Chicken, slowly stewed in red Burgundy wine with bacon, mushrooms and pearl onions until the meat falls off the bone and the sauce has become deep and glossy. The peasant cooking of Burgundy, raised to one of the best-known dishes of France.
Coq au vin
Region: Burgundy
Coq au vin
Region: Burgundy
Method
01
Brown the bacon and chicken
Fry the bacon lardons in a large casserole without extra fat until crisp. Lift out and set aside. Season the chicken pieces with pepper and salt and fry them in the bacon fat until golden brown all over. Remove.
02
Brown the vegetables
Fry the pearl onions and mushrooms in the same pan until light brown. Lift out and set aside with the bacon.
03
Soffritto
Sweat the onion and garlic in the pan until translucent. Sprinkle with the flour and stir for 1 minute.
04
Deglaze
Deglaze with the cognac (carefully, it may flare up) and the red wine, scraping up the browned bits. Add the stock, thyme and bay leaf.
05
Braise
Return the chicken to the pan. Bring to the boil, cover and leave to braise gently over a low heat for 1 to 1½ hours until the meat is very tender.
06
Finish
Add the bacon, pearl onions and mushrooms for the last 20 minutes. Remove the thyme and bay leaf. If you like, finish the sauce with a knob of cold butter for extra gloss.
07
Serve
Finish with parsley and serve with boiled potatoes, mash or baguette.
Tips & notes
Use a wine that is good enough to drink; the quality of the wine directly determines the depth of the sauce. Coq au vin, like most stews, is even better the next day. Keeps for 3–4 days in the fridge, and freezes very well (up to 3 months); the flavour often deepens further the next day.
Variations
- Replace the red wine with white wine for coq au vin blanc, a lighter, less common variant from Alsace.
- Marinate the chicken overnight in the wine with the vegetables for extra depth.
Contains:
Gluten
Milk
Sulphites
Serve with
| Calories | 1127 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 79 g |
| Carbohydrates | 30 g |
| Fat | 66 g |
| Fibre | 4 g |
Estimated values, calculated from standard nutritional values per ingredient.
