Coq au vin blanc

Julia Child made this dish popular in the 1960s with her French Chef series on PBS. But this rustic dish has been made regionally in France for generations. Typically, the “coq,” or rooster, was used. As a sinewy meat base, braising in liquid was required to make it a more succulent recipe. These days, most cooks can’t get their hands on a rooster so any package of chicken will suffice. In this case, I used thighs and legs. But, breasts could easily be replaced with perfectly nice results.

The dish calls for a red wine—Bordeaux, Beaujolais, or even a Chianti. Because it’s a peasant dish, any wine you have on hand can be used including white wine (in which case the recipe is known as coq au vin blanc). Riesling is often used, as is Chardonnay, which is what I put in. You could even get a little fancy and pour in some leftover champagne. (But really, who has leftover champagne?)

I used Julia’s recipe in her Master the Art of French Cooking. She acknowledged that any wine can be used for the recipe, but red is more characteristic. Please note she uses Cognac, too. I have found that she frequently pairs wine and brandy in many of her recipes.

The basic line-up is chicken, bacon, onions, and mushrooms. I used chopped onions, but you could easily substitute pearl onions. I got funky with the mushrooms this time using shitake, Portobello, and oyster. Little white button mushrooms are also just fine.

In France, coq au vin is often paired with buttered peas and parsley potatoes. I have served it with polenta and even mashed potatoes. You could even decide to throw it over buttered egg noodles, especially if you decided to go with a Riesling. It gives it a little more of an Alsace-Lorraine spin on it.

Here is the recipe:

4 oz. bacon, chopped

4 TB butter

3 lbs. chicken

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper

¼ c. Cognac

3 c. wine

1 c. chicken stock

½ TB tomato paste

2 cloves garlic, mashed

¼ tsp. thyme

1 bay leaf

1 onion, chopped

½ lb. sautéed mushrooms

3 TB all-purpose flour

Fresh parsley as garnish

Use 2TB of the butter to melt in a Dutch oven. Add chopped bacon and cook on medium heat until lightly browned. Remove bacon, reserving fat. Fry off chicken in fat and reserve. Add onions and sauté. Add Cognac. In a separate pan, sauté mushrooms to run off excess liquid then add to onions. Then, tomato paste, garlic and herbs. Deglaze with wine. Return chicken and bacon to the pot. Simmer until liquid has reduced by half. In a separate pan, make a roux with the other 2TB butter and the flour. Remove chicken parts to serving platter and then add the roux to the sauce to thicken. Pour over chicken, shoot the parsley on top, and serve.