Chicken in a Red Wine Sauce

By corlear

Coq au Vin
One is so often disappointed by this in a restaurant that it is easy to forget what a good family dish it is. However, there is really no point in doing this dish with a battery chicken; they have neither the flavour nor the firmness of flesh required.

Ingredients

• 1 farm chicken weighing about 2kg (4 lb)
• 12 little onions or shallots
• 150-200 g (5-7 oz) green streaky bacon in a piece
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon sunflower or groundnut oil
• salt
• black pepper
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• 100 ml (3 1/2 fl oz) marc de Bourgogne or brandy
• 1 bottle red Burgundy
• a bouquet garni of bay leaf, fresh thyme (or thyme dried on the branch) and parsley
• 2 cloves garlic
• a handful of fresh parsley
• 250 g (8 oz) button mushrooms
• optional white bread for croûtons

Details

Servings 6

Preparation

Step 1

Cut up the chicken so that you have two legs, thighs and wings; cut the carcass with the breasts in two lengthways, or, if you prefer, into four pieces.

Peel the onions or shallots. Remove the rind from the bacon and cut into dice, or lardons. Put the butter and oil in a heavy casserole (such as an enamelled cast-iron Le Creuset) large enough to take the pieces of chicken eventually. Brown the little onions and the lardons. Lift them from the fat and keep on one side. Brown the chicken pieces well on all sides. Season with a little salt and black pepper and sprinkle with the flour, turning the pieces so they are coated.

Warm the glass of marc or brandy in a small pan. Pour over the chicken and immediately put a match to it, standing back so that your eyebrows or hair do not catch fire. When the flames have died down, put back the onions and lardons. Pour in the wine. Add the bouquet garni and garlic. Bring just to the boil, turn the heat right down, cover and simmer very gently for an hour.

Now is the moment to correct the sauce. Lift out the pieces of chicken, onions, lardons, and keep warm. Discard the herbs and garlic. Boil the sauce to reduce it by about a third. Keep an eye on it for about 20 minutes, checking the taste and consistency. (You aim for a consistency that is neither a thick sauce nor a thin stock and a taste which is intense without being over-powering.) Reunite the ingredients, adding the cleaned button mushrooms if you are using them. Simmer for about ten minutes.

While this is happening, slice the bread, remove the crusts and cut into triangles and fry in a little extra butter or oil.

Serve the coq au vin sprinkled with some chopped fresh parsley and with the fried bread triangles arranged round the edge of the dish.