I was running low on ideas for French cooking, so I asked for suggestions in a local moms group and coq au vin was one of them. Coq means rooster, and vin (you probably know) means wine. Unsurprisingly, this is a classic French recipe.
If you don’t have a rooster on hand, you can use a really large chicken. (I didn’t, and that’s what I did, and in this post I’ll refer to it as chicken rather than rooster, which can sound a little weird when talking recipes).
The day before you want to serve this, you need to marinate the coq, whose meat tends to be tougher than chicken. The marinade also infuses the meat with flavour.
Cut up the chicken into pieces, and if you don’t know how, here is a great tutorial. Except, unlike her, I used all the pieces, even the backbone. The backbone has the sot-l’y-laisse!
To prepare the marinade, you’ll need 75 cl of red wine, which is about 3 cups. We’re an alcohol-free household, so we use alcohol-free wine, called Bonne Nouvelle. I’m assuming most of you are not, so I want to give you some wine suggestions. I’ve read that you want red wine with a woodsy undertone – a Bourgogne. For example, un Pommard or un Beaune. If you can’t get that, use a Pinot Noir, Châteauneuf du Pape or Côtes du Rhône Villages.
If you speak wine language, you want something warm, with some body, not overly strong tannins (they said “melted tannins” so I’m not sure if I’m translating that right), and a hint of spice. Or, to keep things simple, just ask for something woodsy at the wine store. (But apparently not Bordeaux because that’s too woodsy).
And to drive the point home, don’t buy super cheap wine because so much of the flavour is the wine. I wasn’t sure we’d win any awards with our alcohol-free coq au vin, but it was, in fact, delicious.
Add 4 juniper berries to the wine, plus 1 clove, 2 bay leaves, and a sprig (or two) of thyme. Let that sit with the poultry pieces overnight.
I looked up the recipe in several places and ended up using the one from this French website because I liked it best, and he gave great tips for a successful coq au vin.
One of the tips, which I didn’t follow but I think is a good one, is to use any part of the chicken you plan to throw away and make a reduced stock with it the night before so you can add it to your dish the next day. I threw the inedible part of the chicken away before I read his tip, so I’ll be using pre-made bouillon. However, this is something for you to keep in mind.
Alright. So it’s the next day, your chicken is marinated, and you’re ready to begin. First, remove the meat from the marinade and set the liquid aside. Pat the chicken pieces dry with a paper towel and let them sit while you fry up 200 grams of bacon (7 oz). The French use “lardons” – bacon pieces similar to lard but with more meat. You, however, can just use bacon.
Remove the bacon from the pan and set it to the side for later. In the bacon grease that remains, fry 2 medium sliced onions and 3 cloves of minced garlic, and then set that aside.
I used two pans – one is my iron skillet, and the other is the large pot I used to cook my coq au vin. I wanted to be able to brown all the meat in one go, and you’ll need the separate pan later on anyway so may as well pull it out now.
Add some butter to the pan(s) and brown your chicken pieces.
Now here I want to make a distinction between the original French recipe and what I did. The original French chef said to pour a “glass of cognac” over the browning meat and add a flame to let the alcohol burn away. A French glass is small and is probably equivalent to 3/4 cup. Since we don’t drink alcohol, I added a full cup of apricot juice to the stock and let it simmer with the rest. You can do either one.
If you’ve browned the meat in a separate pan, put all your chicken pieces, the onion / garlic mix, and marinade, plus 1 1/2 cups stock (and apricot juice if you’re using it) in the Le Creuset cocotte or large pot. For the stock, I used veal bouillon mixed with water, and I checked to make sure there was no gluten in the pre-packaged bouillon. Cover the pot, bring it to a boil, then turn it down and simmer the dish for 1 and 3/4 hours.
We may as well talk accompaniments while the coq au vin is simmering. I read what should be served with it, and the greatest consensus was tagliatelle. We had just eaten pasta recently so I ignored that option, but it might be the best for you. Second to that was boiled potatoes with parsley. Then there were some other options, like homemade mashed potatoes and stir-fried mushrooms that had commentators throwing rotten tomatoes at the suggesters, but which I think are valid options. Well, maybe not the mushrooms because there are plenty in this dish, which I’ll get to in a minute.
This is my stove with the accompaniment on one side, the coq au vin on the other, and the iron skillet in the middle, waiting to be put to use again.
Anyway, I ended up making the potatoes so I just got started on that while the meat was cooking. When they were boiled, but not overdone, I added persillade – parsley mixed with shallots and garlic – and drizzled them with olive oil.
When the meat has been cooking for an hour and a half, turn the oven on to 180°C (350°F) and preheat the oven for 15 minutes. This is a crucial step because we’re going dry out the meat a little in the oven, and make it crispy, while we reduce the broth so it’s not so liquid-y. This is a genius step because you don’t want overly liquified sauce, nor do you want soggy poultry. This solves everything.
Get your chicken in the oven and cook it for 45 minutes. My oven tends to heat stronger than the temperature suggests so I only left it in for a half-hour.
Then slice two medium-sized carrot. Add those with 18 pearl onions. I never use pearl onions, so even though the recipe only called for 12, I went rogue and added 18. After tasting the dish, I think I could have even added 24 because what am I going to do with the rest of the jar of pearl onions?
What am I going to do with the rest of the jar of juniper berries, for that matter?
(Feel free to leave me suggestions in the comments!)
So you’ve added the carrots and the pearl onions to the stock, and you’ve got this pot now uncovered and boiling away on high heat. Guess what else you’re going to add? Two squares of dark chocolate!
That’s right, baby.
Boil that down, but keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t actually get so reduced there’s no liquid left. While that’s reducing, stir-fry 2 1/2 cups of mushrooms in a little butter or olive oil. I used the same iron skillet with the leftover bacon / onion / chicken flavours so the mushrooms would absorb that taste. You can use regular mushrooms, but why not try mixed mushrooms? White button, shiitake, oyster, chanterelle … that’s what I did and it added the perfect touch of … Frenchness.
When the chicken comes out of the oven, add the stir-fried mushrooms to the sauce, as well as the bacon. (Forgot about the bacon, didn’t you? Don’t add it too soon or it will get soggy).
Add the now-crispy chicken pieces to the sauce, and serve your completed coq au vin over your potatoes (or tagliatelle or mashed potatoes).
Hello, happiness!
Seriously, guys. This was that good. Even my kids liked it.
In the end, coq au vin is not all that hard. It just takes a little planning. What about you? Are you willing to give it a try?
- 1 rooster or large chicken
- 75 cl red wine, around 3 cups
- 1 clove
- 4 juniper berries
- 2 bay leaves
- 1-2 sprigs of thyme
- 200 grams or 7 oz lardon (bacon)
- 2 onions, sliced
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- butter (if needed)
- 1.5 cups veal or chicken stock
- ¾ cup cognac or 1 cup pear juice
- 2½ cups mixed mushrooms
- 2 carrots, sliced
- 18 pearl onions
- 2 squares of dark chocolate
- Cut the coq into pieces the day before.
- Marinate with the wine, clove, berries, bay leaves, and thyme.
- The day of, remove the chicken from the marinade and pat the pieces dry. Set the marinade to the side.
- Cook the bacon in the pan you plan to use. Put it to the side when done.
- In the bacon grease, fry the onions and garlic, then put that to the side.
- Brown the pieces of chicken in the same pan. Add butter if it starts to stick.
- Optional : pour the cognac over the browned chicken and burn off the alcohol.
- Combine the chicken, onion and garlic, marinade, stock, and pear juice (if you didn't use cognac) in a large pot.
- Simmer for 1 hr 45 mins.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C or 350°F.
- Remove the chicken from the broth and bake for 30-45 minutes.
- To the broth, add the chocolate squares, carrots and pearl onions. Uncover and put on high heat. Boil until the sauce is reduced.
- On the side, stir-fry the mushrooms until cooked and the excess liquid is gone.
- When the chicken is done baking, and the sauce is reduced, add the mushrooms and bacon to the sauce. Then add the chicken pieces.
- Serve coq au vin over tagliatelle or boiled potatoes with parsley.
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