Coq au Vin

I love French food and if you know me you are aware that I don’t only make Hungarian dishes.

Coq au Vin is one of my favorites, however this time I made a little change. I know, I know, what sacrilege! 🙂 I changed red wine to rose champagne. I must say, it still tasted delicious and much lighter.

Another broken rule was changing the chicken to Cornish Hen, which I didn’t regret at all.

INGREDIENTS

1 pack of pancetta, cut into large cubes (about ½ cup)
1 small chicken, cut into pieces (this time I used Cornish Hen)
1 pack of mushroom (cleaned, any kind)
1 tbsp. of unsalted butter for onion
1 ½ tbsp. unsalted butter for flour
10 pearl onion (any color)
½ tsp of dry or fresh thyme
¼ tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp. of cognac
2 cloves of crushed or finely chopped garlic (peeled)
1 ½ tbsp. flour
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. of tomato paste
2 cups of white wine (although I used red and the sky didn’t fall on me )

PREPARATION

1. Place bacon into a large skillet and sauté for about 15 minutes

2. Remove bacon and put aside.

3. Place chicken pieces into skillet and brown all sides. Be careful not to burn the meat.

4. In another skillet place oil and 1 tbsp. butter

5. Add the pearl onions (remember, these days you can find purple, red, white and shallot pearl onions) and sauté them until lightly golden; turn off heat and put aside and sauté the mushroom in the butter

6. Now that your chicken is golden brown add cognac and carefully light with a long match. Make sure that you are not reaching into the pot to light the cognac as you don’t want to burn yourself. You may leave the flambéing out as it’s not a rule carved in stone Also add bay leaf

7. Place the chicken, bacon, onion, mushroom, tomato paste, garlic and two cups of red wine into a stockpot

8. Cook for about 10 minutes or until wine is reduced a bit

9. Add enough water to cover the meat and cook for about 20 minutes (Note: if you are using Cornish Hen as I did, then the cooking time might be reduced a bit)

10. Remove meat

11. Mix together flour and the rest of the butter

12. Add butter/flour mixture to the cooking liquid along with the herbs and cook until becoming a gravy consistency.

13. Place meat back in the liquid and serve with your favorite side (I served it with boiled potatoes)

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