Coq Au Vin

Happy new year and welcome to my blog!  I've been saying for years that I want to start a food blog.  The hardest part of starting a food blog is naming it.   When I thought of Cook Au Vin, I figured I would have to make Coq Au Vin.  That, however, seemed very daunting to me.    But almost as if it was meant to be, I turned on the Food Network one day and Alton Brown was making it.   I did some research and it seems his is pretty authentic, so I decided to go with it. 


This is not a throw together meal.   It requires fore-thought, patience and time (2 days!).   But oh, was it worth it.   It is a bowl of earthy goodness.   The chicken is fall off the bone tender from slow braising in the oven.  The onions were sweet and succulent.  The lardons added a subtle saltiness.  I added a few extra mushrooms to mine, because I love mushrooms, but next time I think I'll stick with the recipe.    There were plenty.  



Another alteration I made was using only one bottle of wine.  It was plenty.    I was pretty alarmed when the chicken looked purple when I first took it out of the oven.    After I reduced my sauce it became a deep brown.    While I cooked my egg noodles, I nestled the chicken back into the sauce and it took on the rich color of the sauce.   


I will definitely make this again.  A great dish for entertaining, especially since it can be made a day in advance and only gets better the longer it sits for the flavors to meld.  


This is a long recipe, so I'm going to link to the source.   


Coq Au Vin, courtesy of Alton Brown