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approaching the drunken chicken
The French classic "coq au vin“: It’s chicken in pieces - mainly breast and leg - slowly cooked in lots of red wine with bacon and vegetables... Imaging just the flavors diffusing in your home!
Prep Time40 minutes
Cook Time5 hours
ingredients:
  • 2 chicken breasts about 350 - 400 g w/o bones
  • 2 chicken legs about 500 - 600 g with bones
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 75 - 100 g bacon
  • 1 big red onion
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic
  • 250 g mushrooms
  • 4 carrots about 400 g before trimming
  • 500 - 600 ml red wine
  • 400 ml chicken stock
  • 1 can tomato purée about 70 g
  • a pinch of sugar
  • 1 tbsp dried thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 1-2 tsp potato or corn starch - OPTIONAL
equipment:
  • a slow cooker
  • a handheld blender
how to:
  • Fry the chicken pieces in butter for about 10 min; add salt & pepper; turn the chicken pieces over from time to time.
  • In the meantime chop the onion & the bacon.
  • Place the chicken pieces in the slow cooker.
  • Fry the onion & the bacon in the same pan w/o cleaning; add salt & pepper.
  • Add the pressed garlic.
  • In the meantime chop the mushrooms.
  • After about 10 min add the mushrooms & fry for another 10 min. Careful: nothing shall get burnt.
  • In the meantime chop the carrots.
  • Empty the pan into the slow cooker.
  • Add the carrots to the slow cooker.
  • Pour the red wine as well as the chicken stock into the slow cooker.
  • Add the tomato purée w/ a pinch of sugar, the dried thyme & the bay leaves.
  • Close the lid of the slow cooker & let it cook on high temperature for at least 5 hours.
  • Remove the chicken pieces - keep warm.
  • Remove most of the vegetables & the bacon (let’s say about 90 %!) - keep warm.
  • Discard the bay leaves.
  • Smooth the liquid w/ the rest of the vegetables using a handheld blender.
  • Add salt & pepper to taste.
  • If it’s too runny - it mostly is - bring it to a boil & add some starch solved in water.
Notes
Chicken: You may also start w/ a whole chicken & cut it into pieces - or you buy just chicken breasts & legs as I did. If you like you may confine yourself to chicken breasts only as well as chicken legs only.
Bacon: I happened to have some nice thick bacon slices in my fridge, however, fresh bacon - not cured bacon. So salt was missing... You may also use cured bacon.
Red wine: I planned to use a bottle of red wine (750 ml). Unfortunately my slow cooker was too small - so I only had about 500-600 ml. You may use more if you like.
Type of red wine: Use a red wine not too acid, not to earthen.
After the cooking: The chicken is very, very tender. Be careful: the chicken legs tend to fall apart from the bones. The vegetables are soft & full of wine flavor. If you like it to rest some time before serving put everything - except the liquid resp. sauce - back in the slow cooker & start the slow cooker on holding.
Leftovers may be stored in the fridge for at least 2 days.
The sauce may be frozen because there is a lot of sauce!