Coq au Vin

Coq au Vin is one of the great classic French braises. True to form as the “poor man’s food” of peasantry-era France, this was not a dish made with a young chicken found everywhere in modern American grocery stores—that dish would be called “poulet au vin,” but this is “coq au vin”—but with an old rooster. To accommodate changing modern tastes, techniques, and ingredient availability, this recipe will cater to the American consumer, but will still maintain all of the core elements of what makes the classic coq au vin the classic coq au vin.

Coq au vin is a braise, which means there are three indispensable classes of ingredients. 1) The thing being braised. 2) The liquid in which that thing is being cooked and 3) The stuff being cooked with the main ingredient in the braising liquid. For coq au vin, those three elements are as follows: 1) chicken (thighs); 2) water, red wine, and brown chicken stock; 3) mushrooms, bacon, and onions.

 Before we get into how to prepare this dish, let’s first talk about where to prepare it. A number of the recipes I’ve already posted on here use an 8-quart stove-save and oven-safe Dutch oven. That’s perfect for this recipe.

 Another thing I’ve been very adamant about in the recipes posted here is the importance of the classical French practice of “mise en place”—“[putting] everything in its proper place [before you start cooking]:” washing, chopping, peeling, etc. Coq au vin will be no exception.

The mise en place for coq au vin itself is rather straightforward and not too demanding. First, separate out a quart of chicken stock (ideally fresh, for which you can find a recipe by clicking here)—if you live in the metric world, go with a liter—and about a cup and a half (350 mL, give or take) of good red wine. Then, clean 1 pound (1/2 kg) of baby bella mushrooms. The “white button,” “baby bello,” and “portobello” mushrooms, the three most commonly consumed mushrooms in the United States, are exactly the same organism, but at different levels of maturity/development, so if you cannot find the baby bella, either of the others I suggested will be fine. Wash and then quarter the mushrooms. Slice 4 ounces of bacon into lardons by cutting them across the length of the bacon strips. Peel 3 onions and remove both the stem and root ends. Then, with your knife parallel to your cutting surface, cut each onion into thirds or quarters and separate out the rings from within each cut. There may be some membrane between the layers/rings of the onions. As you separate the rings, if you find any membrane, remove it.

              This recipe makes use of both the English-language culinary definition of “fond” and the French-language culinary definition of “fond.” We need to develop the first before we can engage the latter. The English word refers to “tasty, caramelized bits stuck to the bottom of the pan that most chefs accidentally waste,” while the French word is the word for “stock.”  Creating a good chicken stock is a very long process, so it will get its own post.  

              Building a good fond (in the English sense) takes time and planning. Begin with the flame off and place the bacon lardons into the cold pan in a single layer. Fat melts at a much lower temperature than bacon becomes crispy, so once the lardons are in the pan, bring the flame up to medium-low, or even low, without any additional fat at first. This low flame will heat the bacon gently and allow the fat a head-start when rendering, so that the bacon can, in a few minutes’ time, fry in its own fat. Once the bacon is crispy enough, remove it with tongs or a slotted spoon, leaving behind the rendered fat. Depending on how fatty your bacon was, you may want to add a few more tablespoons of fat—olive oil is ideal. Now, raise the heat to medium or medium-high  Then, place the onion rings into the Dutch oven, and let them caramelize. This process will not begin immediately. Onions have a significant amount of moisture in them, and that moisture needs to evaporate before the onions can start caramelizing. The onions will need to let go of their moisture before they start frying in the bacon fat and olive oil, and there will be an audible difference between the two processes. Do not allow the onions to burn. This will burn the fond, and you’ll need to start over. Once the onions are in the caramelizing phase, they will have lost a significant amount of volume. When this happens, add 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar to the Dutch oven and add the mushrooms. The mushrooms will go through the same process the onions did: losing moisture first, then frying. Once the onions and the mushrooms are sufficiently browned, remove them from the Dutch oven and set them aside with the bacon.

              Lightly coat the chicken thighs in flour, passing the chicken thighs from one hand to the other to shake off any excess flour. Brown the chicken thighs in the bacon fat/olive oil. This will leave behind the third layer of fond. The goal is not to cook the chicken through, just to give it some color and set a crust so that it doesn’t fall apart in the braising process. Reserve the chicken.

              Build a roux in the pan with the fond over low heat by melting 3 tablespoons of butter and an equal amount of flour. This will create a paste, called a roux. Raw flour is incredibly unpleasant, but cooked flour coated in butterfat turns quite nutty and pleasant. Whisk constantly while the roux is being prepared, and while the stock and wine are being incorporated. If the roux burns, so does the fond, which would require starting over from scratch. Once the raw flour smell in the roux has cooked out, whisk in the chicken stock and wine. This does two things: it emulsifies and thickens the sauce, and it deglazes the pan, dissolving the fond into the sauce. Raise the heat to high for 5 minutes to allow the chemical reactions to take place by which the sauce will begin to be thickened.

              Replace the chicken, mushrooms, onions, and bacon. Allow the chicken to braise uncovered in a 250-degree oven for 3 hours. Depending on the size and strength of your oven, and the depth and surface area of your Dutch oven, you may need to add more water or stock to the sauce throughout the cooking process, or you may need to reduce the sauce on the stovetop over high heat after the three hours.

              Serve with over a starch: mashed potatoes, pasta, roasted potatoes, or spaetzle, for example.