Coq au Vin - 2

If using a whole chicken, joint the chicken into legs, thighs, wings and breasts. Cut the breasts into two lengthways  Picture  . Lightly season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.

Cut the bacon into thin lardons, and peel the the mushrooms discarding the stalks, cut into halves or quarters depending on size. Top and tail and peel the onions.

Put a smear of oil in a frying pan and quickly cook the bacon over a high heat for a couple of minutes. Reduce the heat to medium, add another tablespoon of oil and the onions to the pan. Cook turning from time to time until the onions are golden brown. Add the mushrooms and stir for a few more minutes.

Remove the bacon, onions and mushrooms with a slotted spoon and keep to one side. Clean the pan if necessary and add more oil to the pan, add the chicken in batches and cook until a good golden colour.

Put the chicken into an ovenproof casserole and add the bacon/onion/mushroom mixture. Peel and crush the garlic and add to the casserole along with a teaspoonful of salt and a few turns of black pepper. Bury the thyme in the chicken mixture and cook covered in the oven at 350°F/180°C/Reg4 for 45 minutes.

When the chicken is ready, drain all the juices from the casserole into a saucepan and add three glasses of red wine. Reduce the wine/juices to about ½pint/30cl over a medium heat.

Meanwhile make a beurre manié by rubbing two tablespoonfuls of flour into two tablespoonfuls of butter. Take three or four tablespoonfuls of the reduced wine into a bowl and stir in the beurre manié thoroughly and the stir into the reduced wine.

Add no more than ½pint/30cl of chicken stock to the reduced wine and simmer gently for about five minutes. Remove and discard the thyme from the casserole and pour over the red wine sauce over the chicken until barely covered. Cover the casserole and cook in the oven at 300°F/150°C/Reg2 for 45 minutes.

Prepare the vegetables and when ready serve them with the coq-au-vin on serving plates  Zoom