Delectable Coq Au Vin
A small intro before we continue to the Coq Au Vin recipe… All the photos that you will see here today are taken with my iPhone because Christopher (hub) and I are learning to use our new camera! So, I figured I’d go all out and really DO this blog thing! And hopefully do it right from the very beginning. But please excuse the quality of the photos until we learn the camera – but more on that at a later date.
Anyway, we are both excited to learn more about taking excellent photos but instead of waiting for that process to happen, I’m raring to go NOW. I didn’t want to wait to start posting recipes.
SO, over the weekend, I made a delish dish that I’ve made numerous times over the years, but truthfully, I thought something was “missing”.
What you ask? Okay, I’ll tell you!
I never really liked the red wine that is in the traditional Coq au Vin recipes. Don’t get me wrong, I love red wine to drink but not in this particular dish. Then, I’d forget, make it again and say, “Oh yeah. It’s delish but I still am not thrilled about the red wine.”
So, I said to dear old hubby, “Hub o’mine, I’m not sure it is done, but I want to make Coq Au Vin with WHITE wine, what do you think?”
He thought it was a brilliant idea as he thinks all my ideas are brilliant (okay, maybe just most of them) and couldn’t wait to taste it. Of course, I did google it this morning and I see that there are recipes out there for White Wine Coq au Vin. Ah well, but not MY version :). Nuh-uh, no sir, not my recipe.
Hubby was in our parlor doing some research about photography while I was in the kitchen preparing the meal. I would call for him every once in a while to have him come out and light the food so I could photograph it. I definitely was not doing it the way I’d like to do it in the future, but as I said previously, I’ve been sooo wanting to get going on this blog so I used what was available, namely my hub Christopher and the bare light bulb side lamp. Yes, technically advanced, I know. 🙂 In fact, if you scroll back up and down, you will see the lovely light from the bulb bubbling on the surface of the liquid. Soooo attractive!
So now I digress:
I don’t know if you noticed my use of the word “Parlor” in the above paragraph. That word is used by some people that live in Massachusetts or the New England area and I’m sure other areas use it as well but I just can’t speak about that with first hand knowledge because I live in New England and not elsewhere at the moment.
The people that use the lovely Parlor word instead of Living Room are usually from my generation or older. I’m one of those people and so, as I’m going to be real here at dishes delish, I’m not going to pretend I call it something different. Just like red sauce that you would put on spaghetti or pasta, some people call it Gravy. I too, am one of those people and when I find another gravy speaking kindred spirit, I feel like I want to hug them – or at least high-five them or give them a good ole fist bump. People that get all funny about me calling it gravy, always ask how I differentiate between red sauce and gravy for something like turkey. I answer that we say brown gravy when we want to differentiate. Enough said. 🙂
I don’t really like the plated photo but I wanted to include it to be complete. Lastly, I made some chicken broth brown rice to serve with it. DE-LISH!
I hope you have enjoyed this post as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Also, I hope all your Dishes are DE-Lish!
And if you feel like saying “Hi!” I love to read comments!
Delectable Coq Au Vin
Ingredients
- 5 slices bacon uncured
- 4 tablespoons olive oil divided
- 5 chicken thighs skinless, boneless
- 1 stalk celery chopped
- 1 onion large, sliced but not too thin
- 5 cloves garlic chopped
- 10 ounces mushrooms sliced
- 1 cup white wine dry
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tablespoon thyme ground or up to 10 sprigs
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper or to taste
Garnish
Feta cheese or goat cheese for garnishing plate
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350
- Slice the bacon in 1/2 inch pieces. In an oven proof pan, fry the bacon on medium high heat with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Crisp the bacon. Remove to a plate with a paper towel to dab the grease. Lower the burner to a little under medium and add the chicken to the pan and brown on both sides. I try to only to cook it 2 minutes per side. Remove from pan and set it aside.
- Add 2 more tablespoons of oil and add the onions. Sauté for 5 minutes until browned slightly, add the celery & mushrooms and sauté for additional 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for an additional minute.
- Add wine, chicken stock, bay leaf and thyme and raise the heat. Scrape the bottom of the pan to get all the bits off. Yum. Place the chicken back in the pan along with the crispy bacon.
- Put in oven un covered and bake for 25 – 30 minutes.
See all my favorite tools and gift ideas at my Amazon Store page!Check out Elaine’s Amazon Store!
