Coq au Vin

Night One of the $15 Dinner for Two Cooking Challenge is one of my favorite "comfort food" dishes. This version focuses on simple, inexpensive ingredients without sacrificing flavor.

Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 60 mins

Total Time 1 hr 15 mins

Cuisine: French

Courses: Dinner

Difficulty: Beginner

Servings: 4

Best Season: Fall

Ingredients

4 Chicken Leg Quarters
8 oz Slab Bacon (or 5 slices thick cut bacon)
2 oz Leeks (medium) (sliced)
4-6 Carrots (squared and oblique cut)
8 Shallots (whole, peeled)
3 Bay Leaves
Thyme Sprigs (Medium-sized bunch)
2 Rosemary Sprigs
750 ml Red Wine (Burgundy (can sub Merlot, Cabernet, or Pinot Noir))
3 tbsp Cognac or Brandy (optional)
Kosher Salt (to taste)
Fresh Ground Pepper (to taste)

Instructions

1
Prep Your Ingredients
Peel and cut your vegetables.

If using slab bacon, cut into 1/2" cubes. If using sliced bacon, cut into 1" pieces.

Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel.
When doing oblong cuts on vegetables like carrots and parsnips, it sometimes helps to square-off the round edges. This will help you keep a consistent thickness to ensure even cooking.
2
Crisp the Bacon
In a large dutch oven, cook bacon over high heat until brown and crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon an let drain on a paper towel. Reserve the oil in the dutch oven and reduce heat slightly.
Finding slab bacon is a real key to this dish, but you can also use regular sliced bacon in a pinch. To make this a pork-free dish, substitute 4 tbsp of Olive Oil to brown the chicken and include a few drops of liquid smoke when adding the wine.
3
Brown the Chicken
Season chicken with salt and pepper then add chicken skin-side down to the pot. Fry in chicken in the bacon grease until skin reaches a deep golden brown. Flip over and brown the bottom. Transfer to baking dish and continue with the next batch.
As a rule of thumb, you should always pat your chicken dry before seasoning and frying. Traditionally, Coq au Vin is made with a whole chicken parted into 8 pieces, but I think leg quarters are far superior for this type of dish. As this is essentially a stew, breast meat will become dry and flavorless over the extended cooking time. Leg quarters, with their oils, will become tender and succulent. Plus, if your market is like mine, you can often find this cut for under $0.60 p/lbs making this an extremely economical dish.
4
Cook Vegetables and Deglaze
Add carrots, leeks and shallots to dutch oven. Cook until browned and slightly softened. Add cognac to deglaze pan and scrape-up any frond. Add bay leaves, thyme, and rosemary sprigs. Bring to boil.
If you don't have cognac or brandy on hand, you can also use a splash of the red wine to deglaze the pan.
5
Poach Chicken
Return leg quarters and bacon to dutch ovens. Reduce heat to low, cover, and let simmer for 60 minutes.
6
Serve
Serve chicken in wide bowls (pasta bowl, etc). Spoon broth and vegetables over chicken. Garnish with thyme sprigs.

Keywords: Chicken, French, Stew, Comfort Food, Classic, Bacon, Wine