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90 Minute Coq au Vin from Cook’s Illustrated

90 Minute Coq au Vin from Cook’s Illustrated
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Julia Child with her “Coq”
         Cold winter nights are made for eating Coq au Vin.  And on a cold winter afternoon, the aroma of this great French classic cooking fills the kitchen with comfort.   A “Coq” is French for rooster and there lies the rub. In France, roosters were kept as long as they were good breeders.  They lived for several years before they were slaughtered.  They needed long and slow braising—often four hours on the stove–before they could be considered edible.   Red wine not only added flavor, it helped tenderize the old meat of the rooster.  Julia Child is credited with introducing Americans to the dish.  It was one of her signatures.  Wisely, Julia eschewed using roosters or capons and instead used a whole, young, cut-up chicken, something the French had also glommed onto by this time.   This greatly affected the cooking hours for the better.  Julia’s original recipe can be on the table in about 2 1/2 hours.  That may not sound like an unreasonable amount of time for something that is this good.  But in 2006, Cook’s Illustrated decided that this “basic chicken stew” shouldn’t even take that long to cook.  So they set about to make it start to finish in 90 minutes.  And I have to say, they did a bang up job.

A true French Coq complete
with Gauloise and a
medium bodied Red Wine
         The solution Cook’s Illustrated came up with made a lot of sense.  The breasts of a chicken cook at a very different speed that the dark meat of the chicken.  That explains why you can have dried out breasts and perfectly cooked thighs—even when you braise.  So instead of using a whole cut up chicken, their recipe relied on using boneless, skinless chicken thighs weighing in at what a whole cut-up chicken would.  The thighs, the juiciest part of the chicken, turn tender in all of 25 minutes and they are infused with red wine flavor.  But bones and skin are essential to the chicken flavor of the dish.  To compensate for not having those in the pot, CI’s recipe adds chicken stock to the red wine. This mixture is reduced on the stove top for concentrated flavor.  While that is going on, the bacon is cooked in a Dutch oven.  The meat then the onion and mushrooms are browned in a tiny bit of bacon fat.  Minced Garlic, tomato paste and flour are all mixed together.  Finally, the broth and wine reduction is added to the pot and the whole thing cooks merrily away on the stove for 25 minutes.  The chicken is removed. The sauce stays on the stove for another 5 minutes to thicken. Butter and a tiny bit of the red wine is added. The chicken and sauce are re-united and dinner is served.  I served it over a bed of wide egg noodles.  CI recommended mashed potatoes.       
         About the wine:  You should ask your wine merchant for a medium-bodied Red.  Avoid heavy Cabernets which would overwhelm the chicken or light bodied Beaujolais which wouldn’t give enough flavor.  I was able to buy a Chilean Merlot which my wine seller turned me on to.  It was so good in the dish that I went back for more to have on hand.  It was Gato Negro and it cost all of $3.99.  Here’s the recipe:



8 thoughts on “90 Minute Coq au Vin from Cook’s Illustrated”

  • Yet another mouth-watering post! How do you do it?

    Thanks for the addition of the exact wine you used. As a non-drinker of wine (please forgive me…)I love to cook with it but am challenged, to say the least, when it comes to buying the right wines for the right dishes. How could you beat $3.99?

    Thanks, Monte.

    Katie, huge fan of anything to do with Chris Kimball

  • Dear Katie, Once again, thank you for your kind comments. This dish is a wonderful addition to anyone's repertoire. And as to the wine, I hope you have a reasonably priced liquor store near you. There is no reason to drop a bundle on cooking wine. And Gato Negro has a whole series of Merlots, Cabernet Merlots and Chardonnay to choose from. Enjoy the dish!

  • Thanks Lauren, for taking the time to write! We had a second round of the dish–leftover from the first–and I must say it was every bit as good. Thank you Cook's Illustrated for figuring this one out!

    • I just looked over this recipe and see absolutely no reason why you could not double it. I just hope you have a pot big enough! All best and let us know how it turns out.

    • Dear Todd, Not the best description I am afraid. Lay the cutlet on a cutting board on what would be the skinless side. Cut the cutlet in half vertically. Does that make sense?

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