Ingredients: |
Ingredients: 4 chicken leg quarters
4 boneless chicken thighs
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
2 cups dry white wine
1 bunch thyme, divided
4 oz. thick-cut bacon, cut crosswise into ¾" pieces
8 oz. shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, caps torn into 3 pieces
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
8 oz. carrots, peeled, cut crosswise into 4" pieces
4 shallots, peeled
2 garlic cloves, smashed
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
Handful of chopped parsley
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Directions: |
Directions:1. Season chicken with 2 1/4 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. In a large bowl, combine chicken, wine, bay leaf and thyme. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or, even better, overnight.
2. In a large Dutch oven or a heavy-bottomed pot with a tightfitting lid, cook lardons over medium-low heat until fat has rendered, and lardons are golden and crisp, 10 to 15 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer lardons to a paper-towel-lined plate, leaving rendered fat in pot.
3. Remove chicken from wine, reserving the marinade. Pat chicken pieces with paper towels until very dry. Heat lardon fat over medium heat until it’s just about to smoke. Working in batches if necessary, add chicken in a single layer and cook until well browned, 3 to 5 minutes per side. (Add oil if the pot looks a little dry.) Transfer chicken to a plate as it browns.
4. Add diced onion, carrot, half the mushrooms and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt to pot. Cook until vegetables are lightly browned, about 8 minutes, stirring up any brown bits from the pot, and adjusting heat if necessary to prevent burning.
5. Stir in garlic and tomato paste and cook for 1 minute, then stir in flour and cook for another minute. Remove from heat, push vegetables to one side of pot, pour brandy into empty side, and ignite with a match. (If you’re too nervous to ignite it, just cook brandy down for 1 minute.) Once the flame dies down, add reserved marinade, bring to a boil, and reduce halfway (to 1 1/2 cups), about 12 minutes. Skim off any large pockets of foam that form on the surface.
6. Add chicken, any accumulated juices and half the cooked lardons to the pot. Cover and simmer over low heat for 1 hour, turning halfway through. Uncover pot and simmer for 15 minutes to thicken. Taste and add salt and pepper, if necessary.
7. Meanwhile, melt 1 tablespoon butter and 2 tablespoons oil in a nonstick or other large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pearl onions, a pinch of sugar and salt to taste. Cover, reduce heat to low and cook for 15 minutes, shaking skillet often to move onions around. Uncover, push onions to one side of skillet, add remaining mushrooms, and raise heat to medium-high. Continue to cook until browned, stirring mushrooms frequently, and gently tossing onions occasionally, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove onions and mushrooms from skillet, and wipe it out.
8. In same skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat until bubbling. Add bread and toast on all sides until golden, about 2 minutes per side. (Adjust heat if needed to prevent burning.) Remove from skillet and sprinkle with salt.
9. To serve, dip croutons in wine sauce, then coat in parsley. Add pearl onions, mushrooms and remaining half of the cooked lardons to the pot. Baste with wine sauce, sprinkle with parsley and serve with croutons on top. |
Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: Browning the bacon, vegetables, and chicken in a skillet before adding them to the pot is the most efficient way to get good color on each ingredient. Instead of hours in the oven, this classic French braise needs less time at high pressure to achieve silky chicken meat and vegetables so tender you can cut them with a spoon. In the U.S., there is a preference for the white meat of chicken so we import white chicken meat and export the dark meat. This means that chicken leg quarters can be incredibly inexpensive – one might even say cheap – and boneless thighs are often reasonably priced. This makes this elegant French dish very affordable to prepare at home. Where there are Asian Supermarkets, someone wishing "authenticity" could purchase a rooster instead of using leg quarters.
To Rachel Laudan, French Cuisine was the 1st cuisine, or at least the 1st European cuisine to become international. Globally it became a mark of elegance and fine dining as elite French Restaurants emerged in cities around the world wherever there was a potential affluent clientele. Being it was science based, it could be more easily understood and replicated outside of France. The science/industry based, elements of it could be borrowed and integrated with local ingredients creating new derivative national/cultural dishes as food cultures became international in a globalizing world in which a shared understanding of science and technology was a critical component.
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This recipe for Coq au Vin is from