coq au vin

Coq au Vin 

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

Good Eats:

Cuckoo for Coq Au Vin

Coq au Vin

Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

All-in-all, it's a much easier dish to make than most of the "classic" recipes make it out to be. 

Due to the large amount of red wine used to cook coq au vin it typically does make the sauce extremely dark.  Especially if you use tomato paste as well.  Typically coq au vin is made with lardons, onions and garlic, mushrooms, tomato paste, bay leaves and thyme, and a whole bottle of red wine. 

If the color bothers you it is possible to make a lighter type of coq au vin.  I often make it this way, replacing the red wine with white, and adding a few fresh tomatoes as well. 

To start you dont use chicken breast for this classic dish. It is to dry to start with .You use red wine shallots or onion . in addition small pearl type onion,and mushrooms . Some recipes call for perrisean type potatoes some don;t each household made it different as did nmost restaurants. When I worked in France I saw it made many different ways but always starting with a whole chicken skin on cut into about 6 to 10 peices. I to this day when I do make it about once or twice a year use the classic recipe from Escoffier cookbook.

A coq is an older fowl or believe it or not a barnyard  rooster which is tough. The purpose of the wine is to add the acids which help tenderize  these old birds

Wine colored chicken is synonymous with coq au vin.  If that's a huge turn-off, my advice is to make something else.  You can improvise a variant with white wine, but it won't taste like coq au vin. 

You might think about trying "Chicken Marengo."  That's close, but more reddish/brown and less purple/puce. 

BDL

www.juliachildsrecipes.com

According to Julia Child´s website, her classic French recipe; she suggests 2 cups only of wine:  Pinot Noir, Burgundy or Zinfandel wine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by margcata 

www.juliachildrecipes.com

 

According to Julia Child´s website, her classic French recipe; she suggests 2 cups only of wine:  Pinot Noir, Burgundy or Zinfandel wine.

That website is now for sale and doesn't work.

I know very well Julia's recipe for her cookbooks and make it often enough. She has you reduce a bottle of wine down to 2 cups. This makes it very strong.

I have worked under French Chefs who marinaded their chicken in onions and burgundy. The meat was also dark red.

I agree with Rich......if you don't care for the way it looks, don't make Coq au Vin.

Chef Ross,

I agree it is a heavy wintery or late autumn type of dish.

www.juliachildsrecipes.com  The website works, and has a classic split pea soup recipe upon opening the website.

Her coq au vin recipe  is also posted on: www.abcnews.go.com

Quote:

Originally Posted by chefedb 

To start you dont use chicken breast for this classic dish. It is to dry to start with .You use red wine shallots or onion . in addition small pearl type onion,and mushrooms . Some recipes call for perrisean type potatoes some don;t each household made it different as did nmost restaurants. When I worked in France I saw it made many different ways but always starting with a whole chicken skin on cut into about 6 to 10 peices. I to this day when I do make it about once or twice a year use the classic recipe from Escoffier cookbook.

A coq is an older fowl or believe it or not a barnyard  rooster which is tough. The purpose of the wine is to add the acids which help tenderize  these old birds

I'd say if you're using a whole bird then the breast would be included with that.  I've seen recipes for this where they sear the breast and leave it out of the braise until the last 20min of cooking.  You CAN include the breast and most who use a whole chicken would.

If you can't find a rooster trying using a hen, which is a chicken that has laid eggs.  It's a tough older bird.  Or don't use an older bird at all, why not start with a young tender and leave it at that.

i can absolutely attest to the fact that wine helps to tenderize old birds!!! 

joey

As I said I have seen it done many ways. When I worked at Negresco in Nice we used  whole real large fowl  cut in 10 pieces, and 1/2 burgundy and 1/2 pinot. The chef made his own Burgundy, as well as cordials. I was young and helped him I learned a lot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by margcata 

Chef Ross,

 

I agree it is a heavy wintery or late autumn type of dish.

 

www.juliachildsrecipes.com  The website works, and has a classic split pea soup recipe upon opening the website.

 

Her coq au vin recipe  is also posted on: www.abcnews.go.com

There are 2 websites....the one that doesn't work is a "typo" by adding an "s" after Julia's name.

As I say, I make this recipe a few times a year.

The recipe quoted is not from Julia Child's book Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume One (page 263)

There are a few discrepencies.  The recipe is perhaps a mixture of others added in for the sake of the website it is on.

Is this  interesting?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OviNnROfEKg

I just made this now (Coq au Vin) , thought I would add a pic .  I enjoyed the video Ordo....

Petals.

Petals,

Looks delicious.

Kind regards and hope you have had a lovely summer.

Margaux.

Love it!

Very nice

Thank you everyone, I am always inspired here.

Petals.