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Julia Child’s Coq au Vin (Chicken in Wine)

October 7th, 2009
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Did everyone see the movie Julie and Julia? If not I’d highly recommend it! Since most Wine lovers are also Foodies I’m sure you’ll like the movie. It’s about Life and Food. After seeing the movie I was inspired to cook a little more so I picked up Julia’s cookbook: Mastering the Art of French Cooking. If you have the book turn to page 287 and you’ll find her Coq au Vin recipe. She uses half a bottle of red wine in the recipie. You could also do white, but the classic recipe calls for red. I’d recommend any dry red wine. Just make sure the wine you cook with you also serve on the table. Julia’s specifically recommended a Zinfandel, Macon or Chianti. Her Coq au Vin recipie can be found on ABC and a zillion other sites. For those that don’t want to open a new window :)  I’ve pasted the recipie below:

Servings: 4
Difficulty: Moderate
Cook Time: 30-60 min

Legendary chef Julia Child appeared on “Good Morning America” on May 11, 1995, with her Ragout of Chicken and Coq a Vin recipes.

Coq au Vin is chicken in red wine with small braised onions, mushrooms, and lardons of pork - an elaboration on the far more elementary preceding ragout, coq au vin involves more hand work since you have lardons of bacon to prepare for the special flavor they give to the sauce. Then there is the traditional garnish of small braised onions and sautéed mushrooms. This combination makes a wonderfully satisfying dish, and a fine one for company.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup lardons (4 ounces — 1-by-1/4-inch strips of blanched slab bacon or salt pork - see Special Note below)
  • 2 1/2 to 3 pounds frying chicken parts
  • 2 tbs. butter
  • 1 tbs. olive oil (or good cooking oil)
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1 or 2 large cloves of garlic, pureed
  • 1 imported bay leaf
  • 1/4 tsp or so thyme
  • 1 large ripe red unpeeled tomato, chopped, (or 1/3 cup canned Italian plum tomatoes)
  • 3 cups young red wine (Zinfandel, Macon or Chianti type)
  • 1 cup chicken stock (or more)
  • Beurre manie, for the sauce (1 1/2 tbs. each flour softened butter blended to a paste)
  • Fresh parsley sprigs (or chopped parsley)
  • 1/3 cup good brandy (optional)
  • 12 to 16 small brown-braised white onions
  • 3 cups fresh mushrooms, trimmed, quartered and sautéed

    • Cooking Directions

    Browning and simmering the chicken. Before browning the chicken, sauté the blanched bacon or salt pork and remove to a side dish, leaving the fat in the pan. Brown the chicken in the pork fat, adding a little olive oil, if needed. Flame the chicken with the brandy, if you wish — it does give its own special flavor, besides being fun to do. Then proceed to simmer the chicken in the wine, stock, tomatoes and seasoning as directed in the master recipe.

    Finishing the dish. Strain, degrease, and finish the sauce, also as described. Strew the braised onions and sautéed mushrooms over the chicken, baste with the sauce, and simmer a few minutes, basting, to rewarm the chicken and to blend flavors.

    Special note: To blanch bacon or salt pork: When you use bacon or salt pork in cooking, you want to remove its salt as well as its smoky flavor, which would permeate the rest of the food. To do so, you blanch it — meaning, you drop it into a saucepan of cold water to cover it by 2 to 3 inches, bring it to the boil, and simmer 5 to 8 minutes; the drain, refresh in cold water, and pat dry in paper towels.

    Recipe Summary

    Main Ingredients: chicken, garlic, red wine, white onions

    That’s it! Enjoy!

    -Wine Club Insider

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    A couple of very nice wine surprises!

    May 19th, 2009
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    Wine Club Insider coming at you from on the road this week!

    Yup… actually had to go out of town to do some work for a living… I pride myself on being one of the busiest unemployed people I know, but every once in a while, I have to do something at least mildly productive, even if just to keep my wife happy.

    With that in mind, I had to make the trip to Bend, Or. to teach a small clinic. I drove down Sunday, and it was an awesome day… mid 80s (warmest day this year around here!), sunny… perfect! By the looks of it, the wine industry isn’t suffering quite as mush as the rest of us in these troubled times… people will always keep sipping their vino, I guess. It was great to see all of the new wineries dotting the Columbia River and Oregon hillsides as I made the trip. I’m planning in hitting a few of them on the way home - strictly for educational purposes, of course!

    On a side note, the unsettled weather seems to be following me; the drive down was perfect, it was 86 yesterday, and today, after giving it a chance to catch up, it’s 66 and raining - in the high desert. Oh well… just seems to be my luck this spring. I did get a great run in this morning before the clouds rolled in, though, so no worries!

    The folks I’m staying with in Bend are also foodie/winos, so we manage to always find something to drink, eat and chat about, even if it’s just a simple salad, watermelon and cheese like we had Sunday night, accompanied by a very pleasant surprise that I dragged out of my cellar and brought along for the ride…

    We opened a 2002 A Mano Puglia, which is made from 100% Primitivo (Basically Zinfandel, or at least modern Zin’s grandfather). It was huge! Rich, full, but not over done. Yup… Zin is my current favorite red grape… it’s been working toward it for a year, and over the past 3 or 4 months, I don’t think I’ve had a bad Zin!

    Last night, friends came over for lasagna, salad and bread, and brought, of all things, a Ravenswood Zin. A great coincidence! The Ravenswood was excellent, as usual, but lacked some of the fruit of the A Mano, to my mind. Still a terrific wine, though.

    Tonight, I’m facing off against one of the chefs here in town in an Iron Chef-meets-Chopped contest, with pride and a good bottle on the line… I’ll let you know how it goes on Thursday!

    (I think I have an edge, because I also brought the fabulous 2003 Borra “Fusion,” the Syrah-Cab Sauv-Merlot-Zin blend from from Lodi for the entree, and with my dessert, I’m serving one of the last 6 remaining bottles of Renaissance 1982 Late Harvest Sauv Blanc in a 750… it’s the color of dark caramel, and will carry the evening for me, I’m sure, no matter what I make!) Almost a shame to have to throw in work in the middle of all of it, but it keeps me in vino, laptops and mountain bikes, so it’s all good!

    Have a great week!

    Cheers,

    Wine Club Insider out.

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