cw (08/06/82)
Coq Au Vin -- Chicken in Red Wine Sauce
Ingredients
2 cut up small chickens
2 1 inch thick strips of lean pork
3 carrots
3 onions
2 Tbl flour
1/4 cup cognac
1/2 bottle red wine -- use what you are serving for dinner
veal stock
bouquet garni
salt and pepper
Method
Parboil the pork strips for two minutes. Dry on a paper
towel and then fry them in a large skillet with some
additional good quality cooking oil. When the pork has
browned, take it out and use it for any thing else you care
to.
Peel the carrots and cut them in quarters lengthwise. Peel
and chop the onions. Cook them both in the skillet with the
fat. Take about 25 minutes and make sure they don't get too
brown; remember that both carrots and onions have
considerable sugar and will burn easily.
Remove and hold the vegetables. Salt and pepper the chicken
and brown it in the skillet. When the chicken is lightly
browned, sprinkle the flour in the pan and continue
browning. Put the vegetables back in the pan when the flour
has cooked for a time.
Now add the cognac; also add the wine and an equal amount of
veal stock. Increase the heat and stir the chicken around
until the liquid comes to a boil.
Transfer chicken and sauce to a baking dish. Add the
bouquet garni and make sure all the vegetables and pan
scrapings are moved too. There should be enough liquid to
barely cover the chicken. If there is not, add equal
amounts of wine and stock until there is. Cover the dish
and bake in the oven at a temperature that just barely
simmers the sauce. A young fryer will take about 40 minutes
and a very old rooster might take 21/2 hours. Cook until
the meat is very tender but not falling off the bones
completely. Remove the bouquet garni and serve chicken and
carrots with the sauce poured over the top.
Notes
This is a recipe where exact quantities are not too
important. Use the best quality ingredients throughout; the
better the materials, the richer the end product. An
electric frypan can serve both as skillet and baking dish
very nicely. Make sure that the red wine is of good
quality. The veal stock might be any light beef stock --
don't, however, use a strongly spiced stock.
Method
To make a fancier sauce, remove the cooked chicken and
carrots and hold them aside. Skim the fat from the sauce
and strain it. Boil the strained sauce and then simmer very
slowly. Remove with great care the scum that forms. When
the scum has been cleared, put the sauce back over the
chicken and carrots in the baking dish and heat for about 10
minutes until hot again throughout.