Looking for something classy or the dinner got tougher than it looked? Check out this Coq Au Vin recipe that turns every meat luxurious!

We are so lucky to live in an age where we can afford not just to be ignorant but we can happily live and talk about it.

We can discard all sort of edible parts without a second thought from the calorie rich skin of chickens or nutrition rich vegetable and fruit peel, through the cooking water to food we use not to eat, but decorate our dishes as garnish.

When people’s biggest concern was food security, they couldn’t afford to lose one bit of edible piece. Chicken skin was counted as a delicacy with all its juices and flavors, potato peels were used up without a second thought, and no one would have thought about pouring the cooking water of pasta or potato down the drain when both could have served a marvelous base for any soup.

Needs breed creativity and creative people make the most delicious dishes from ingredients no one would have thought of otherwise. Just think about how sausages are made or how fajita and fish chowder started its career on the peripheral of the culinary world, only to become popular products on their own and created demand for their ingredients.

Of course, once something marginal becomes mainstream, it can’t grow on the scraps it was thrived on, but it requires ingredients that can ensure its long term success. This, of course, means that nor sausages or fajitas are made of the leftovers of meat productions anymore but prime quality meat is used in their production, similarity as we use perfectly fine fish for our fish soups or chicken instead of rooster for our stew.

Coq au vin is almost exactly what it sounds like, given we speak some French or well versed of guessing meaning behind half understood words. Rooster with wine is a French dish of presumably rooster and red wine.

Of course, nowadays when buying roosters or hens are rather tricky, we simply opt for chicken to make the dish.

The true secret of cooking rooster lies in the long hours that’s generally required to cook the aged rooster meat tender enough to be easily consumed. It’s not like the meat of rooster is tougher than hens, but older animals’ meat is tougher in general.

When keeping livestock for consumption was everyday affair, roosters were kept alive longer than chickens in general to do their duties of keeping the flock alive and protected. Once their watch ended, their meat was much older and tougher than their female counterparts who once they get big enough, or later when their egg laying productivity dwindled, got slaughtered.

Sure, nowadays none of them kept alive longer than necessary so apart from some hens who could keep up their egg game up long enough, we can’t really buy any of those hence have to be content with easily prepared young chickens.

Once we make peace with the fact of short cooking hours, we have to make up our minds of the type of wine, we are willing to cook away. The good news is that the flavors will stay and despite of the claim of most chefs in the world, some or most of the alcohol too, so it won’t be such a great waste after all.

Nobody in their right mind would use their best vintage to cook their food but if the cellar is full of barrels waiting for something to be done with, then man got to do what the man got to do to make space for the new harvest.

Sure, some fancy wine, that won some half-prestigious award at the local wine competition, will taste better but at the end, we use chicken instead of rooster and some random small onion, we found at the bottom of the sack, instead of the French pearl onions, so cooking wines will do just fine too.

Except, of course, if we are able to pronounce Coq au vin perfectly and want to express our dissatisfaction about how an outrageously overpriced imported Burgundy wine from a continent away hasn’t markedly improved our dining experience.

Ingredients

2 lb / 1kg Chicken (thigh and drumsticks)
2 cups / 500ml Red wine
2 teaspoons / 10g Salt
6 slices / 100g Bacon (Lardon, Pancetta, Guanciale)
1 medium / 150g Onion (sliced)
4 medium / 250g Carrots (chunks)
2 medium / 300g Tomato (chunks)
2 teaspoons / 3g Thyme
4 cloves / 12g Garlic
8 oz / 200g Mushrooms
8 oz / 200g Pearl onions
2 tablespoons / 15g Flour
2 tablespoons / 30g Butter

How to make Coq au vin

Mix red wine and salt in a bowl. Submerge the chicken pieces and marinate in the fridge for 2 – 24 hours.
Once marinated, remove the chicken from the wine and let it drip. Don’t discard the wine.
Slice the bacon up then render its fat content out on high to medium heat.
Remove the bacon strips then sear the chicken pieces at least on two sides until golden brown, 2-4 minutes each side.
Remove the chicken and sauté (stir-fry) the sliced onion and carrot chunks until the onions are soft and browned, about 5 minutes.
Add tomato and cook until falls apart or simply use a two tablespoon of tomato paste.
Add the the red wine, chicken and thyme, bring it to boil. Add water if necessary to submerge the pieces. Lower the heat to medium low and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes.
Place the bacon strips into a skillet and render some more fat out. Optionally, use a new batch or substitute with a bit of cooking oil. Add finely diced garlic, quartered or sliced mushrooms and pearl onions.
Sauté on high heat until the mushrooms browned and reduced in size.
Mix them with the wine and chicken. Ensure the chicken is cooked through by making a small cut to the bone of one of the big chicken pieces. If using a kitchen thermometer the inner temperature of cooked chicken should reach 165°F / 74°C.
If the chicken is cooked through, remove the pieces. Knead together equal parts of flour and butter by volume and mix it with the sauce.
Add back the chicken, remove from heat. Let it cool off a bit then serve.