If you haven’t noticed, I’m a huge proponent of classic French and Italian recipes. I think they are called the classics because they never go out of style and they literally involve just about every cooking method you will ever need to know to be successful in the kitchen. This classic coq au vin recipe with mushrooms and pearl onions uses techniques such as marinating, small dicing, roughly chopping, creating a bouquet garni, caramelizing, roasting, pan searing, and braising among a few others. If you can master the classics then you can master your kitchen!
Coq au vin, as well as boeuf bourguignon, is one of those dishes that you can graze upon all day. It’s much like a stew or soup except you have large pieces of protein that make it extremely rich and filling. I like to take little pieces off of the chicken along with tons of carrots and mushrooms and eat like 4 bowls of it throughout the day. Coq au vin is just so good and believe it or not it is incredibly easy to make.
In my recipe, I marinated the chicken because of the exceptional flavors it brings forth into the recipe. I do want to say that you definitely do not have to do this, especially if you have time constraints. Whenever it comes to marinating, you should always do it at least overnight for the best results. However, if you’ve only got 4-6 hours to spare then take what you can get. If you have no time to marinate at all, then using those roasting and caramelizing techniques will be key to your success in this recipe. Since we are cooking chicken in wine, a wine marinade will be just the trick to further enhance this recipe. Coq au vin traditionally uses wine from the Burgundy region in France, and Pinot Noir is by far the most popular red wine in that area, so that’s what I’m going to use.
First you render some bacon fat and then you sear off your protein only to set it to the side and caramelize up your veggies. The Staub Coq Au Vin Dutch Oven is made for this. It’s oval shaped so that you can ensure you are browning every square centimeter of the chicken. You add in your wine and stock and simmer with the chicken for just about 45 minutes or until it is finished. The one thing about this coq au vin is that outside of marinating, this recipe only takes about 90 minutes from start to finish. If you ask me, that’s not too bad for such a classic recipe.
While the chicken and veggies are simmering in the wine and stock, this is a great opportunity to go ahead and roasts off your mushrooms and pearl onions. Be sure to brush off any access dirt or particles from the mushrooms before roasting. Add this goodness into the coq au vin casserole dish mix and serve it up with some fresh thyme and parsley. Go ahead, impress your guests with this one!
For the Marinade:
For the Coq au Vin:
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