Foodie Friday: That One Time in Cooking Class.

Course: Dinner 

Dish: Coq au Vin 

Main Recipe Source: Julia Child's Coq au Vin - The Endless Meal®

Secondary Recipe Source: Coq Au Vin Recipe | Ina Garten | Food Network 

Blog notes: Nutrition facts were provided from HappyForks.com. These nutritional facts will vary based off the ingredients used and may change. Please be aware of your nutritional needs. This recipe was made from two sources to which I adapted and listed above. At the time of posting this recipe, the links above worked.

Ingredients

8 chicken thighs 

1 1/2 cup red wine (I supplmented with Holland House Cooking Wine)

1 cup of chicken stock

1 package of bacon recipe called for 3 strips bacon, cut into ½ inch pieces however I used majority of it for topping and taste tasting.

1 medium onion, quartered then thinly sliced

4 medium carrots cut into 4 inch pieces ( I used approximately 16 oz of baby carrots)

4 cloves garlic, minced (I used pre-minced garlic and used measurement equivalent) 

2 TBS tomato paste ( I used 6 oz)

2 tsp of thyme ( I used two sprigs)

8oz mushrooms, thickly sliced. (I used baby bella mushrooms 32oz)

8 oz of pearl onions, peeled (I used frozen give them time to defrost)

Beurre manie (this is the term I did not know and it is butter flour mixture paste Beurre manie is french for kneaded butter) 2TBS of each

1 bay leaf

Instructions:

Marinate the meat in red wine and chicken stock. From the 4 recipes I read the longer the better. I marinated mine for 2 hours. Do not marinate longer than 24 hours. Do not throw away the marinade. Put it back in the fridge until ready to stew after the carrot and tomato paste step)

Next, slice the bacon if you didn't do this earlier. Then fry it until crispy. Small batches are safer not to burn yourself or the food. 

Take out the bacon pieces and try not to eat them all. Lay them out on a paper plate to drain. 

Drain the bacon grease into a heat safe bowl. You will want to keep about 2 TBS in the pan for browning the chicken. 

BEFORE YOU SEAR THE CHICKEN 

Pat it dry (DO NOT THROW AWAY THE MARINADE) 

Season it with salt and pepper on both sides

Then, pan fry skin side down first for approximately 3-4 minutes. Then flip for another 3-4 minutes. The idea is to get a crispy golden brown color. The chicken will not be fully cooked. I set it aside on a plate until I was finished with my vegetables. 

At this point, consider adding more bacon grease and also consider changing your pan to a 4in deep frying pan or pot. We will add the vegetables and chicken to one pot to stew later on.

Do you care about how many pots and pans are used in this dish? If not use a separate pan for the mushrooms and add the remaining bacon grease to sauté them. If you do, sauté them before we sauté the onions and carrots using the same pan. 

I am going to assume you used the same frying pan for the mushrooms because you didn't want to use every pan and plate in your kitchen. Sauté the mushrooms until brown approximately 10 minutes depending on how much you used. I doubled this from the original recipe. 

Using the 4in deep frying pan with some bacon grease. I started to sauté the onions and baby carrots. I made sure before using the baby carrots that they were all similar in size. No one likes partially cooked food. Cook until the onion is golden brown, per the recipe it was approximately 7-8minutes. I cooked them for approximately 10 minutes (on medium low heat adding the garlic one minute before I was ready to move onto the next step) 

Per the recipe: Push the vegetables to the side of the pan and add the tomato paste. Cook the tomato paste until it is fragrant and begins to darken. Pour the reserved wine marinade into the pan, scraping the bottom to remove any stuck-on bits. (Don't just wallop the paste into the pan and on the carrots...it added more mixing time and worry of ruining the recipe...and a lot of "this is why you follow the recipe when you don't know what you are doing" self talk) 

After we mixed the marinade, paste, and vegetable mixture we add the chicken. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the *hopefully* defrosted pearl onions... on top of the chicken and cook for 10 minutes more.

In a small bowl mix the beurre manie. I used 2 TBS of King Arthur 1 for 1 flour and 2 TBS of Country Crock Avocado oil butter. Remove the chicken from pan then add the flour butter paste. Stir into sauce and add 1 bay leaf. Let thicken. Add salt and pepper if you desire. 

After thickening, add the chicken back to the pot. OR Add chicken to a 9x13 pan. Remove the bay leaf (remember to take the bay leaf out whichever method you choose), add the vegetables stew to the chicken. Top with mushrooms and add bacon.

Recipe Note:

Beurre manie options:

Traditional 2 TBS of flour and softened butter

Paleo and gluten free 2 TBS tapioca starch and 1 TBS of softened butter

Dairy free 2 TBS flour and 2 TBS of dairy free margarine 

Aftermath:

My feet and back hurt. Four out of four people loved it. I will be making it again. Just not in the next 30 days. I used almost every dish in my kitchen. I can totally understand why Julia Child won over the hearts and stomach of others. I got excited with the photos and I wanted to share my experience with you. My food was served on the paper plate, I honestly couldn't wait for everyone else to eat with me.  My husbands plate was the "nice" glass dish. 

Nutrition Facts for the recipe above provided by HappyForks.com