Taste Buds: French Dinner! Part 3: Quick Coq au Vin

I first learned of a Coq au Vin years and years ago when my love for the French culture was starting. I think I read it somewhere, and it is a dish that is of course truly French. Some years back, I saw an episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown made Coq au Vin the “right” way, the way the French do it, with all the right science and stuff. I’ve ordered Coq au Vin in several French restaurants in San Francisco, and I have also ordered it in Paris when I was there in 2007. For sure, I love the dish. But never did I think of making it because according to Alton Brown, it is a tedious process.

Come the era of Epicurious and there is of course a quick version. I will be honest that this quick version is not nearly as good as all the other Coq au Vin’s I’ve tasted in my life. But, it served us well as the main course of our French dinner. It was quick and easy, except for the part that Cindy had cut her hand while butchering the chicken! She cut it with a knife that Josh had just sharpened. Ouch! Sorry Cindy!

Anyway, lovelies, here’s what you’ll need for a quick and easy Coq au Vin:

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 or 3 thick slices bacon, roughly chopped
1 (4-pound) chicken, cut into six pieces
1 handful flour, seasoned with salt and pepper to taste
8 to 10 ounces button or cremini mushrooms, rinsed and halved (optional)
20 whole baby carrots, cut in half
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
2 large sweet onions, chopped, or 2 cups pearl onions
1 bottle red wine (white works, too) – but really, I feel coq au vin should be red.
1 cup chicken broth
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs thyme

Here’s how you do it:

In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat to cook the bacon until it’s crispy. Set this aside.

Put the seasoned flour in a paper or plastic bag. Then, place the chicken pieces in this bag and shake it well. The idea is to perfectly season your chicken. Brown this chicken in a pot, which according the the recipe takes only about 4-5 minutes per side. Then, set this aside as well.

In the same pot, sauté the mushrooms, carrots, garlic, and onions until the onions begin to brown, so about 5 minutes. Pour half of the bottle of the red wine and turn the heat up to high for about 8 minutes. Then, add the broth and the remaining half of the bottle of wine. Boil this and add the chicken, the bacon and the herbs. Get this boiling again and cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and the thyme before you serve it.

If I can do anything differently, I wouldn’t add the bacon before I have to boil the mixture again. I would just add the bacon at the end, just topping my stew with it just so that it will keep its crispness. Boiling the crispy bacon just made it weird a bit because it was soft fat. Heheh. Also, I would say I would add more wine too and I would reduce it more. The soup of this was quite light and I remember that the wine’s consistency should be more of a sauce that a soup. That aside, it was a good dish, perfectly seasoned and it was actually quite big. Nonetheless, we still had room for dessert.

Oh, by the way, Happy Thanksgiving, one and all!