Delicious Coq Au Vin Recipe

Get fancy with this french wine infused chicken stew

This is the ultimate French chicken stew. Full of flavour and wine this one is a sure fire winner. It is a little bit more involved than your typical stew, but it is most certainly worth the extra work.

What makes a good Coq Au Vin unique is the addition of a mirepoix.

A mirepoix is a flavour base made by cooking very finely diced carrot, celery and onion in oil until the vegetables soften and release flavour.

The bacon and mushroom on the other hand, you want to stand out. So they are cooked separately and set aside right until the end, then stirred in just before serving. This keeps the bacon crisp and the mushrooms fresh tasting.

When I first made Coq Au Vin, I tried putting everything in at the start and cooking it all together like a normal stew. I also tried cooking it in a similar way in a slow cooker. Both options resulted in pretty boring stews; the chicken and veggies all tasted like each other and had a decidedly unappealing soggy texture.

The great thing about Coq Au Vin is that all the different flavours come together at the end. The cooked veggies become almost part of the gravy, the chicken is cooked in plenty of wine and the peas, bacon and mushrooms pop.