Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Easy Peasy Coq au Vin

Coq au vin may sound luxurious, but in reality it was originally found in the kitchens of peasants. Roosters who'd outlived their breeding days were stewed in cheap wine to make the tough ol' birds edible - tasty, in fact.

We don't have old roosters strutting around in our yard. Instead, I buy bone-in chicken thighs and remove the skin.

I tossed potatoes and apples into the pot with the chicken and onions. Some folks use mushrooms and bacon. You could also just do the chicken and onions then serve with pasta/rice and a vegetable. This is one of those dishes that you can really simplify or really dress up. I aimed for a very simplified, one-pot-meal version.

Ingredients I Use (but you can be pretty creative!)
Oil (I used grapeseed)
Bone-in chicken thighs (I used 6; remove the skin before cooking)
Flour (I used rice flour)
Seasonings (I used Italian Seasoning, but you can use whatever you like)
Salt 'n Pepper
Onions (I used 2)
Garlic (I used 3 cloves)
Cooking Wine/Apple Juice/Cheap Wine/maybe even Beer
Soy Sauce (optional, but adds a nice layer of flavour)
Water
Potatoes
Apples (could use carrots, celery, whatever you have on-hand, or nothing else at all!)

Heat the oil in a large cooking pot. Put the flour, seasonings, and s&p into a large plastic freezer baggie, add the chicken pieces and shake til they're well-coated.

Peel and chunk your onions, peel and chop your garlic (or just use whole).

Place the chicken pieces into the oil and let them brown on all sides. Remove the chicken piece from the pot and turn the temperature down to about medium low.

Add the onions and garlic to the oil in the pot.

For the "sauce" you will need to decide what amounts to put in to get a taste that you like. I poured in about 1/4 - 1/3 bottle of cooking wine, then added a bit of soy sauce at a time til the sauce tasted just a bit stronger than I would like. I then added chopped potatoes with the skin still on and returned the chicken pieces to the pot. I added enough water** for everything to cook without the sauce becoming too thick too soon.

Lid on. Medium heat. About half an hour later, I peeled/cored/chunked a couple of apples and tossed them into the pot for a few more minutes and voila!

**Chicken or vegetable stock would also work instead of water, but I found the soy sauce did a nice job of adding in the extra flavour without the extra cost or using up frozen, homemade stock.

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