Get the juvenile "eating coq" jokes out of your system now.

[madbaker]

This week's Resolution Recipe: Coq au Vin.
An old Fronch bistro standby, as interpreted by Anthony Bourdain.

"Another easy dish that looks like it's hard. It's not. In fact, this is the kind of dish you might enjoy spending a leisurely afternoon with. There are plenty of opportunities for breaks. It's durable, delicious, and the perfect illustration of the principles of turning something big and tough and unlovely into something truly wonderful. I know it looks like a lot of ingredients, and that the recipe might be complicated. Just take your time. Knock out your prep one thing at a time, slowly building your mise en place. Listen to some music while you do it. There's an open bottle of wine left from the recipe, so have a glass now and again. Just clean up after yourself as you go, so your kitchen doesn't look like a disaster area when you start the actual cooking. You should, with any luck, reach a Zen-like state of pleasurable calm. And like the very best dishes, coq au vin is one of those that goes on the stove looking, smelling, and tasting pretty nasty, and yet later, through the mysterious, alchemical processes of time and heat, turns into something magical."

1 bottle + 1 cup red wine
1 onion, cut into 1" dice
1 carrot, cut into 1/4" slices
1 celery rib, cut into 1/2" slices
4 whole cloves
1 Tbsp whole peppercorns
1 bouquet garni (that's 1 sprig parsley, 2 sprigs thyme, and a bay leaf tied together or, as I prefer, wrapped in cheesecloth for ease of removal.)
1 whole chicken, about 3.5 lbs, guts and neckbone removed (Historically, a tough ex-laying chicken that needs to be stewed in winy acid to soften, but I used a Trader Joe's organic bird)
salt and pepper
2 Tbsp olive oil
6 Tbsp butter, softened (I used less)
1 Tbsp flour
1/4 lb bacon, cut into 1/4" lardons (I used house-cured, of course)
1/2 lb small button mushrooms (I used browns, quartered)
12 pearl onions, peeled
pinch of sugar

The day before cooking, combine the bottle of wine, the diced (big) onion, carrot, celery, cloves, peppercorns, and bouquet garni in a large, deep bowl. Add the chicken and submerge so that all of it is covered (weight if you have to, but with the right size bowl you won't). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Next day: remove the chicken from the marinade and pat it dry, placing aside. Strain the marinade through a fine strainer, reserving the liquids and solids separately. Season the chicken well with salt and pepper inside and out. In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil and 2 Tbsp butter until almost smoking and then sear the chicken, turning with tongs to evenly brown the skin. Once browned remove from the pot and set aside again. Add the reserved onions, celery, and carrot to the pot and cook over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, until they are soft and golden brown.

Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and mix well to coat. Stir in the reserved strained marinade. Put the chicken back in the pot, along with bouquet garni. Cook this for about 75 minutes over low heat. Note: uncovered, dumbass. Have a drink: you're almost there.

While your chicken stews slowly, cook the lardons over medium heat until golden brown. Remove from the pan and drain, reserving 1 Tbsp fat in the pan. Saute the mushrooms until golden brown and set aside. Add in the pearl onions, pinch of sugar and salt, and 2 Tbsp butter. Add just enough water to cover the onions, then cover the pan with parchment or foil (see note below on this) trimmed to the same size as your pan. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until the water has evaporated, keeping a close eye on it. Remove the paper cover and cook until the onions are golden brown. Set aside and add the remaining cup of red wine to the hot pan, scraping up the yummy browned bits with a wooden spoon (this is known as a "fond"). Season with salt and pepper and reduce over medium-high heat until thick enough to coat the back of the spoon.

When the chicken is cooked through (thigh juice runs clear when pricked) remove from the liquid, cut into quarters, and arrange on a deep serving platter. Strain the cooking liquid (again) into the reduced red wine. Now add the bacon, mushrooms, and pearl onions; adjust with salt and pepper if needed, and swirl in the remaining 2 T butter. Pour that sauce over the chicken and dazzle your friends with your brilliance.

What worked: tasty. Went well with boiled barley and a green salad (and a nice Burgundy wine to drink)

What didn't: My marinating bowl was a bit too large, so the chicken wasn't fully submerged. This meant that it didn't get as purple as it should have. That might have been a texture problem if I'd really been using an old hen. The parchment cover didn't work; the steam just curled it up uselessly. I went with foil, but the onions cooked quickly without boiling off enough of the water. I had to dump half the remaining water, losing some of the flavor.

I was trying to be clever, and of course it backfired - I baked bread that day, so instead of cooking the chicken on a burner I put it in the oven to use the residual heat. However, I forgot about leaving the lid off the Dutch oven... the sauce didn't reduce down, of course. We ate it anyway and I reduced the sauce separately for about an hour, at which point it hit the exceedingly yummy thick sauce point for leftovers.

Will I make it again? Probably. It's a classic Fronch dish for a reason.

Comments

Making this fools my parents into thinking I know how to cook.

[fionnbharro.livejournal.com]

I've made similar a number of times. Sounds mostly the same.

I *don't* refrigerate overnight -- I think the refrigeration slows down the tenderizing of the bird (which is why it's done overnight), and the cooking kills anything that would grow/fester in the interim. But I could be wrong.

Thoughts?

Re: Making this fools my parents into thinking I know how to cook.

[fionnbharro.livejournal.com]

So... What you're saying is:
1 Refrigeration does NOT retard the breakdown of tissue during the tenderisation process? I would have suspected that the increased heat in the room adds to the ambient energy available for the chemical process. Huh.
2 Cooking doesn't kill all the bad things?

Well, OK, then.

[serendipity17.livejournal.com]

What region/varietal wine did you use? Do you think altering the wine would affect the dish in any substantial way?

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

I used Two Buck Chuck Cabernet Sauvignon. Any hearty Burgundy-type would be appropriate; I don't think a Beaujolais Nouveau would stand up to the cooking and various ingredients.

[serendipity17.livejournal.com]

I used a merlot on my first attempt at Coq au Vin, and was amazed/horrified at the deep purple-grey the meat turned. That was before I knew that a hard boil was the wrong way to cook chicken breasts and that salt doesn't evaporate away with the canned stock. My stars, that was a salty meal.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

I was surprised that the chicken didn't turn purple this time.

[albionwood.livejournal.com]

So you're supposed to put water in the pan, and then cover it, and then "keep an eye on it" (presumably with your X-ray vision), and somehow the water will go away in a timely fashion? Hmph. The recipe on the box for TJ's pot stickers has similarly bogus directions; you're supposed to cook 10 minutes, covered, until the water goes away. Well, it's either 10 minutes uncovered, or an hour covered, to get the desired result...

Also I'm confused about your note "uncovered, dumbass" - I would have thought the initial stewing would require covering?

Otherwise, man this sounds good. Have to go find a rooster.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

The recipe doesn't specify, so I covered it as one would expect. However, there's a ton of liquid in there. Staying covered means that it doesn't reduce down to the proper yumminess.