French Cooking

Food And Recipes Of France

'Coq au vin' which is a 'rich' and a very popular French dish can have many different variations. Whichever variation you decide to adopt and cook, the fundamentals always remain the same.

Useful tips

• Using older birds works very well, but take a little bit longer to cook!
• If using an older bird, marinade it for at least 24 hrs in the red wine.
• I think that chicken always cooks better on the bone.
• Select your wine carefully and choose something that you would be able to drink.
• The sauce needs to be thick, dark and glossy in appearance.
• Thicken the sauce with “beurre manie” - a kneaded dough, consisting of equal parts of soft butter and flour, this is used to thicken soups and sauces.

French cooking probably sounds really complicated, but it is not, anyone can produce a wonderful dish!


Below is a recipe for Coq au vin.  Just looking at the cooking method involved, you might, think that cooking this dish is complicated, but honestly, it's not that difficult.

To serve four people, you will need the following quantity:


Ingredients:


One 3lb chicken cut into eight portions.
One onion roughly chopped.
One fat clove of garlic, thinly sliced.
One carrot, roughly chopped.
One tablespoon of Olive oil.
Butter.
A good sprig of thyme and parsley. Plus a little parsley to garnish.
125 gm unsmoked bacon lardons (small pieces of fat, typically pork fat).
20 button mushrooms.
Bottle of red wine.
3 tbs Cognac.
100ml of good chicken stock.
Salt and black pepper to taste.


Cooking Method:

1. Using an oven proof casserole dish, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter over a medium heat. 
2. Let the butter foam but not burn, and then add the onion and carrot and fry for about three minutes or until they start to change colour.
3. Add the bacon lardons and continue to cook over a medium heat until the bacon begins to brown. 
4. Add the garlic and cook for a further three - four minutes. Don’t let the garlic color, merely melt. 
5. Remove the vegetables and bacon from the pan, leaving the fats behind, and put to one side.
6. Dry your chicken pieces with kitchen paper then turn up the heat under the pan to get the fats really hot. Then you can add four pieces of chicken, skin side down and fry them WITHOUT MOVING THEM for about four minutes. 
7. When the chicken pieces are golden, turn them over and cook for about another three minutes. You can then remove them from the pan and repeat the process with the other pieces of chicken. 
8. Put all of the ingredients back into the casserole and turn down the heat.
9. Having a box of matches ready, pour the cognac into the casserole dish. Leaning away from the pan, quickly hold a lighted match couple of inches over the bubbling liquid. 
10. Warning - It will ignite!  When the flames have died down you will be left with essence of cognac without the bitter alcohol.
11. Season the chicken with a little salt and black pepper and then add the red wine. You can then turn the heat down to simmer.
12. Add the herbs and chicken stock, then cover the casserole and transfer it to the oven. (150˚C is fine).
13. Cook gently in the oven for about 1½ to 2 hours or until cooked.  You will probably need to check if cooked nearer the 2 hour mark.
14. Prepare the 'beurre manie', which will be used as a thickener for the sauce. Mix two teaspoons of butter and two teaspoons of flour until amalgamated. Put the dough in the fridge to be used later. 
15. Prepare the mushrooms by cleaning them with a damp cloth, and adding them to a mixture of two teaspoons of butter and half a glass of wine in a small pan and simmer. Season with some salt and black pepper, cover and cook gently for twenty minutes. Giving the pan a little shake every now and then.  After twenty minutes, remove from the heat and put them to one side.
16. When the chicken is really tender, carefully remove from the casserole and cover the pieces to keep warm. 
17. Strain the sauce into a clean pan, and add any liquid from the cooked mushrooms and then boil until it is reduced by two thirds. 
18. Taste the sauce for seasoning and then whisk in the 'beurre manie' in small pieces a little at a time until you have the sauce as thick as you want it.
19. Then add in the chicken pieces and mushrooms and reheat.
20. Serve two pieces of the chicken for each person, surrounded by the mushrooms and then ladle on the sauce.

Voilá - you've just successfully delved into the world of French cooking!

For a really good French recipe book  click here.