Coq au Vin

"Chicken never tasted so good"

Marie, was always talking about her mother's chicken casseroles and, way, way back in 1992, I decided to cook chicken for her, my way.

Whenever I had cooked for her before, she had always been there by my side, glass of wine in hand, telling me how her mother did this or that (as you can guess, Marie had never, and would never cook).  So, this time I decided I would cook without the commentary and invited her around for dinner.

"Shall I come by a little earlier?" her normal question chimed, and this time, I said no, I had a number of things to do beforehand. She admitted later she had been a little miffed but arrived with her normal gusto and once we had exchanged our normal chatter and had sat down to eat, the above quote was uttered at the end of the meal. 

I couldn't help myself of course, "even better than your mother's?"

Marie had laughed out loud and had nodded enthusiastically.

Coq au Vin, whoever is telling you the recipe has a few common features.  Chicken and wine (obviously), mushrooms and bacon.  Once these four ingredients have been agreed upon the rest, parsley, thyme, onions and garlic, celery and capers, are added in various ways, at various stages and or left out entirely.

The recipe I have followed for the past twenty-five years, is pretty fluid, and is cooked over two periods of time, as I like to pre-cook the dish the previous day, and then reheat the next, it makes for a very relaxed dinner party if all you are doing for your main course is re-heating and thickening sauces.

Ingredients & quantities

I've based the quantities below on accompanying about two and a half kilos of chicken.  In pieces and on the bone. 

• two and a half kilos of chicken portions
• 200 grams of smoked bacon (some recipes denote unsmoked, but a larger quantity - 300 grams for this quantity of chicken)
• 500 grams of small to medium sized mushrooms; small ones left whole, medium ones halved or quartered and divided into two batches
• a bottle of good red wine (750 ml) and 250 mls of either vegetable or chicken stock
• three plump garlic cloves crushed
• one large onion and two large sticks of celery (ideally with their tops), roughly chopped (many recipes call for whole small onions to be included and celery is another option that is only in some recipes)
• two teaspoons of capers (again optional)
• olive oil and unsalted butter and a heaped table spoon of plain flour
• Herbs:  parsley, thyme and bay leaves are the herbs of choice in this dish - the quantities really being up to the cooks own preferences.  I use more parsley than many and have used 50 grams of chopped fresh parsley, two teaspoons of dried thyme and use five bay leaves for this quantity of meat.

Method

Fry your chicken until brown in half oil/butter.  For this quantity of chicken, you will need to do this batches.  Use an oven dish that will allow the chicken to more or less be on one level and in which, initially at least, will be able to sit in wine and stock mixture easily.

Lay chicken out as you cook it in the dish.  Once this is done, pre-heat the oven to 190c.

In the same frying pan that you have browned the chicken and using the same oil, turn down the heat slightly and add the onions, celery (and the chopped tops) and garlic, until these have softened.  Then add the parsley and thyme to the mix.

Meanwhile, place the bay leaves evenly through the oven dish along with half the mushrooms and pour/spread the herb mix on top of this.

Use a jug to pour the wine and stock mixture over the casserole and then cover with foil and place in the oven for an hour.  At which point you add the capers, turn the chicken, uncover and cook for a further 20 minutes.

Turn off the oven and allow to cool, then recover and leave in the oven until the following day.

Reheating and thickening.

About an hour and twenty minutes before you are going to serve the dish, take out chicken from the oven dish and pour the juices into a deep pan.    Pre-heat the oven to 190c.

Melt some butter and add a heaped tablespoon of plain flour and combine thoroughly.

Reduce the liquid by half on the stove and then whisk in the butter and flour until this starts to thicken. 

Add the remaining mushrooms to the chicken which you have returned to the baking tray and then pour over the thickened sauce, reserving a third for later.

Place in the oven for approximate twenty minutes, turning the chicken a final time before returning it to the oven and pouring remainder of the sauce.

Serve with your favourite potatoes or roasted vegetables.