Category: Mad Men Dinners

Coq au vin

Coq au vina and French Braised Carrots

You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients 
Julia Child

For the season ending episode of Mad Men I couldn’t resist a making a coq au vin, a popular dish in the 60’s, after looking at several recipes I decided to try Eric Ripert’s version and at the end I blend in Beurre Manie to which I’ve added a little grated lemon zest, perfect little perk up to the dish.  I used to make Craig Claiborne’s recipe or Julia’s,  CI’s modern version,  Amanda Hesser’s recipe on food 52, but Eric won out for some crazy reason, just something new, but I can tell you that the dish is rich in flavor and a keeper recipe.

My ongoing issue with the vent hood fan forced me into broiling the chicken and I used the crisper for the bacon in the microwave, chicken not so pretty golden, but what does it matter after it cooks for 3 hours and easily falls off the bone and the sauce, my goodness just delicious.

The braised carrots are really good and not too far off carrots Vichy that I love, add water to just cover carrots add a teaspoon or two of sugar, brown or white, salt, & pepper, and a tablespoon of butter cook uncovered for about 2o minutes or until desired doneness or until most of the water is gone, toss with additional butter and a bit of fresh minced parsley.

Recipe: Coq au Vin

Adapted from Eric Ripert

Serves 8

1 chickens, cut up
flour for dusting chicken
½ cup canola oil
2 slices smoked bacon (optional)
1 cup celery, medium diced
1 cup diced carrot
1 cup diced onion
4 garlic clove, peeled and sliced
6 ounces baby bella mushrooms, diced
1 cup brandy
1 cup Vermouth
1 bottle red wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 sprigs fresh thyme 1 bay leaf
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 package fettucine nests or egg noodles

  1. Lay the chicken pieces on a parchment lined baking pan; season chicken with salt and pepper and lightly dust with flour.
  2. Heat canola oil in a heavy bottomed stock pot, slowly add the chicken and cook over medium heat until the skin is golden brown and crispy. Turn chicken and continue cooking until golden brown.
  3. Remove chicken from pan and discard all but 1 tablespoon of oil. Render the bacon until crisp and add the celery, carrot, onion , garlic and mushroom; cook until lightly caramelized.
  4. Deglaze the pan with the brandy and add the browned chicken, red wine and tomato paste and thyme. Bring to a boil and simmer on very low heat for about 3 hours, until the chicken is very tender and starts falling off the bone.
  5. Carefully remove the chicken from the sauce and reduce the sauce by half. Once the sauce had thickened, add the chicken and season to taste. Serve over egg noodles
*OptionalBeurre Manie, equal parts butter and flour…I like lemon zest add as well about a teaspoon or so,