Chicken In Red Wine

Preparation: 15-20 mins  | Cooking Time: ~2 hours   | Serves: 4-6

Skill Level: Moderate

Ingredients

• 500-600g of chicken breast, cut into ~2cm cubes
• 1½ cups red wine
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 150-200g bacon (streaky is better)
• 200g brown mushrooms, halved
• 2 carrots, rough chopped
• 1 onion, rough chopped
• 4 shallots, peeled, don't cut but some may break into 2 or 3 pieces
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 6-8 sprigs of thyme
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• salt & pepper to taste
• olive oil

Method

• In a heavy based casserole pot/pan, heat and add bacon, cook until bacon starts to brown a little, roughly 4-5 mins. Remove and set aside.
• Season chicken pieces with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and using same pot brown the chicken pieces, remove and set aside. 
• Add a little more olive oil and cook mushrooms for about 5 mins until starting to brown (on the white parts). Remove and set aside.
• Add a little butter and a little more olive oil and sauté onions, carrot and garlic, until onions start to become translucent.
• Add wine, stock and tomato paste, stir until combined and heat until simmering.
• Add back chicken, bacon and mushrooms, also add in thyme and French shallots/onions, stir and heat to simmer. Place lid on and simmer for approximately 1½ hours.
• Combine flour and butter into a paste and add to pan, stirring until combined. This will start to thicken gravy.
• Continue on simmer for another 30 minutes or until gravy is to desired consistency.
• Remove from heat and serve with your choice of pasta, potato, bread, rice or on its own.

Tips & Alternatives

• For a more authentic Coq Au Vin use chicken thigh pieces (thigh and drumstick separated), bone in and skin on. Brown the thighs so skin starts to brown.
• Also for authentic Coq Au Vin, use a French red wine :-)
• In this recipe I suggest streaky bacon due to the fat content. You can use other bacon cuts and you can also go lardon, a chucky fatty cubed bacon, common in French cooking. For something a little fancier try a prosciutto fried until crispy, leaving the fat, and then only adding back nearer the serving time to maintain the crispy texture.