Coq au Vin

Coq au Vin is our signature dish.

It's been a favorite of mine, since before I ever had chickens. Since before I ever tasted it really. I was in culinary school when I first heard about it. I remember my teacher telling us the history of it, and as we often had to the day before we made an important dish, we had to research and write a (very) short paper about the dish. It's a dish that is a solution to a real problem; and the problem is that half of every egg that hatches gives you a rooster. A rooster that eats as much as any egg laying hen without giving back eggs. Now you don't get any roosters or hens unless you have a rooster, this is true, but you only need one (maybe 2 at the most if you want a backup) for 15 or so hens. So that is 13 or so roosters that you don't need, and they were just running around squabbling or eating up all the pasture etc. Coq au Vin was the solution.

When you eat it, you'll never know you're eating something born of necessity either. A rooster braised in Burgundy and chicken stock, with sauteed pearl onions, mushrooms, and lardons. It sounds like a luxurious extravagance really, but as it turns out, it really does require that treatment. While it is likely slaughtered young (at least at my house it is) so that it doesn't put too much a dent in the food source, it still can be pretty tough. You wouldn't even need to compare against a chicken leg to see the difference. Whether it's because of exercise young cockerels get from jousting each other in play, or from male hormones, or both; a rooster drumstick is very strong. It really practically looks like red meat as well. So if you are preparing such a meat, you want to use a slow cooking process that will extract the collagen, thereby tenderizing it. Luckily for those who will eat the dish, that collagen actually gives extra flavor and a silkier texture to the sauce. Collagen is after all what gives us gelatin as well.

So here is a process which takes a nearly inedible piece of meat, adds lots of fresh aromatic veggies herbs and wine, and given the right technique, becomes something really wonderful. This is the REAL cooking, as opposed to searing a little bit of tenderloin which starts off as something special. It appealed to me for being something incredibly conservative as well as being something which wasn't wasteful. After all tenderloin could feed us all, but there's a whole lot of cow left after that. This is the same sort of thing if you think of your whole flock as a cow- the rooster is that 'bad' cut of meat you might give to the dogs otherwise. And Coq au Vin is it's transcendence!

Unfortunately, the school I went to decided to have us prepare a really large 'batch' of Coq au Vin, as a class. Not saying that my own pot would have made something better, cause who knows- but the dish we all made together was very disappointing. It would be many years till I would have it again. It would have to wait till I had chickens.

I've had it now made from store bought chickens as well as from homegrown birds, and I still think its best when it stays closer to its origins. Store bought chicken doesn't have the strength to go through that process. Give me a rooster or an old stew-hen any day. And if the same flock that produced them has long since paid for itself in fresh eggs, so much the better. Cheaper, tastier, and raised healthier and happier.

We made Coq au Vin this last weekend when my sister and her family were visiting, so here are the pictures.. Unfortunately, we didn't shoot one of the finished product before we ate, so the final one is from a dinner last year.

Two pair of leg and thigh, floured and ready for the pan

Veggies cut and ready to go

First sweat the pork

In the pork fat saute the mushrooms, and onions

Brown the bird

Deglaze pan- add two bottles of pinot- some tomato paste- celery carrot and onion- fresh thyme- and the browned chicken itself. All go into the fridge over night.

The next day braise it all, dump the mushy carrots onions and celery, add the sauteed veggies and pork in its place

Finally reduce the sauce and serve! 

We like it over brown rice instead of egg noodles. 

Pictured here with sweet potato and brussels sprouts.