00 or 4:00pm in order to have it ready for dinner.
Coq au Vin
Serves: 6 people
Preparation and active cooking: 90 minutes
Passive cooking: 90 minutes
Ingredients
2 small whole chickens, quartered (about 3 pounds each, see Notes below)
2 cups dry red wine (merlot, chianti or similar)
1/4 pound bacon, cut into ¼” lardons (strips)
8 oz pearl onions (see Notes)
8 oz small cremini mushrooms
3 medium carrots, diced
4 cloves garlic
2 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
3 tbsp unsalted butter
¼ cup flat-leaf parsley,
Kosher salt and pepper
Tools and Supplies
Large (6.7L) Dutch oven
Wooden spoon
Kitchen tongs
Slotted spoon
1-gallon Ziploc bag
Rimmed baking sheet with wire rack
Paper towels
Preparation
We’re literally making “chicken in wine”, so the first step obviously has to be “put chicken in wine”.
Put your quartered chicken (see Notes below) into a 1-gallon Ziploc bag and add the wine. Press as much air as you can out of the bag and seal. Set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients, turning every 5 minutes or so to make sure every inch of chicken gets soaked in delicious wine.
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Dice the carrots and prepare the pearl onions (see Notes below). Assuming you have small cremini mushrooms, cut them into quarters. If your mushrooms are larger, cut them into sixths or eights (the goal is to make sure the mushroom pieces are bite-sized). Peel the garlic and smash it with the side of your knife, but do not cut.
Heat Dutch oven over medium and add bacon lardons. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until bacon has rendered and turned brown (adjust heat if necessary to avoid scorching). Brown streaks should appear on the bottom of your Dutch oven as you’re cooking, but you don’t want them to turn black (this is scorching / burning, which will affect the flavor of the dish).
Remove the Dutch oven from heat. Use a slotted spoon to remove the cooked bacon lardons and place on a paper towel-lined bowl or plate.
Remove the chicken from the Ziploc bag and pat dry on a plate (make sure to seal the Ziploc bag back up — we’re going to use the wine later and you don’t want it to spill!). Season chicken with salt and pepper.
Return the Dutch oven and it’s rendered bacon fat to the stove and increase heat to medium-high. Add half of the seasoned chicken, skin side down, and cook until browned (6-7 minutes). After the skin side of the first batch of chicken has browned, use your tongs to flip the chicken over and cook for another 5 minutes.
Remove the first batch of chicken from the Dutch oven and place (skin side up) on the wire-rimmed baking sheet.
Repeat this process with the second half of the chicken pieces.
Once all of the chicken has been browned on both sides and is resting on the wire-rimmed baking sheet, add the mushrooms to the Dutch oven and cook, stirring frequently until nicely browned — about 10 to 12 minutes.
Add the pearl onions, carrots and garlic and cook for 5 more minutes, stirring frequently.
Next, pour the wine from the Ziploc bag into the Dutch oven and use your wooden spoon to scrape up any brown bits.
Add the bacon, thyme, bay leaves and chicken stock and bring to a boil.
Stir the mixture a couple of times with your wooden spoon and remove from heat. Place the chicken legs (not the chicken breasts) into the Dutch oven, skin side up. The chicken legs should be partially submerged with the top of the skin visible above the liquid (the chicken skin will brown while braising). Place in the oven and cook uncovered for 1 hour.
After 1 hour, remove Dutch oven from the oven and add the chicken breasts, skin side up. Use your tongs to nestle the chicken breasts in between the chicken legs (which should be nicely browned at this point). Return to oven and cook until chicken breasts reach 145ºF, about 20 minutes.
Always use an instant-read thermometer to confirm the temperature of the chicken breasts. The size and shape of chicken can vary widely (as will your abilities as a budding butcher). As such, the time needed for the chicken breasts to fully cook can range from 18 to 30 minutes. You do not — under any circumstances — want to serve undercooked chicken.
Once the chicken breasts have reached temperature, remove from the Dutch oven and place chicken breasts and legs on a (clean) wire-rimmed baking sheet to rest.
Return the Dutch oven to your stove and set to medium-low. Simmer the liquid and vegetables for 10 minutes, until the sauce starts to thicken.
Remove the bay leaves and thyme from the sauce, then stir in the butter and season with salt and pepper. Add half of the flat-leaf parsley and stir to combine.
Return the chicken to the Dutch oven, sprinkle the remaining parsley overtop and serve.
Serving
Coq au vin can be served over pasta, rice or mashed potatoes. Plate each portion of chicken on top of your carb and spoon vegetables and sauce overtop (if your chicken breasts are particularly large, slice into pieces prior to serving).
Notes
On chicken:
Learning how to break down a chicken can save you a ton of money. It’s surprisingly simple to do and all you need is a good knife and a pair of kitchen sheers. Serious Eats has a great guide on how to butcher a chicken.
For this recipe, you break each chicken down into quarters, which leaves you with this:
If you don’t want to butcher your own chicken, then you’ll need 4 chicken breasts and 4 full legs (thigh + drumstick) for this recipe.
On pearl onions:
Pearl onions are delicious, but preparing them is a pain in the you-know-what. First, you have to cut and score them, then boil them, then peal the skins off of dozens of tiny onions (can you tell I’m not a fan?). Thankfully, many grocery stores sell frozen pearl onions that have been peeled for you.
So save yourself 20 minutes of prep work and do that.
