Surprise Your Spouse With This Tasty Coq Au Vin Recipe For An At-Home Date Night

Temperatures hit sub 80 degrees for 17 minutes last week. It’s time for hearty fall weather dishes. French cuisine tends to be my favorite way to prepare dishes so today we will feature Coq au Vin (pronounced kohk oh van). Translating to ‘chicken (or rooster) with wine’ this dish is estimated to be approximately 400 years old. Traditionally, Coq au Vin is made with mushrooms, garlic, vegetables, and red wine from Burgundy. The recipe below calls for Cabernet Sauvignon which hails from the Bourdeaux region. While Bourdeaux and Burgundy wines do have different flavor profiles, what I would recommend is using a red wine that you personally enjoy. A general rule would be to only cook with wines that you are willing to drink. I absolutely love the Cabernet Sauvignon from Meiomi which is a California wine. Julia Child helped bring Coq au Vin to popularity by featuring it in her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This recipe will take approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes to prepare. Don’t rush it. Take your time, enjoy the simple yet careful preparation of a French dish, and ensure you have enough wine for both the chef and the pot. Coq au Vin pairs well with a mashed potatoes and rice. Watch how to make it here!

Coq au Vin

Serves 2-4

Chicken quarters 2.5 lbs (about 1 small chicken)

Bacon, lardoons ¼  lb

Crimini mushrooms, halved 8 oz

Pearl onions 1 cup

Red wine 2 ½ cups

Beef stock 1 ½ cups

Tomato paste 2 tbsp

Garlic, minced 2 tbsp

Bay leaf 1-2 each

Dried thyme ¼ tsp

Cognac ¼ cup (1miniature bottle)

Flour, all purpose as needed

Butter, unsalted 3 tbsp

Salt, kosher to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

Evoo as needed

1. Preheat oven to 300ºf.
2. Season chicken well with the salt and black pepper.
3. Dredge (dust) the chicken in the flour.
4. Render (cook) the bacon in a stock pot until cooked. Remove bacon from the pan.
5. Using the bacon fat in the pan brown the chicken on medium-high to high heat.  Once chicken starts to brown reduce heat to low-medium-low to render the fat and crisp the outside of the chicken. (both sides of the chicken) 
6. Remove chicken from the pan.
7. Add the garlic and the mushrooms to the pan and increase heat to medium. Saute until mushrooms begin to soften and garlic is cooked. Add the chicken back to the pan.
8. Deglaze the pan with the cognac and flambe (it’s okay if it doesn’t flame). 
9. Once the flames of the cognac subside, add the red wine, tomato paste, and bay leaves to the pot. Increase heat to high.
10. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.
11. Allow to simmer until red wine reduces to semi sec. (almost dry)
12. Add the beef stock, pearl onions, and thyme to the pot. Bring to a boil.
13. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover pot with a lid.
14. Braise in the preheated oven for approximately 1 hour.
15. Remove the lid and remove the chicken.  Sauce may be at desired consistency, but if not allow to reduce in the pot uncovered until it reaches a consistency with a little bit of viscosity to it. Remove the bay leaves.
16. Mount the sauce with the butter.
17. Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve over the chicken.