Coq Au Vin

May 29: National Coq Au Vin Day

T’was a rude awakening whenever the cock crowed at the crack of dawn at Islander’s grandmothers’ homesteads. As a late riser, she would get so annoyed that her beauty sleep was interrupted and threatened to make a meal out of the early morning menace.  Although the rooster never ended up in Islander’s cauldron, she has cooked coq au vin in her crockpot.  For National Coq Au Vin Day, our blog recipe post features a slow cooker method for chicken braised in red wine.

Recipe

(Adapted from Slow-Cooker)

Ingredients

• 6 slices of bacon, cut in ½-inch pieces
• 2 pounds chicken, boneless and skinless, cut into bite-sized pieces
• ½ cup flour seasoned with salt and pepper
• olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 cups pearl onions, peeled
• 1 cup baby carrots
• 1 cup button mushrooms, halved or quartered
• 5 sprigs of thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons of Herbs de Provence
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup of Burgundy/red wine

Directions

Dredge the chicken pieces in flour and set aside. In a large skillet, cook the bacon until crisp then onto paper towels to drain.  In the same skillet, brown the chicken pieces in the hot bacon fat.  Transfer the chicken to a slow cooker. Pour a little olive oil to add to the bacon fat in the same skillet and add the garlic, onions, carrots and mushrooms.

Sauté the garlic, onions, carrots and mushrooms until brown.  Add the sprigs of thyme and Herbs de Provence and mix well.  Transfer all to the slow cooker on top of the chicken.  Sprinkle with the bacon pieces. Pour in the chicken broth and red wine.  Mix well.  Cook on high for four hours or on low for six hours. Gently stir the stew before serving. Garnish with sprigs of thyme and cooked bacon pieces.

Notes

• We bought the Herbes de Provence at Williams-Sonoma.  This traditional French dry herb mix is probably cheaper elsewhere. But the costly clay container was just too cute to pass up!