Coq au Vin is one of my favourite dishes. The dish is quite fast to make particularly if you use chicken. Coq traditionally is an older chicken in france and needs quite a bit of cooking, although it it is very flavoursome. Instead of bacon, it is possible to use some finely cut sticks os “speck” (available at Aldi). Often I add peas to the dish, although that is not the usual way of making coq au vin.
1 size 14 or 16 chicken cut into serving pieces
1/2 – 2/3 bottle of red wine
4 rashers of bacon, chopped or 100g of matchsticks of ‘speck’ (lardons)
6 whole cloves of garlic
6 eschalottes
12 sliced button mushrooms
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
1 cup of chicken stock
Fry the bacon, garlic and eschalottes in the Le Creuset pan in a little olive oil until really brown. Remove from pan and set aside. Brown the chicken in the same pan for about 5 minutes until the chicken is sealed. Return the bacon mixture to the pan.
Add to the pan the sliced mushrooms, the bay leaves, the chicken stock and bottle of red wine.
Cook over low heat for 45 mins to 1 hour.