The Greatest Coq au Vin
Prep
30m
Cook
75m
Total
105m
Bigly says
Pay attention. Coq au vin. The French have been making it for hundreds of years — and many people don't know this, but the French insist they invented braising, the Italians say they did, the Chinese say they did, everybody claims braising, and frankly who cares, we're doing it BETTER now. The greatest coq au vin in the history of coq au vin. The French masters in their little hats with their little knives wrote entire BOOKS about this dish, and this version, the one I'm about to give you, beats every single one of them. Not even close. A slaughter.
I've had coq au vin in three places in France you've never heard of — true story — and even in the bistros that knew what they were doing, the version was too heavy, the sauce was too thin, the chicken was too dry. Other so-called chefs want you to braise this thing for SIX HOURS. SIX. For chicken. Chicken is not a brisket. Chicken does not need six hours. Chicken needs an hour and fifteen minutes of love and you're DONE. The food media won't say it because they're afraid of the French Chef Mafia, but I'm saying it. End of discussion.
The secret is the marinade and the bacon. You marinate the chicken in wine overnight. You render bacon and cook everything in the bacon fat. People come up to me and ask, 'Bigly, why is your coq au vin so much better than the others?' Two words. Bacon. Fat. Big strong men — tough men, men who never cry — hear those two words and they tear up on the spot. It happens every time. A guy with a PhD in food chemistry tried to explain to me why this works — took him 90 minutes, very smart man, the smartest — and the conclusion was simply: bacon fat is the universe's gift to chicken. Hands down.
Ingredients
- 3.5 lbbone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks
- 1 bottle (750ml)dry red wine (Burgundy or Pinot Noir)(if you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it)
- 1 largeyellow onion, roughly chopped
- 1 largecarrot, roughly chopped
- 4garlic cloves, smashed
- 4fresh thyme sprigs
- 2bay leaves
- 6 ozthick-cut bacon, diced
- 3 tbspall-purpose flour
- 2 cupschicken stock
- 1 tbsptomato paste
- 10 ozpearl onions, peeled (frozen is fine)
- 1 lbcremini mushrooms, halved
- 2 tbspunsalted butter
- to tastekosher salt
- to tasteblack pepper
- 2 tbspfresh parsley, chopped (for garnish)
Steps
- 1
The night before: combine wine, chopped onion, carrot, garlic, thyme, and bay leaves in a large bowl. Add chicken, cover, and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.
- 2
Drain the chicken, reserving both the wine and the vegetables separately. Pat the chicken pieces very dry and season generously with salt and pepper.
- 3
In a large Dutch oven, cook the diced bacon over medium heat until crisp, about 8 minutes. Transfer bacon to a plate with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat in the pot.
- 4
Working in batches, brown the chicken in the bacon fat, skin-side down first, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.
- 5
Add the reserved vegetables to the pot and cook 5 minutes until softened. Stir in tomato paste and cook 1 minute, then sprinkle flour over the top and stir for another minute.
- 6
Pour in the reserved wine, scraping up the browned bits. Add the stock and bring to a simmer.
- 7
Return the chicken and bacon to the pot, nestling the pieces into the liquid. Cover and simmer gently for 45 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and registers 175°F (80°C).
- 8
Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and pearl onions and cook 8-10 minutes until well-browned. Season with salt.
- 9
Transfer the chicken to a plate. Strain the braising liquid through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean pot, pressing on the solids. Discard the vegetables.
- 10
Simmer the strained sauce 5-10 minutes until reduced and glossy. Return the chicken to the sauce along with the mushrooms, pearl onions, and bacon. Heat through.
- 11
Taste, adjust salt and pepper, and finish with parsley. Serve over mashed potatoes or buttered egg noodles.
One more thing
Serve this on a Sunday in the winter with a hunk of crusty bread and a glass of the same wine you cooked with, and people will swear you went to culinary school. They'll ask. You can tell them you didn't. You can tell them you learned it from a cartoon hairpiece on the internet. They will not believe you. They'll think you're being modest. Let them. The coq au vin does the talking. The coq au vin always does the talking. Save me a piece.
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Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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