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June 25, 2010

Coq au Vin: Take one

As my excitement to go to Paris is increasing by the minute (less than a month left!!!), I’m craving French food more than ever.

Coq au Vin [coke oh vaahn] is a traditional French dish of seared rooster, simmered with vegetables in chicken broth, red or white wine and herbs. Rooster is hard to find these days, unless you raise and slaughter it yourself, so for the most part Coq au Vin today is made with chicken. I read a few recipes but didn’t follow any specific one. This recipe was adapted to what I had on hand and it turned out pretty good for a first time. I’m planning to keep working on it though.

(Servings: 4)

Ingredients:

4 slices bacon

1 lb chicken breasts, cut into chunks

½ c + 1 tbsp flour

½ tsp poultry seasoning*

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

10 oz cremini mushrooms, quartered

2 medium carrots, chopped**

¼ c cognac

¾ c chicken broth

1 c red, full-bodied wine, such as Burgundy

2 bay leaves


*Use Herbs de Provence if possible.

**I ran out of carrots so I had to omit them for this time.


In a large pot or Dutch oven, cook the bacon until crispy and remove from pan. In a shallow dish, combine ½ c flour with ¾ tsp salt+pepper and poultry seasoning. Toss the chicken in the flour mixture and brown in bacon grease on all sides, on medium-high heat, about 5 min. Add the vegetables and sauté for about 3 min. Remove pan from heat and add cognac. Immediately light a long match, hold it over the pot and light the fumes. The cognac will catch fire and the flame will burn out within 1 min. Turn the heat back on. (The flambéing did not work at all for me so I had to let it simmer for a few minutes to burn out the alcohol.) Stir in the broth and wine and add the bay leaves and extra flour. Bring the mixture to a boil, turn the heat down to a simmer, cover and cook for 40 min, stirring occasionally. Then remove cover and simmer for another 10 min to let the sauce reduce and thicken. And voila! Top with reserved bacon and serve with hunks of fresh baguette.

6 comments:

Jhonny walker said...

Hey..paris sounds incredible. I was there a couple of years ago. Did not really like it that much. May have to do with the fact that I was there for less than a day and super high expectations :(

But I continued on to corsica and loved it.
French food is different though :)

This one is a killer. I will surely have it tonight. Maybe I will make it a french night :)

How to Cook a Mockingbird said...

Mmmm this is one of my favorite dishes (along with boeuf bourguignon) and it looks amazing!
We should do a project where we re-invent classic dishes.
We could create quite the cookbook.

Adventures in Domestic Cooking said...

Paris!! Aaahhh, mind taking me along?=)
This Coq an Vin, looks super!!

Marta from With Love... said...

Yay for Paris... I hope you have a wonderful time. The French dish looks delicious :)

-MArta

Jhonny walker said...

hey...
you are my featured bloger today!! I made the co au vin..was lovely!

Marz said...

I just came across your blog and love it! This dish seems amazing, I've actually never had true French food! But unfortunately I'm a vegetarian, but I can kind of tell how all the ingredients would compliment each other perfectly in this simple and elegant dish.