Sunday lunch: coq au vin
Another French-themed dinner last night, this time in honour of Bastille Day (and to reciprocate on two dinner invitations received well over two years ago - what took us so long?).
We had the baked camembert with home-made bread as a starter, and tarte Tatin for dessert (this time served with some gorgeous home-made cinnamon icecream prepared by Dr B.).
The main course was based on Delia Smith's coq au vin recipe,with a couple of changes to make it more user-friendly (read: we are breast men).
Ingredients (serves 6)
- 1 chicken leg or breast per person, with skin
- 1 bottle red wine (preferably Bourgogne)
- 25g + 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 200g streaky unsmoked bacon
- 18 button onions
- 250g button mushrooms
- thyme (fresh or dried)
- 4 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 2 cloves garlic
Preparation
- Melt 25g butter and oil in a large frying pan
- Brown 3 chicken breasts, skin-side first
- Repeat with the other chicken breasts
- Place chicken breasts in a casserole where they fit snugly
- Chop and brown the bacon in the same frying pan, then add it to the chicken
- Brown the onions (keep them whole) and add them to the chicken
- Add crushed garlic, thyme and bay leaves to the chicken
- Season with pepper and just a little salt
- Pour the bottle of wine on the chicken
- Cover and simmer on moderate heat for 45 minutes
- IMPORTANT: refrigerate for 24 hours minimum, to let the flavours develope and merge
- Just before serving, place whole mushrooms on top and simmer for another 15 minutes
- Discard thyme and bay leaves
- Place chicken, onions, bacon and mushrooms in a serving dish and keep warm
- Bring the remaining liquid to the boil and reduce by one third
- Make a paste with the tablespoon of butter and the flour
- Stir the paste into the liquid
- Pour the liquid on the chicken and serve
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