A cock, now all you need is a van

Coq au vin is a thing to be savoured, it’s the type of hearty food that makes you happy and warm inside. On depressing grey days it can lift you up and shake you out of any misery.

Shared with family and friends and accompanied by a bottle of wine or three, it’s about as close to a perfect way to spend some time as I can imagine.

We have a friend who lives a fair distance away, and who loves this dish so much that it is virtually impossible to go and visit her for any length of time, without being coerced into cooking it. On three of her birthdays, her wish for a present has been a big pot of coq au vin and some good wine to accompany it. How could I ever say no to such a request when the truth is that I love sitting there and eating it almost as much as she does.

BUT……..

All of the warmth and joy of coq au vin is dependent on the integrity of the dish, the ingredients that have gone into it, and the effort and time (especially time) that has gone into preparing it. It depends on it being real.

Recently I’ve seen on numerous tv programs and in books and magazines, dishes which claim to be ‘quick’ coq au vin and simply aren’t. Don’t make the mistake of using any of these recipes and thinking that you are eating the real thing. The whole point of this dish is that it is cooked slowly, as a general rule if it hasn’t taken at least an hour to prepare and cook there is no way that it is going to taste as it should.

It is also not even close to what it should be if it contains such bizarre additions as olives or orange juice. Chicken in a tomatoey sauce with olives, is probably something more like chicken cacciatore, it’s certainly not coq au vin.

Lastly, if it only contains a splash, or a glass of wine, then it isn’t going to be right either. A bottle of a rich red wine reduces down to give this dish its fantastic flavours, a ‘splash’ only gives it a hint of its real character.

Let’s face it, coq au vin is really just a chicken stew with red wine in it, but it’s a classic recipe for a reason. If you are going to make it then stick to that classic recipe and you will see why. It isn’t something that needs to be changed or modernised or reinvented, it is perfect just the way it is.

There is no reason to bugger about with it, and there is no excuse for trying to cook it faster than it needs or for cutting corners. A large part of the cooking time is simmering and you can just leave it alone to do its own thing.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that coq au vin is one of those dishes, like curry, that only gets better and better if it is cooked a day in advance, and then reheated. The flavours get deeper and it somehow seems to develop more of a soul.

Do cook it with the care and love it deserves, serve it with simple boiled potatoes and/or a lovely fresh bread, eat it on a cold evening by candlelight with friends, and wash it down with plenty of red wine.

Coq au vin isn’t quick, but it really is an easy thing to make. The following recipe is based very closely on one by Nigel Slater, with just a few slight adjustments, and I have never found anything else that comes close to it, in any recipe book or in any restaraunt.

Notes on ingredients

Like any dish, a coq au vin is only ever going to be as good as the ingredients that it is made up of.

Most dishes call for a young firm chicken, but because of the way that we are cooking it an older bird is much better for coq au vin. Older birds develop thicker bones, and more flavourful meat, and will create a richer and deeper sauce. As always with chicken, go for free-range and preferably corn-fed if you can afford it, the difference in taste is well worth it.

Apart from being red, there are no real rules on the wine that you should use in this dish. Traditionally it would obviously be from the Burgundy region of France, but it isn’t set in stone. For me, it needs to be something loud and bold, with a deep slightly fruity flavour.

The final ingredient note is on the pancetta or bacon that you use. It needs to be reasonably fatty and green (unsmoked). If it is too lean then it will not impart enough flavour into the sauce and could burn. If you can get it then buy it in a chunk and cut it into strips yourself, if not then you could get away with larger lardons, but don’t try to use thin rashers of bacon because they will just break down and disappear during cooking.

Classic Coq au vin recipe

1. Joint the chicken into 6 or 8 pieces, keeping the giblets and carcass to make the stock.

2. Throw the chicken carcass, giblets, and any odd looking bits of fat or meat that you don’t want to use into a deep saucepan, fill with water until it just covers the chicken, and add two of the medium onions, one carrot and about six whole black peppercorns. Bring it to the boil, and then turn the heat down and leave it simmering until you need it.

3. Cut the pancetta (or bacon) into short strips, they shouldn’t be too thin or they will dissolve completely during cooking, but they should be too fat, or they won’t give as much flavour as they should.

4. Put the strips of bacon into a thick bottomed casserole, and cook them over a moderate heat until they turn a golden brown. Move them around every so often while they are cooking, and don’t let them burn. When they are done, then lift then out and put them into a bowl, but leave the fat in the pan.

5. Season your chicken pieces well with plenty of salt and freshly ground black pepper, then place them in the casserole skin side down so that they all fit in tightly, but so that they can all brown. When the skin turns a lovely golden honey colour, turn the chicken pieces over and do the same on the other side. Once they have turned golden on both sides, lift the chicken out and put it in the bowl together with the pancetta. Again do not empty the fat out of the pan, this sticky meaty gloop is where a lot of the flavour in the finished dish is going to come from.

6. While your chicken is in the pan, you can peel and roughly chop up the remaining two medium onions, the carrot and the celery. Once you have taken the chicken pieces out, turn the heat down, add the vegetables and cook them slowly, stirring occasionally.

7. Peel and thinly slice the garlic, add it to the pan as the onion starts to turn translucent, then let it cook for another minute or two.

8. Add the pancetta and the chicken back into the pan with the vegetables, stir in the flour and allow to cook for a couple of minutes before you pour in the bottle of wine, the cognac and then gently stirring in the thyme and bay leaves.

9. Add ladles of the chicken stock that you should still have simmering until there is just enough so that the chicken is covered, but not swimming. Bring the whole thing to the boil, and then turn the heat down so that it is just simmering and bubbling away gently. Partially cover the pan with a lid.

10. Peel the small onions and wash the mushrooms, either leaving them whole, or halving them if you think that they are too big.

11. In a small pan melt the rest of the butter, and add the onions and mushrooms. Let them cook over a medium-high heat until they start to turn golden, but do not burn.

12. Season the onions and mushrooms with some salt and freshly ground black pepper, and then add them to the pan where the chicken is cooking.

13. Leave the whole thing to simmer for about 40 minutes, and then check it to see how the chicken is cooking. It should be lovely and tender, but not quite falling off of the bones. Depending on the bird that you have, it may take anything from 40 minutes to an hour to reach this state. When you think that it is ready, lift the chicken out and set it aside to keep warm.

14. Increase the heat under the pan and let it bubble vigorously for a while so that it starts to reduce. You will find that as your sauce reduces it will start to thicken slightly, but it will never become really thick. What you are looking for is a slightly thicker consistency, but more importantly it will start to get a glossy sheen.

15. Put the chicken back into the and and simmer for a minute or two to bring it back up to temperature, then switch off and serve.