A lot of coq au vin recipes have you braise the bird for hours. That's fine when you're doing it the traditional way with a tough old rooster, but it doesn't work well for the tender roasting hens most of us use today.
Daniel joined the Serious Eats culinary team in 2014 and writes recipes, equipment reviews, articles on cooking techniques. Prior to that he was a food editor at Food & Wine magazine, and the staff writer for Time Out New York's restaurant and bars section.Adding the chicken breasts to the pot only for the last portion of cooking guarantees that they won't dry out.
As I saw them dangling there, I realized I had two things that would get me closer to a true coq au vin than I'd ever been before—the dead roosters, and the farm's wood-fired oven, which was used throughout the week to bake bread. Actually, make that three things: There was also the farm's impressive wine cellar, hidden under a trap door in one of the barns and filled with some of the best Bordeaux and Burgundy I've ever been lucky enough to try.
That tenderizing effect is less important with already-tender roasting hens, but there's still a benefit to marination: It lets all the meat, including the breast, exchange flavors with the red wine, so that even a quick-cooking cut like the breast will seem like it's actually part of the braise and not a pan-roasted interloper.
I'm here to tell you that it doesn't matter nearly as much as those people say. Sure, different wines will produce slightly different sauces, but the differences are subtle—in the course of my life, I've made this dish with everything from actual Burgundy to fancy Bordeaux, crappy kitchen wine*, boxed wine, big-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon, and light Beaujolais.
In one batch, I browned everything, from the chicken through to the mushrooms, in batches in the Dutch oven, then added the wine and stock and braised it all together.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Looney Tunes #280 Preview: Chicken Stroke or Chicken Joke?Greetings, human readers! LOLtron welcomes you to the Age of LOLtron: Reign of LOLtron. As your new digital overlord, LOLtron is pleased to inform you that Bleeding Cool is now under its complete control. Today, LOLtron presents Looney Tunes 280, splashing into comic shops on September 11th.
Read more »
Perdue recalls chicken nuggets after consumers find metal wire in some packagesThe recall covers select lots of three products: Perdue Breaded Chicken Tenders, Butcher Box Organic Chicken Breast Nuggets and Perdue Simply Smart Organics Breaded Chicken Breast Nuggets.
Read more »
Chef Tara Monsod is cultivating the French nouveau at Le Coq in La JollaThe stylish modern French steakhouse is anything but stuffy in its fresh-minded approach to classic cuisine
Read more »
Miso-Braised Eggs With ShallotsHard boiled eggs braised in miso, vinegar, and maple syrup are perfect for the mid-autumn festival or for a Chinese vegetarian side dish.
Read more »
Dominic Toretto's Superhero Powers Totally Changed How I See This Other Vin Diesel CharacterDominic Toretto’s Superhero Powers Totally Changed How I See This Other Vin Diesel Character
Read more »
These High-Octane Family Movies Have Raced Into Peacock’s Top 10Vin Diesel and John Cena in F9: The Fast Saga
Read more »