Coq au Vin
One of France’s most famous dishes, coq au vin is traditionally made with a big old rooster — that’s the coq. These days, and stateside, it’s usually made with chicken. Either way, the bird is cut up, marinated in red wine and aromatics overnight, browned then braised in the marinade and and garnished with mushrooms, pearl onions and lardons.
You can use a whole cut-up chicken supplemented by a couple of extra thighs or drumsticks (that’ll give you about as much as the big rooster would have weighed), or say the hell with tradition use entirely dark meat — thighs and drumsticks (about six nice-sized of each, 3 to 3 1/2 pounds total). What kind of wine? Just about any red will work fine; don’t spend more than $10 or $12 if you can help it. Pinot noir, Beaujolais, Dolcetto d’Alba, Barbera, Sangiovese and Tempranillo all work great.
In the last few years, in our neck of the woods, pearl onions have disappeared from most supermarket produce sections. (Where are we going as a society?!) Frozen ones have the benefit of being already peeled, which is nice, but their flavor is a bit wan. Instead, we like to use small shallots, if we can find them. They’re a little more assertive than fresh pearl onions, which we actually love. If you live in a big, sophisticated city, you might find cipollini onions; those are ideal, whether white or red. We also have difficulty finding slab bacon in supermarkets anymore — a nice, unsliced hunk may require a trip to a dedicated butcher shop. (You might buy twice or thrice as much as you need, and freeze the rest for future coqs au vin, beef bourguignon or frisée salad with lardons.) Finally, our recipe calls for optional demi-glace; using it results in a thicker, silkier sauce. You can find excellent veal demi-glace in the freezer section of some high-end supermarkets, or buy it online at D’Artagnan. Freeze (or re-freeze) what you don’t use. The sauce won’t have as much body if you leave it out, but it’ll still be really good. (If you want it thicker, you can reduce it a bit further in the second-to-last step, or stir in a couple tablespoons of beurre manié — softened butter mixed with equal amounts of flour — and cook a few more minutes.)
You might think this is only something to make if you’re going to serve a small crowd, but honestly the leftovers are so insanely delicious I’d rather serve it to three or four and enjoy the rest (les restes, as they’re called in France!) over the days that follow. Serve the coq au vin with boiled or mashed potatoes (or buttered egg noodles, which are not so traditional), along with crusty bread for sopping up all the sauces.
Serves six to eight.
Ingredients
FOR THE MARINADE:
1 bottle of red wine
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 onion, sliced