Coq au vin

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know I normally prefer quick and easy recipes, but some things are worth the wait. Coq au vin is definitely one of those things. With it’s warm, herbal flavour, it’s the perfect comfort food for a cosy Sunday evening in. So, let’s start cooking this winter recipe of chicken in red wine sauce!

Ingredients to prepare your chicken

These ingredients are based on 2 people unless mentioned otherwise.

• Chicken! If you use a whole chicken (for about 4 people), it’ll take longer than if you’re using chicken thighs like I did (2 thighs per person). Be aware that the other ingredients are based on 2 persons, so if you use the whole chicken, double the rest as well! The quality of the chicken really matters in this dish, so aim for the stars!
• 125 grams bacon cubes
• 250 grams of carrots
• 2 shallots
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 250 grams chestnut mushrooms
• 2 teaspoons of wheat flower
• 400 ml of red wine for 2 people, 600 for 4 persons (I prefer Hardy’s merlot)
• 380 ml poultry stock
• 1 sprig of fresh thyme
• 5 grams fresh leaf parsley
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil
• Some form of potatoes, I prefer 500 grams of mini potatoes

How to prepare your coq au vin

Let’s start by cutting everything up. I prefer to cut the shallots into somewhat large pieces for texture. You can also cut the garlic and dice the carrots into pieces of about 1 cm. Also scrub down the mushrooms and cut them into 4 pieces. If you use the whole chicken, divide it into 10 parts (back, breast, wings, thighs and drumsticks). If you use the thighs only, you can divide them into smaller pieces of about 2 cm per dice so it cooks quicker.

Then we start with the chicken. Rub it in with salt and pepper. Get a big stock pot (or preferably a Dutch oven) and drizzle some olive oil in it. Cook the chicken until it’s almost cooked. You don’t want to fully cook it, since it’ll get overcooked later on if you do. Then, you get the chicken out of there and you bake the bacon, carrots, shallots, mushrooms and garlic in the left over juice in the same pan. Add the flower and cook for another 3 minutes on medium heat.

Next, you add the wine, poultry stock and thyme. Get your red wine sauce cooking and put the chicken back into the pot. Get it cooking on a low heat with the lid on top. If you’re using chicken thighs only, you can leave it on the stove for half an hour. If you’re using the whole chicken, I’d recommend letting it on the stove for an hour. Stir the sauce every once in a while to really mix the flavours.

After this time, you need to cut the parsley and add it. If needed, you can add some extra salt and pepper here as well. You can leave this cooking for another 30 minutes. Meanwhile, you can cook or bake the potatoes any way you like. I prefer fried potatoes, because they add some crunch to the dinner. However, I can also imagine boiled potatoes with this dish, because it’ll absorb the sauce better.

After this is all done, you can plate the dish. Because there’s a lot of sauce, I recommend using a ladle to fish the chicken out. In my view, this is the perfect winter recipe to share with your family and friends. Although it does take a while to prepare, it’s definitely worth it and cooking together is so much fun anyways!

I hope you liked this recipe! If you did, you might want to look here for more recipes. If you’d like to get more regular updates, please subscribe or follow me on my Instagram, Pinterest or Twitter!

Lots of love,

Lisa

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