The Secret Behind This French Chicken _ Coq Au Vin

You've heard the name and you might have seen it on a menu, but what actually is coq au vin? It sounds like fine dining, French, elegant, maybe even a little bit intimidating, but at its heart this dish is simple, rustic and built on patience more than perfection. Chicken, red wine, mushrooms, onions and herbs all cook down to something deep, dark and comforting so this is the story behind one of France's most iconic dishes, how it started, how it works and why it's lasted generations. Coq au vin literally means rooster in wine, it comes from rural France, specifically the Back in the day farmers didn't eat young, fresh and tender chicken, what they had was old past their prime birds that are more stringy and tough. So how did they make it work and make something edible? What they did is give it thyme and a little bit of wine. The earliest written recipe didn't appear till the early 1900s and the practice shows that this may have gone back even centuries, even to the Roman times and every region has their own take. So what started as a survival method has kind of turned into a French ritual, turning something that's a little bit harder, a little bit stringy into that soft, comforting, fall apart meat. Here's everything that we're going to need, it's nothing fancy but when it all comes together it makes something delicious and any alcohol alternatives will be in the description. Start by placing 150g or 5.2oz of diced bacon into a large pan over medium heat, we're not just crisping them, we're also rendering out the fat which will become our cooking base. Let them take their time, golden and just shy of crunchy and then remove and set aside We can do this with a slotted spoon to keep that rendered fat in the pan. Now onto the chicken, preferably use boned in skin on thighs and drumsticks, as for me I'm using boned marylands which is the thigh and drum together, dry the skin if you have it well with paper towel, that's how you get a really good sear, then season with salt and cracked black pepper, then into the bacon fat, skin side down if it has skin or just the flat surface down first. We're not deep frying, we just want colour, browning the chicken creates fond, those deep brown bits on the bottom of the pot which are pure flavour, give each side a few minutes and then remove the chicken. At this point the pan will be full of rendered fat and stuck on flavour, that's exactly where we want it, now add your shallots, mushrooms and a pinch of salt, the salt draws out moisture which helps deglaze the pan slightly and soften the veg. Cook slowly, we want the mushrooms to brown and shrink, the shallots to caramelise slightly, add the garlic halfway through to keep it from burning and then optional but worth it, add in a splash of cognac or brandy here and let it bubble, scrape everything up from the bottom of the pan and this is deglazing, turning that stuck on flavour into a sauce base. Next is the tomato paste, just a tablespoon or so, stir it through and let it darken slightly, that caramelisation deepens the umami flavour. Add in the flour, sprinkle over a couple of tablespoons, this works like a roux, stir well, the flour will coat everything and thicken the final sauce, let it cook for a minute or two so it doesn't taste raw and most of this will look dry as well but don't worry, the moisture will come out. Now return the chicken and bacon to the pot and nestle everything in, make sure you get any of those resting juices in there as well, it's all extra flavour, spread everything out so it's not sitting on top of one another, just make sure that chicken isn't overlapped, pour over the red wine, enough to nearly submerge the chicken and I'm using a dry red and then we can top it off with a bit of chicken stock or vegetable stock if needed, just to make sure that that chicken is completely covered. Add in the fresh thyme and bay leaves, you can either use fresh or dry bay leaves for this, no need to chop everything fine, this is just completely rustic, give everything a quick mix to make sure all of those flavours have become friends, bring to a low simmer on the stove, then either reduce the heat and cover or place into a 160 degrees Celsius or 320 degrees Fahrenheit oven, let it braise gently for about 90 minutes, not boiling, just enough movement to see the surface switch. During that time the chicken will soften, the wine will reduce and thicken and the entire pot will take on a deep red brick-like colour and savoury aroma that's unmistakably French. When it's ready, the chicken should be so tender that it's almost falling apart, the wine has reduced into something glossy, dark and the sauce clings to everything. Taste it, adjust the seasoning if you need to, maybe a splash more wine or even a touch of butter which I'm going to do and then just mix it through and allow it to melt. This can be served over mashed potatoes or even just with crusty bread, that's exactly what I'm doing for this recipe, you don't need much, just enough to soak up that sauce. So there we have it, our coq au vin, this dish isn't about complexity, it's about balance, time and building flavour slowly, that meat is just melting in your mouth, falling apart and then that sauce is incredibly rich but super satisfying. So with everything said and done, we can then dig in, mmm, it's absolutely delicious, that is so so good, definitely do make this yourself and if you want to see more videos just like this, let me know in the comments, it'd be great to do some more stuff like this and bring back the original roots of the channel and don't forget to leave a thumbs up, it helps me out more than you'd believe, leave a comment and subscribe if you haven't already. Thanks for watching.