French · Main · Medium
Coq au Vin
Chicken braised in red wine with bacon, mushrooms, and pearl onions until the sauce turns into a glossy, deeply savory gravy.
The whole recipe in 60 seconds
Coq au Vin, in 5 ideas
- It is better on day two. Make it a day ahead, refrigerate, and reheat gently. The flavors marry overnight and the sauce thickens beautifully.
- Dry the chicken obsessively. Wet chicken steams instead of browning. Those browned bits are the foundation of the entire sauce.
- Do not skip the flour-butter paste. That is called a beurre manie, and it is how French sauces get their silk without lumps.
- Pearl onions are worth the peeling. Blanch them for 1 minute first and the skins slip right off. They turn sweet and jammy in the braise.
- Serve with something to catch the sauce. Crusty bread, mashed potatoes, or buttered noodles. The sauce is too good to leave behind.
What you need
Ingredients
- 3 lbs bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks
- 1 bottle (750ml) red wine, Burgundy or Pinot Noir
- 6 oz bacon, cut into lardons
- 12 pearl onions, peeled
- 8 oz cremini mushrooms, quartered
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 tbsp flour
- 3 tbsp butter, softened
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Chopped parsley, to serve
How to make it
Directions
- The night before, place the chicken in a large bowl with the wine, thyme, and bay leaves. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Remove the chicken and pat completely dry with paper towels. Strain the wine marinade and reserve it. Discard the herbs.
- In a heavy Dutch oven, cook the bacon lardons over medium heat until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat.
- Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Brown in the bacon fat in batches until deeply golden on all sides, about 4 minutes per side. Set aside.
- In the same pot, saute the pearl onions and mushrooms until browned, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and tomato paste, cooking 1 minute more.
- Pour in the reserved wine marinade, scraping up all the browned bits. Add the chicken stock, the chicken, and the bacon. Bring to a simmer.
- Cover and braise on low heat for 1 hour, until the chicken is falling off the bone and the sauce has thickened slightly.
- Mash the flour and softened butter into a paste. Whisk small bits into the simmering sauce until it turns glossy and coats a spoon. Simmer 5 minutes more. Scatter with parsley and serve.
Use a wine you would actually drink. The whole pot reduces down to the essence of that bottle. A harsh cheap wine makes a harsh sauce.