This is classic French comfort food flavorfuly braised to perfection. Coq au Vin.
Ingredients
- ½ cup italian parsley, roughly chopped
- 1 dash red wine vinegar (optional)
- 4 stalks celery, cut into 1‑inch pieces
- 24 pearl onions
- 15 button mushrooms
- 6 carrots, peeled and cut into 1‑inch pieces
- 1 chicken (about 3 pound) cut into 6 pieces
- 1 bottle red of red burgundy wine
- 1 onion roughly chopped
- 6 sprigs of thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 clove garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more as needed
- 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
- 6 strips of bacon
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns, pluse more as needed
Directions
The night before serving put the pieces of chicken in a large bowl. Add half of the carrot rounds and all of the chopped onion to the dish, along with half of the thyme sprigs, the bay leaf and the peppercorns. Pour the wine over the chicken and cover the dish. Put in the refrigerator overnight. The next day remove the pieces of chicken and the vegetables with tongs or a slotted spoon and set the chicken and vegetables aside on 2 separate plates. Strain the marinade, discard herbs.
Heat the oil in a large cast iron Dutch oven. Brown the pieces of chicken in it in several batches until golden. Set the chicken aside as it browns on a paper towel lined tray to drain. Add the reserved wine soaked vegetables and the crushed cloves of garlic to the dish, adding more oil as needed; brown them well. Return the chicken to the Dutch oven with the browned vegetables, along with the chicken broth, the reserved marinade and 1 teaspoon salt. Stir, bring to the boil, then cover. Let it simmer over low heat for 1 to 2 hours.
When completely cooked through turn off the heat and let the broth cool somewhat while you peel the pearl onions and cut the mushrooms in half.
Cut the bacon into 1‑inch strips. Add them to a large cast iron skillet set over medium heat. Fry the bacon strips until crisp. Remove them to a paper towel lined plate to drain, reserving them for another use. Add the pearl onions and the mushrooms to the bacon fat and cook until golden. Turn the heat off and set them aside.
Remove the cooled chicken pieces from the Dutch oven and set them on a plate taking care to leave the very tender pieces intact. At this point you may stick the chicken pieces under the broiler for a miniute or two if you’d like to improve their color, but this is not necessary. Strain the remaining liquid pressing down on the solids to get as much flavor out as possible. Discard the solids. Return the chicken and the strained broth to the dish. Add the remaining thyme sprigs. Season to taste. Add the browned pearl onion, mushrooms, celery pieces and the remaining uncooked carrots. Cook over medium heat until the carrots and celery are tender and cooked through about 20 to 30 minutes, adjust seasoning adding touch of red wine vinegar as needed. Garnish with parsley and serve warm with crusty bread.
This looks great, I can’t wait to make some. I love soups during the fall.
See, I’ve been on this soup-a-thon lately, and this sounds so perfect! I could eat this for lunch almost every day! (okay, maybe not really, but tomorrow? And the next day? Sure!)
Great fall flavors in this recipe. You should submit this recipe to Recipe4Living.com! 🙂
This soup sounds so incredibly tasty: butternut squash, wild rice and apples — its a jackpot of flavor. What an incredible combo, I must make this soon. Alas you did remind me of the struggle I have to find my beloved honeycrisp but thankfully a trip back to the midwest is in my future. As always stopping by energizes my creative and culinary juices.
Greg, I am now feeling apple and soup challenged (Do you see an online challenge brewing?). You have taken this soup to a new level and you have definitely turned it into a meal. I have combined apples into a carrot soup but have not added more than that so thanks for taking this to a new comfort and nutritional level.
of you for having resisted using the phrase “how do you like dem apples” so far this week! (Only Matt Damon can pull that off.)
I wish I could dish the food facts like you, you’re kinda like AB when you do that. Well, just without the fun props that Alton often uses. The ethylene gas tidbit was very interesting, particularly since I have a few apples in a bag in the crisper drawer right now. Now I have to get off my lazy butt and go liberate them:)
Have a great weekend!
A lot of butternut squash soups look boring, but I knew I could count on you to make it beautiful. I’m going to have to give this a try.
Please drop by my kitchen when you get a chance. I’ve got an award for you.
Sam
Wow what a combination you have going on here. I am going to try this very soon. It looks very good to the eye and sounds very delicious. I didn’t know some of the information that you have given here and I am very glad that I am going to be armed with this when I go to select my apples. Thank you.
Those are definitely good things to know when choosing an apple. I definitely need to remember that. I never figured to put apple into soup, too. Interesting.
Great recipe. I always enjoy the combo of winter squash, wild rice and apples. I’ve used it to stuff squash before and soup is definitely another great version.