Ah, Coq Au Vin. Classic French comfort food. Juicy chicken, simmered and braised in wine with carrots, onions, garlic and shallots. When the weather turns chilly, it begs to be eaten in front of a fire. It is dreamy food. But classic, true, authentic Coq Au Vin ala Julia Childs or the Cooks Atelier takes exactly 100 hours to prepare. I’m a sucker for spending all day in the kitchen, but life rarely allows for it with busy little boys. Our Easy Coq Au Vin still serves up all the comforting goodness of the traditional dish with big, bold flavors, but it skips a few steps. And I promise you won’t miss it. 

Our easy Coq Au Vin is the first of several recipes we’re adding to the new “Gather” section of the Live Life Love Food Site found right at the top right of the home page.

When you see your friends in passing, how often do you say “We want to have you over for dinner”, “We should get together.” We miss you!” Life moves fast, and it’s hard to take the time and effort for dinner parties. Not even fancy dinner parties. But simply time to gather around a table, sit down and share a meal. Have a real conversation. When we gather around the table, we nourish not only our bodies, but our souls. Memories are made, adventures planned and relationships cemented when we break bread with the people that are important to us. ⠀⠀⠀⠀

In our new Gather section, you will find recipes worthy of feeding your loved ones when you gather them around your table. Almost all of them can be made completely in advance so you can relax and enjoy spending time with your people.⠀⠀⠀

For my first attempt at Coq Au Vin, I used a recipe from the Cooks Atelier, a drool worthy cookbook written by an expat mother daughter team currently living in the Burgundy region of France. There are photos and stories of their quaint little shop, cooking school, their local market and their suppliers. A week long immersion experience at their cooking school is high on my bucket list. Someone please tell my husband. 😉 

I think by the time I finished cooking though, we ate around 10pm. A fantastic meal, but it took FOREVER. The recipe is exacting with steps like, “with a paring knife, make an X in each pearl onion, soak them in water and then peel off the outer layer of each pearl onion.” Followed by the peeling of the mushroom caps, blanching of finishing vegetables and straining and reducing of sauces. Which is all well and good. I have a deep respect for the authentic method of cooking a traditional dish in the traditional way. However, in real day to day life, I think we all just want to feed our people flavorful, amazing food without spending all day doing it while toddlers climb our legs and lego directions wait impatiently to be deciphered. 

So, that’s we did today.  For a full, step by step step process, go check out my Instagram stories- under highlights click Coq Au Vin icon. I won’t pretend this is exactly the same as the traditional version, but it was AMAZING and it look less than an hour of active cooking. And God bless my husband for keeping our darling, but distracting children out of our kitchen for an entire hour.

Tips for Easy Coq Au Vin

1. When browning the chicken thighs, start skin side down. When the chicken is ready to flip, it will release itself from the pan. Don’t try to force it. 
2. Chop ALL veggies and measure out liquids prior to even turning on your stove. You’ll thank me. 
3. To clean the mushrooms- use a damp paper towel-never run them under water. Mushrooms absorb liquid and you want them to absorb the garlic butter flavors, not water. 

Once you pop the pot into the oven, all that’s left is to invite your people over and choose a wine. Alan picked up this John Ryan Willamette pinot noir and it was a stellar find for twenty bucks. My plan was to cook this on Saturday and eat in on Sunday, as this is the kind of thing that will always taste even better on day two. But when our child care for Saturday date night fell through, we changed our plans and invited our friends over for dinner instead.

In front of a crackling fire, laughing about old memories and planning new adventures, our tummies warm and full, we all agreed staying in was far superior to the evening out we had planned. So, moral of the story is this- spend an hour in the kitchen, invite your people, open the wine and enjoy. 

For some other comforting goodness, try our Beef Stew with Porcini Mushrooms or the Chicken Pot Pie with Camembert. 

Happy Cooking my friends-what are your favorite winter comfort meals? 

Amanda

Easy Coq Au Vin

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Easy Coq Au Vin, a simplified version of the classic French dish with less than an hour of active cook time. Juicy chicken, braised in wine with carrots, onions and garlic. Sure to wow your people

• 4 Bone in, skin on chicken thighs (about 2 pounds)
• 4 slices thick cut bacon sliced into 1/4" thick lardons. or 2 ounces smoked pork jowl 1/4 inch dice
• 1 pound carrots, trimmed, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 large yellow onion, ends trimmed, outer layers removed and diced
• 4 large garlic cloves, peeled, chopped, (divided- three cloves for main dish, one for finishing mushrooms)
• 1 large shallot, ends trimmed, outer layers removed and diced
• 1/4 cup brandy
• 1/2 bottle (750 mL bottle) dry white wine
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 12 thyme springs, divided. Tie 10 sprigs together with kitchen twine for main dish. Remove leaves from 2 sprigs, roughly chop and set aside for finishing mushrooms. Garnish with more thyme if desired
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1 Cup frozen pearl onions (optional)
• 8 ounces Baby Bella mushrooms (can sub white button mushrooms), wiped clean with damp paper towel, stems discarded and cut into quarters.
• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• Kosher Salt and Fresh ground pepper

1. Pat chicken thighs dry and season with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Set aside and allow to come to room temperature while you chop all vegetables and measure out liquids.
2. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (make sure there is room to set your pot on the middle rack.)
3. In a large dutch oven over medium high heat, cook the bacon or pork jowl until crispy. With a slotted spoon, remove the bacon/pork jowl and set aside.
4. Place chicken thighs in pan skin side down. When the skin releases from the pan, brown other side. (Approx 4 minutes per side)
5. Remove Chicken and set aside.
6. Pour off all but about 2-3 tablespoons of the fat- enough to coat the veggies. Reserve the fat in case your pan gets dry.
7. Add onions and carrots with a 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Cook about five-seven minutes until onions start to turn translucent.
8. Add garlic and shallot and cook one more minute until garlic is fragrant.
9. Add brandy and deglaze the pan, scraping up all the little bits on the bottom
10. Add the chicken stock, wine, thyme bundle and bay leaf.
11. Add chicken and bacon back to the pan. Add any accumulated juice from the chicken back to the pan.
12. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer. Simmer 30 minutes.
13. Add pearl onions, cover and transfer to oven
14. Cook 30 minutes in oven
15. While the pot is in the oven, make the mushrooms.
16. Melt the butter in a medium saute pan or skillet over medium high heat.
17. Add the mushrooms and cook 3 minutes. Add one chopped garlic clove and leaves from two reserved thyme sprigs and cook another 3-5 minutes until mushrooms are browned. Add more butter or olive oil if pan gets too dry.
18. Remove mushrooms and set aside.
19. When chicken is cooked through, remove the pot from the oven. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
20. Add mushrooms to the pot.
21. Serve with mashed potatoes or warm, crusty bread for sopping up the sauce.