Recipe #8 - Coq Au Vin

I decided to stay in France for one more week and give one of their traditional recipes a go.  Literally translated, Coq Au Vin means "Rooster with Wine."  Not sure if anyone cooks roosters but I imagine it tastes like chicken.  Joining me on this adventure as sous chef and photographer, David, who also happens to be my brother in law.  Brother in law is a strange term.  Pretty much means that he is my brother by law.  If I was to get divorced, would he no longer be my brother in law?  Is there a term for that?  My ex-brother in law?  Dude who used to be my brother in-law but now is just a guy I hang out with cause he's cool.  This is getting too complicated so I'll just stay married.

And without anymore sidetracks or silly anecdotes we get to the cooking.

Quite a few ingredients.  I substituted white boiling onions for pearl onions because I couldn't find them.  Why are pearl onions so hard to find.  Stop and Shop had 2 options.  1. Frozen Pearl onions in a white cream sauce. I could have washed off the cream sauce. Gross.  2. Frozen Peas with Pearl Onions.  I could have bought 10 packages and picked out all the pearl onions.  Too costly and a waste of peas.  Probably should have gone to Whole Foods.

 I put Dave to work on the onions.

Dave peeling onions in a red shirt and jeans.  

  And I started in on the carrots.  One of the carrots looked like a finger.

Finger carrot!

My finger with the finger carrot!

After the veggies were prepped you can start the bacon.  The recipe calls for 4 slices but you know you're going to want to eat some when it's done so cook a few extra.

Do not remove bacon when it looks like this.  This is not crispy. 

THIS is CRISPY!

Remove the bacon when it's nice and crispy and coat your chicken in flour, salt, and pepper and brown it in the bacon fat.  So pretty much the only reason to use bacon was for the grease that comes off it.  Granted later on, if you haven't eaten all the bacon, you can crumble it up and use it as a topper for the meal.  

Flouring the chicken.  Thanks to Dave you are able to see things which I couldn't photo in past blogs, unless I wanted to get uncooked chicken and flour on my camera.  Not going to happen.   (If you are interested in being my sous chef/photographer please send a 1000 words or  more essay on why you deserve this prestigious position). 

Breasts and Thighs lightly browned. Could probably use a little more browning.  Recipe calls for 2 legs, thighs, and breasts but you can't just buy 2 thighs so I cooked 2 breasts and 5 thighs.  As long as you cook with the bone and skin you are good with any cut of chicken.

Now take all your veggies and throw those in the pot.  Get them to mingle with the chicken, oils, and juices.  

I don't see any mingling!  Must have taken this just after putting them in the pot.  Give them time.  They will eventually get to know each together and before long they'll be making beautiful music (or food) together.   

And we finally get to the step in the recipe that we've all (except my wife) been waiting for...... 

lighting the brandy on fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was pretty excited since I'd never done this before and had seen the chefs on tv light the pan and the flames go flying up to the ceiling.  I had my fire extinguisher at the ready

and Dave was ready with the camera to get that award winning shot.  I was expecting it to look like this...

when in really only looked like this...

Not sure if that flame is from the lighter or the chicken.  Either way I was disappointed.

So no giant flames, but I did hear it more than see when it caught fire.  Maybe it didn't work well in a pot.  I usually see them do it in a pan.  Anywho, I tried a few times while adding more brandy than the recipe called for.  

After that debockle, I added the burgundy wine, chicken broth, and spices. 

3 happy bay leaves in a sea of mushrooms and wine.

Cover and simmer for about 1 hour and then uncover and continue to cook for another 15 minutes and you're ready to eat my coq au vin.  

I paired this dish with roasted potatoes and onions, and green beans.  

Chicken will be purple from the burgundy wine.  Looks a little strange but taste delicious.

This dish tasted great.  The flavor from the wine and spices infuse itself into the chicken.  The vegetables also pick up the flavor profile quite nicely.  There was enough food for 4 of us with a bit left over.  I had leftovers last night (2 days later) and did not like the flavor of the chicken.  Sitting for 2 days in the wine made the flavor too acidic and over powering.  So if you are planning to have leftovers, I'd take the chicken out of the sauce and eat it within a day or so at most. 

Special thanks to my lovely wife Robin, Dave, and Amanda for sharing this adventure in French Cuisine.  Once again I give this my four clean plates of approval.

and a hungy baby

 

Coming up next:  Tyler's Ultimate BBQ Chicken

And speaking of BBQ, this weekend is the Lexington Battle Green BBQ Festival!  It's gonna be a BBQ filled weekend!