Coq au Vin a French classic Chicken recipe in 1 pot in 1 hour |Christine Cushing

Is Coq au Vin even a chicken recipe? I am taking you back to French cooking school with this delicious classic French to answer this and also share all the secrets I learned on how to make it perfectly. I have simplified the recipe so you can make it in 1 pot in 1 hour.
RECIPE BELOW:

2 ½- 3 pounds chicken thighs and legs (1.1 – 1.4kg )
2 cups red wine, preferably a French Gamay, Merlot or Pinot noir (500 ml) , divided
3 ounces thickly sliced bacon or lardons, diced (90 gm )
Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Flour, to dredge chicken+ 2 Tbsp to thicken sauce , optional (25 gm )
2 tbsp. butter (25 gm )
1 tbsp. olive oil (15 ml)
¼ cup brandy (50 ml)
250 gm pearl onions, blanched and peeled, (or about 1 1/2 cups)
3 large King oyster mushrooms, diced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp. tomato paste
2 large carrots, cut into ½ in pieces
1 ½ cups chicken stock, preferably homemade (375 ml)
½ pound mini new red potatoes, cut in half if larger – 225 gm
handful chopped parsley, for garnish

In a shallow baking dish or zip lock bag, cover chicken with red wine – about a cup (250 ml). Marinate for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.

Brown bacon in dutch oven until it browns slightly. Drain off some of the fat, if desired. Transfer bacon to a plate and reserve.

Remove chicken from wine, reserving leftover wine for sauce. Dry chicken with paper towel .
Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Lightly dredge chicken pieces in flour. Dust off excess.

Return pan to heat and olive oil and some butter if too dry. Brown the chicken in batches on mudium high, until evenly browned on all sides. This can take up to 10 minutes to render some of the chicken skin. Remove to a plate and reserve. Drain off some of the fat, if desired. Note- flour will stick to pan but will release once deglazed with wine.

Return pan to medium heat and add the onions, mushrooms , and immediately deglaze with brandy. There will be tons of crispy bits in bottom of pan that will lift with a little wooden spoon . Saute over medium heat until golden, about 5-10 minutes. Add the garlic and deglaze with reserved red wine and scrape the bottom of the pan . Add carrots, tomato paste, herbs, and chicken stock. Add back the browned chicken. Cover with approximately 1 cup wine or slightly more. It should be enough to barely cover.

Sprinkle with potatoes, and season with a little salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over medium low heat. Reduce to low and simmer with cover slightly off so sauce thickens slightly.

Simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour until chicken and vegetables are tender. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.

Taste sauce and adjust seasoning. Finish with lots of chopped fresh parsley.

6 servings.

Hi I’m Christine Cushing and welcome to another helping of my favorite foods today I’m taking you back to my French cooking school days so we can taste an absolute classic Coco van let’s Go the French classic recipes do have this magic and I really wanted to take you back to that moment where I first fell in love with this particular recipe Covan which is essentially chicken in a wine sauce but hang on a second Coke oan is actually not chicken but it’s rooster

So there’s a reason why the recipe is the way it is the red wine and chicken which seems like a bit of a what why would you put red wine with chicken well the reason is that originally it was rooster rooster is super tough however very flavorful so the red wine is doing

A couple of things first of all it’s it’s actually tenderizing the meat and secondly it’s adding great flavor look at my Mison plast here all my things ready to make this amazing dish very helpful to do this in advance can we talk mushrooms I am absolutely obsessed

With the King oyster mushroom I’ve used it in a few of my recipes but I just love it it’s very meaty it there’s no waste whatsoever they’re pretty much readily available now they are a little bit pricey but they really have that meaty beautiful flavor that is perfect

For this so I don’t want to worry about you know Browning the mushrooms taking them out them getting all soggy these mushrooms are awesome for this dish now if there’s one thing that the French know how to make that is chicken I mean seriously chicken is a religion in

France you don’t you think of we think of chicken as it’s like a lonely chicken oh no in France you could pay you know €160 for a beautiful roast chicken they love it and in fact the rooster is their national animal so you pair that with their national drink of wine and you

Realize why this is such a classic French dish now to marinate in the red wine or not to marinate in the red wine once you marinate the chicken in the red wine it’s really going to absorb a lot more flavor so you you don’t have to do it

Overnight overnight is ideal no longer than that but at least one or two hours so really a good idea is you start to marinade the chicken in the red wine while you’re chopping your Mison plast or getting your Mison plast all the things ready to start your fantastic cocoa

Van now I’m starting by Browning some bacon okay I’m going to be honest my bacon was super lean and I couldn’t find any slab bacon that’s optimal you get those nice French chunks okay look you see I have hardly any fat so I’m not going to pitch that

At all I’m going to use it and now I’ve marinated the chicken for about a couple of hours while I prepare everything else maybe an hour and a half want to make sure it’s as dry as it can be in preparation for the Searing or the

Browning I don’t want to waste this wine make sure you don’t throw that out cuz that’s going back in the sauce and for dredging I just sprinkle with a bit of flour and make sure it’s even on all sides I just want to absorb some of that wine and also give my sauce

A little bit of Sheen just a little bit of that glossiness so it’s not runny seasoning the salt and pepper and back on the Heat starting with some olive oil I’ve got about a medium high heat here now you see how that’s hardly got any

Color I just want to render it a little bit more and make sure I can fit another piece in there Ah that’s perfect that’s not crowded we’re really working against the odds of ever getting this chicken browned why is that because the chicken was marinated in the red wine which is

Really going to impart flavor right within the meat but what is happening is it’s not going to dry out and then that means it’s not going to Brown so for it to Brown all of the moisture has to evaporate so we’re not looking for a crispy skin here we’re just looking to

Render some of that fat that’s going to give us flavor and also caramelize it which again going to give us flavor it’s all about the flavor French no flavor now this took about 10 to 15 minutes here you can see all that fat from the chicken skin I’m going to discard

That oh look at how Brown that is in are going the blanched onions and I’m de glazing with some sh don’t tell anyone it’s Greek Brandy oh no FAA now I want to scrape every last bit of the that crispiness underneath that is Flavor look at it okay I’m getting a little over

Excited in come the mushrooms now I want to get a nice glaze on this I want to caramelize them getting texture flavor on every layer oh it’s butter time we are in France now at this point where you can see in the bottom of a pan I’ve got so much

Flavor going on it’s crazy amount of color and you can see now that I’ve added a little bit of that butter this would be a good time to add a touch more flour if you want your sauce to have a bit more viscosity so if you like it to

Be a little bit richer like a classic old school French sauce you can add a little bit more flour here making a rue and then when you add your the rest of your liquid ingredients it’s just going to turn into what’s called a vute and

It’s going to get a bit richer I like it a bit leaner so I like it just to have a Sheen but totally up to you now I’m adding the minced garlic and that reserved wine because as soon as the garlic hits the pan I don’t want it to

Burn oh smells are crazy good How old is this recipe this Coco vam I actually have a cookbook that says it goes way back to the time of Caesar when the Romans were fighting the gulls I mean who knows there’s so many stories about recipes I mean every recipe has 50 stories about where did it start who

Invented it who created it but anyway no matter how old it is it’s classic so we’re not going to argue that fact right now I’m just adding a little bit of tomato paste and the chicken stock if you have homemade it’s really going to give your sauce a better texture I’m

Just putting the herbs in like this I’m not being too fussy one bay leaf and I’m going to put the chicken right back in keeping all those juices and covering with more red wine more G did I mention I’m using a g which is from boj you can also use a Pino nothing

Too heavy you don’t want the wine to be too strong potatoes went in seasoning some Rosemary and another little tip or trick if you want your bacon to have textured don’t put it in with the braze save it for the end and sprinkle it on top or

Half in a little bit on top however you like now I’m going to simmer that for about 45 minutes to an hour depending on how tender you like your chicken I don’t like everything falling totally off the bone okay seriously if you could smell

This o laa it is red wine it is that roasting sort of of the chicken it’s the herbs it’s the Smoky bacon I mean Wow who’s ready to try some Coco oh The very last touch before I serve it is just some fresh parsley it’s going to brighten it up it’s going to give it a really nice note and it’s going to look spectacular this definitely has the mouth water effect all the Aromas I can imagine it but why should I imagine it

When I can taste it oh wow so beautiful oh my god wow the texture of that chicken is ridiculous and all of those flavors come together it’s really beautiful Harmony this is that dish that will really transport you to a little beastro in France thank you so much for spending

Time with me on another helping of my favorite foods see you next timeo