THE PUDDING INCIDENT

What have you been up to in the kitchen?

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Coq au Vin

I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and decided today was the day to make it. I read a bunch of different recipes, and sorta mixed them together for what fit me best. I was skyping with Alison while I was making it, and her request, here is the recipe:

ingredients:
1 package chicken thighs (4-6 thighs), salt & peppered
4 slices bacon, chopped into little bits.
1 sliced carrot
1 sliced celery stalk
6-8 shallots, peeled and cut in half, long ways
1 package of small mushrooms, cleaned and half or quartered
1-2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
Thyme
Marjoram
Parsley
Bay Leaf
2 Tbsp flour
2 c. Dry Red Wine

Directions:
Melt 2-3 Tbsp butter in a dutch oven or cast iron skillet.
Fry up your bacon until its hella crispy. Use a slotted utensil to remove the bacon, set aside.
In two batches, to keep the chicken from getting claustrophobic, brown the thighs in the buttery bacon grease. Yummmm. 3ish minutes per side should be fine. Put chicken with bacon.
Dump the shallots, garlic, celery and carrot into the grease. Get them all nice and caramelly soft. Remove and put with chicken and bacon.
Dump flour, parsley, thyme, marjoram, salt, pepper, and bay leaf into grease. Stir vigorously for a minute or two.
Pour in the 2 c. wine. Stir to mix.
Dump the chicken, veggies and bacon back in. Cover and simmer for an hour. While simmering, cook egg noodles (if you want. Alternately, you can serve with crusty bread. Or rice).
5-10 minutes before you are ready to chomp this deliciousness, add in the mushrooms and let them soak up some of the goodness (I'm not real well versed in mushroom cooking. There is a chance they would have been better served being cooked with the veggies in the beginning and simmer for the entire hour. I'll leave this decision to you).
Serve over noodles, with bread, or rice. Whatever floats your boat. Effing bomb.