Recipe

Coq au Vin

4 servings · prep 20 min + overnight marinade · cook 1 h 45 min

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• dinner
• french
• autumn
• winter

Authored by the maintainer; Burgundy method, scaled to a home dutch oven.

Ingredients

the bird

• 1 whole chicken (~1.8 kg), cut into 8 pieces
• Sea salt — Trapani salt pans
• Black pepper, freshly cracked — Kerala pepper estate

the braise

• 1 bottle (750 ml) dry red, ideally Burgundy or Pinot Noir — Burgundy vineyard
• 60 ml cognac (for flambé)
• 150 g smoked bacon lardons (or thick-cut bacon, diced) — Parma pork producer
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed — Tropea allium farm
• 2 carrots, sliced 1 cm thick
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• Bouquet garni: 4 sprigs thyme, 2 bay leaves, 6 parsley stems, tied

the garnish

• 20 small pearl onions or shallots, peeled
• 250 g cremini mushrooms, halved if large

the finish

• 60 g cold butter, cubed

Method

1. Marinate the chicken in the wine with the bouquet garni, garlic, and a pinch of salt for 12–24 hours in the fridge. Turn once or twice. · 720 min
2. Remove the chicken and pat very dry. Strain and reserve the wine.
3. In a heavy dutch oven, render the lardons over medium heat until crisp. Lift out with a slotted spoon and reserve. · 8 min
4. Brown the chicken pieces in the bacon fat over medium-high heat, skin-side first. 4 minutes per side. Don't crowd the pan. · 8 min
5. Pour off most of the fat. Add carrots and stir for 2 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook 60 seconds.
6. Pour in the cognac. If you're confident, tip the pan toward a flame to flambé; if not, just simmer 30 seconds to burn off the alcohol.
7. Return the chicken to the pot. Sprinkle flour over and stir. Pour in the reserved wine. Add bouquet garni. Bring to a simmer, cover, and braise at 160°C / 320°F for 1 hour. · 60 min
8. While the chicken braises, sauté the pearl onions in butter with a pinch of salt and sugar over medium-low heat until golden and glazed, 15 minutes. Lift out. In the same pan, sauté mushrooms in butter until deep brown, 8 minutes. · 30 min
9. Pull the dutch oven from the oven. Lift the chicken to a plate. Strain the sauce, return to the pot, and reduce over medium-high heat until it coats the back of a spoon, 10 minutes. · 10 min
10. Whisk in cold butter cubes one at a time off the heat. Return chicken, lardons, onions, mushrooms to the pot. Warm through. Taste — adjust salt and pepper.

Notes

Coq au vin is a dish that improves overnight. Make it the day before,
refrigerate the whole pot, reheat gently. The sauce thickens, the
flavours marry, the chicken stops being something braised and becomes
something *of* the sauce.

Serve with buttered noodles, mashed potato, or — if you're being
proper — boiled potatoes. Crusty bread for the sauce that's left.