Project Two: Coq Au Vin

I decided to make one of my favorite things to order from Rue Cler at home: Coq Au Vin.  Chicken in wine.  It's a sort of stew made from chicken stewed in red wine, carrots, onions, garlic, and potatoes.  The recipe I used had bacon in it as well, although next time I think I'll leave it out.

I started out doing something I'd never done before...buying a whole fryer, and then cutting it into the various chicken pieces myself.  I watched a video online, and thought: "I can do this, it looks easy!" OKAY. It is not as easy as it looks!  My chicken was very juicy, even after I dried it off, so chicken juice got everywhere, it was slippery, I couldn't find the joints where I could cut the pieces off the carcass.  Next time, I think I'll just buy a whole chicken that has already been cut apart.  Much simpler, much cleaner, much better!!   Here's a picture of the poor chicken after I was done...poor thing looks like it's been mangled!

Still, I did something new, and now I can say that I've done it!  Plus, now I'm a real woman!

Back to the prep:

There was a lot of chopping of carrots, onions, and garlic:

I fried up the bacon, then cooked up the chicken in the bacon fat.

 This is the chicken pieces in the bowl

 Some of the chicken cooked, in the pan

The rest of the chicken cooking...

Then I cooked the carrot, onion, garlic mixture in the pot...

 Then added the potatoes...

Had to keep the chicken warm!

Added the potato/carrot/garlic/onion mixture to the pan...

Then cooked the wine up a bit with some salt...

Poured the wine over the chicken stuff...

Covered it with Aluminum foil, and let it simmer for an hour and a half!

An hour and a half later...

YUM!  The chicken was falling off the bone!

My Coq Au Vin in my bowl...so good!

It was absolutely delicious.  Everything was so tender and flavorful!  I didn't have a casserole dish big enough to fit all the chicken and veggies and wine...I had to use a pan instead.  Next time I will definitely do a casserole dish, instead of a pan.  I think it will help if the chicken is completely surrounded by the wine, instead of just on the bottom half of the chicken.  STILL GOOD, REGARDLESS!