Coq au Vin Recipe
Dirt simple to do (even from a slip-sloshy galley) and it has five-star flavors. And the best part is that you don’t even HAVE to be on a boat to slam out this incredible recipe.
In either case, your crew are going to LOVE you.
So don’t be intimidated by the name. Here’ s how this recipe flows:
One night, throw your chicken pieces (2 each of legs, thighs, and breasts — and dude, seriously leave the skin and bones on for max flavor) in a Ziploc bag w S&P + 3 cups of wine (which will leave you a half-glass of cooking wine for the cook), hack up half an onion, and throw in a bay leaf or dried thyme or crushed garlic if you have them.
The next day toward the afternoon, pull out the chicken pieces, pat them dry, sprinkle w S&P, then set aside. Pour that wine marinade into a pan on your stove, concentrate that down until it’s reduced by half. That juiciness is totally going to flavor the final product.
Now comes the part where you sere up the loveliness, dump them all in, throw in the oven, and let the aroma own your senses for the next hour or so.
First the chicken. Add a little vegetable oil to your pot and singe up the chicken pieces until their brown on both sides. Take them out, set them aside.
Next the flavors. Sauté about 5 pieces of bacon (chop them into bite-sized pieces). Pull them out, set them aside. Then add 5 cups of chopped mushrooms + 3 cloves of minced garlic + the onions from the marinade, and sizzle for about 5 minutes. Pull them out, set them aside.
Now make the roux. First, if there’s any wine left in your glass (unlikely), give your pan a splash to pull up all the delicious bits stuck to the bottom of your pot. If not, open the next bottle, deglaze your pan and refill your cup. Once the wine has cooked down, add 4 Tbsp of butter and a scant 1/2 cup of flour. Stir those around into a kum bay yah mash of wonderfulness for about 5 minutes.
Finish it off. Throw in a couple of dollops of tomato paste and smear it through the roux, then add 3 cups of beef stock, and that reduced wine nectar you made. At this point just make sure the flour in your roux has completely mixed in and there are no lumpy lumps. If so, just whisk them in.
Then put all that stuff you singed up (the chicken pieces, bacon, mushrooms, and onions) right back in the pot.
Set your oven for 350, lid the pot, then throw it in the oven for about 45 minutes.
When it comes out, mix through a splash of white wine vinegar, which will totally amp up the flavor. Taste for salt and correct.
We serve this simple — in a bowl over some mashed potatoes (the BPOTP). You can have some greens on the side but this coq au vin is truly the main event.
You can also serve it on some pasta — better to use the beefier tagliatelle if you’re going that route.
Don’t forget to enjoy this with a glass of some hearty red wine as well.
Enjoy!
