COQ AU VIN

Every year for my and Annie's birthday, we challenge one another with a dessert and over the years, they've gotten more and more difficult and time consuming.  One year I made her a flourless chocolate cake.  Then she made me a carrot cake.  The next year I made her a peanut butter bread pudding which I served with a chocolate sauce and banana ice cream.  She in turn made me individual pavlovas with coconut custard.  Never having made meringues before, the first several attempts were less than satisfactory and they had to be remade.  This past year, I requested a chocolate and coconut charlotte that required Annie to make her one chocolate lady fingers.  As revenge I'm sure, for her birthday this year she more or less demanded a pineapple dacquoise.  

Ok here's the thing.  I totally would have attempted it except for one thing - I was also already making dinner.  Annie's parents, Greg and Bev had flown to town for the weekend and wanted to see the new house, so we were going to host a little, intimate birthday dinner party.  The centerpiece of the menu was a coq au vin, the homey French dish of chicken braised with wine.  This version comes from the Balthazar cookbook.  To go with it, I planned a simple starter salad of mixed greens, sliced pear, a classic French viniagrette with tarragon and shavings of pecorino.  To soak up with coq au vin's rich gravy, I was going to make a decadent parsnip puree.  

With all this going on in addition to dessert, the dacquoise seemed a little too ambitious.  The meal itself was already ambitious.  In the end, I wound up making a simple but delicious peanut butter pie with a chocolate cookie crust.  It seems like with this intro, this post ought to be about the the afore mentioned pie.  But here's the thing.  I didn't take pictures of the pie.  I took pictures of the coq au vin.  So that's the recipe we have.  (Note that I sort of doubled part of the recipe so the amounts in the photographs don't reflect the ingredients list.)

INGREDIENTS

6 large chicken legs with thighs

1 large yellow onion, cut into a 1/2-inch dice

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into a 1/2 inch dice

2 celery stalks, cut into a medium dice

1 head garlic, sliced in half horizontally

1 750 ml bottle red wine, such as Cabernet Savignon

1 bouquet garni (5 sprigs parsley, 2 sprigs thyme 1 bay leaf wrapped in a square of cheesecloth and tied into a bundle)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons tomato paste

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 cups veal stock (you can use chicken if you prefer)

3 tablespoons cognac (optional)

1 pound pearl onions

1/2 pound smoked bacon, sliced into lardons

1 pound crimini mushrooms, wiped clean with a damp paper towel and quartered

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

3 tablespoons fresh chopped flat-leaf parsley

sprigs of thyme to garnish

METHOD

In a large bowl or dutch oven, combine the chicken legs, diced onions, carrots and celery, garlic and bouquet garni.  

Pour in the wine.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 to 48 hours.

Using a pair of tongs, remove the legs from the marinade and place on a platter.  Place a colander or sieve over a large bowl and strain the vegetables from the wine, reserving the wine.  Discard the bouquet garni.

Heat a 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat until smoking.  Pat the chicken dry and season with salt and pepper and place 3 of the legs in the dutch oven, skin side down and cook until the skin has a deep brown color.  Flip the legs over and continue to cook until the other side is brown as well.  Remove the legs from the pot and place on a plater.  Wipe out the dutch oven and add 2 more tablespoons of oil and repeat with the remaining 3 chicken legs.

Reduce the heat to medium and add the reserved vegetables.  Cook until softened, about 5 to 8 minutes.  Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes.  Sprinkle in the flour and cook, stirring, for 2 more minutes.  

Pour in the reserved marinade, bring to a boil and then cook until it has reduced by half, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Return the browned chicken to the pot, add the stock, cognac if using, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer.  Cook, uncovered, until the legs are tender, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the other ingredients.  Bring a medium pot of water to a boil.  Add the pearl onions and cook until tender, 5 to 7 minutes.  Strain and set aside to cool.  When the onions are cool enough to handle, slice off the root end and gently squeeze the tip and the onion should pop right out of the skin.

Next cook the bacon over medium heat in a dry skillet until brown and crispy.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon from the pan to a plate lined with paper towels.  Pour half the rendered bacon fat into a small bowl and set aside.

Add the pear onions to the pan and cook over medium heat until browned all over, about 5 to 8 minutes. Transfer the onions to a small bowl and set aside.

Add the remaining reserved bacon fat to the pan and toss in the mushrooms and thyme, and cook over medium heat until golden brown.  About 5 minutes.  

Turn off the heat, and season with salt and pepper.  Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.

Remove the chicken legs from the braising liquid and set aside.  Strain the liquid, discarding the solids and return to the Dutch oven.  If the sauce seems too thin, bring to a simmer and reduce by half.  Return the legs to the sauce and add the reserved browned onions, mushrooms and bacon.  

Stir to combine, reduce heat to low and simmer until everything is heated through, about 15 minutes more.  Just before serving, stir in the parsley.

It's no secret that I love braising.  It's so unlikely that the results won't be fantastically tender and flavorful.  Such is the case with this coq au vin and I think the reason is because the chicken and vegetables are marinated in the red wine.  That's a key difference from many of the coq au vin recipes I looked up when I was trying to decide which one to use.

With the weather in Los Angeles cold and rainy, this hearty dish was perfect for our little dinner party.  The mushrooms are earthy, the pearl onions sweet and the bacon lends a smoky and salty flavor that works well with both.  The sauce is luxurious and velvety which I think comes from the veal stock and the reducing of the wine.  It perfectly coats the chicken and vegetables and lazily pools in and around what ever starchy mound everything is piled up on.

Annie and her parents loved it.  I think it more than made up for the fact that I didn't make the more complicated dessert.  Maybe next year I'll challenge her with a dinner.  Something like cassoulet.  (It takes like a week to prepare)

Serves 6

Comments

[Elizabeth]

That looks absolutely delicious.

[riya]

I think that lighting in your new house is not doing any justice to the pictures.

The pictures look a little light.

The recipe is tempting.

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Delicious! I've done a version or two of this as well. Never marinating though. I will have to give this recipe a try.

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I made this last night for just myself as I am home alone. Going to enjoy it all weekend. It's wonderful!

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I never tasted such preparation.....
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