While Alex was out of town, I decided to make a bunch of recipes with things that he doesn’t like. Alex doesn’t like red wine; thus, I should make recipes that incorporate red wine as a main component. This made it the perfect time to try Easy Coq au Vin.
I cooked thick cut bacon to use in this, and discarded the majority of the grease; it would have been easier to fry the bacon as whole strips rather than trying to cut it up before cooking it. I used dried thyme in place of fresh. Aside from that, I made no changes to the recipe. I was surprised that the recipe called for cooking the pearl onions and mushrooms separately from the chicken-wine mixture and adding them in at the end. The meat was very tender, so I shredded the meat from the drumsticks before adding the chicken back in at the end.
Quite honestly, this recipe had a lot of time where I had to be involved with it. You cook the bacon; strain the grease; brown chicken on both sides, potentially in batches; saute onions and aromatic vegetables; add wine and reduce; simmer with chicken and broth; saute vegetables separately; remove chicken and reduce sauce; mix all together and reheat. Doesn’t seem particularly easy, does it? It took me about 2 hours from start to finish, and the majority of that time was spent at the stove.
This was fine. I think the bacon (maybe I used too much?) and the (not low-sodium) broth I used made it kind of salty. The flavor was good, but not extraordinary. I suppose I feel like this should have been much better than it was, considering the amount of time I put into it. Although I believe I’ve made coq au vin before, I can’t remember specific recipes that I can compare this to; however, I’m not sure that this would be “easier” than any other given recipe.
This was good enough, and made decent leftovers. I shredded all of the chicken before I stored it for lunches for the week, and I think I preferred it that way. Given the time commitment for the recipe, though, I doubt I’ll make it again.
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