Coq au Vin

Coq au vin is the French braise that started it all for home cooks. Chicken slow-cooked in red wine with mushrooms, pearl onions, and bacon until it is tender and the sauce is deep and glossy. It is a Sunday classic that rewards patience and teaches technique.

Marinate the chicken in the wine overnight if you can — twelve hours in the fridge deepens everything and makes the finished sauce taste like it has been sitting in a French country kitchen since morning.

Soundtrack from Vol. IV: Que reste-t-il de nos amours? — Charles Trenet. Wistful, elegant, and timelessly French. Coq au vin is a dish that tastes like memory.

Chapter: Sunday Projects  ·  Cuisine: French  ·  Volume: Vol. IV — Comfort

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (about 4 lbs) — cut into 8 pieces, or 4 lbs bone-in, skin-on thighs and drumsticks
• 1 bottle (750 ml) dry red wine — Pinot Noir or Burgundy
• 2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
• 6 oz thick-cut bacon — cut into ¼-inch lardons
• 10 oz pearl onions — peeled (frozen, thawed is fine)
• 10 oz cremini mushrooms — quartered
• 4 cloves garlic — minced
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp cold unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley — chopped, for finishing
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Marinate the chicken (highly recommended). The night before, combine the chicken pieces and the entire bottle of wine in a large bowl or zip-top bag. Refrigerate 8 to 12 hours. Drain when ready to cook, reserving the wine. Pat the chicken very dry — wet chicken will not brown.
2. Render the bacon. In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, cook the bacon lardons until crisp, about 8 minutes. Lift out with a slotted spoon and set aside. Leave the fat in the pot.
3. Brown the chicken. Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper. Working in batches, brown the pieces skin-side down in the bacon fat over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, then flip and cook 3 minutes more. You want deep golden color. Transfer to a plate.
4. Reduce the wine. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat. Add the reserved wine to the empty pot and bring to a hard boil. Reduce for about 10 minutes, until it has cooked down by roughly a third and lost that raw, sharp edge. This step is what keeps the finished sauce from tasting boozy.
5. Build the braise. Reduce heat. Stir in the tomato paste and garlic; cook 1 minute. Return the chicken to the pot along with any juices. Add the stock, thyme, and bay leaf. The liquid should come about two-thirds up the sides of the chicken.
6. Braise. Bring to a bare simmer, cover, and either keep on the lowest possible flame on the stove or slide into a 325°F oven. Cook for about 1 hour 15 minutes, until the chicken is fork-tender.
7. Cook the onions and mushrooms separately. While the braise finishes, heat a skillet over medium-high with a splash of oil. Sear the pearl onions until browned in spots, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate. In the same pan, brown the mushrooms hard, about 6 minutes — do not crowd, do not stir until they release.
8. Finish the braise. Add the browned onions, mushrooms, and reserved bacon to the pot. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes to marry everything and reduce the sauce.
9. Thicken. In a small bowl, mash the softened butter and flour into a paste (beurre manié). Whisk it into the simmering sauce a bit at a time and cook 3 to 5 minutes until glossy and thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.
10. Serve. Taste and adjust seasoning. Scatter parsley over the top. Serve over buttered egg noodles or a soft potato mash to catch the sauce.

Cook with intention. Feel and taste your way through it. Keep one clog in the kitchen. Always.
— Brian W. Bonanno