This past saturday, with the Christmas spirit full upon us, my roommate “Cara” and I decided to have a little dinner-and-decorating party for our parents and ourselves at our apartment. As a token of thanks to our parents for lugging the tons of holiday decorations that we store at their (substantially larger) homes all year round back into the city for us, we decided to cook a simple, yet delicious, three-course meal to show our appreciation to them.
Still, when two twenty-something girls, living in New York City, find themselves throwing a dinner party smack-dab in the midst of the holiday season, some strategizing is required. Therefore, the underlying goal for our party’s menu was to make a little bit go a long way. With budgets stretched thin around the holidays, Cara and I prided ourselves on making dinner for six adults (though it could have fed eight) for around $100 in total (so about $50 each)! To be fair, our parents brought the dessert and wine, but with everyone pitching in, we wound up with quite the feast for a reasonable cost:
Appetizers
- Brie en Croute – Baked brie topped with raspberry preserves and candied walnuts, wrapped in Phylo dough and baked until golden and bubbly.
- Herb Focaccia – Chewwy pizza dough smothered in fresh sprigs of rosemary, extra virgin olive oil, fresh cracked sea salt and black pepper corns, toasted in the oven until golden brown.
- Gouda and tart red grapes with water crackers
The appetizers, though heavy on the carbs (and really, who’s complaining about that) went well with both the chardonnay and burgundy wines our parents brought, and sustained our parents through decorating, and Cara and I through an adventure in cooking our main courses – all at the same time – in our 5′ x 10′ kitchen.
Main Course
- Coq Au Vin – The classic french “chicken in wine;” a whole chicken, broken down and slow cooked in burgundy wine, brandy, and herbs in a French Oven until falling off the bone.
- Mushroom Risotto – Previously featured on this blog, this rich, creamy, savory risotto dish was the show-stopping hit of the evening.
- Sweet Potato Casserole – Creamed sweet potatoes whipped with eggs and heavy cream, topped with brown sugar, whole oats, and walnuts – this was dessert for dinner in the best possible way.
- Fresh Garden Salad with Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette – Because every heavy meal needs to pretend to be at least a little healthy, we served fresh mesclun greens and crisp, peppery arugula with chopped carrots, grape tomatoes, pears, shredded pecorino, and chopped walnuts. I topped it with my homemade balsamic dressing – just combine Dijon mustard, a squeeze of lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, a healthy dose of extra virgin olive oil, some Herbs De Provence, and a bit of sea salt – whisk until combined and serve over greens.
For the actual dessert, our moms brought a medley of sweet treats – Cara’s mom brought some delicious crumbly, buttery raspberry bar cookies, made with layers of oats and brown sugar sandwiching tart raspberry jelly. My own mom brought rich chocolate cupcakes doused with small florets of vanilla buttercream, and of course, the classic holiday drink of Long Island – Bailey’s with Hot Cocoa!
All in all, the meal was a great success – our parents were impressed by our culinary expertise and fast moves in the kitchen – and the fact that we would rather spend saturday night dinner partying with them then out on the Manhattan town, which we reassured them we were happy to do. And Cara and I were impressed that we were able to cook all together six dishes in 2.5 hours in our tiny kitchen, and that all of our Christmas decor from last year still fit in our apartment:
But rewind to about 5 hours earlier, and we had anything but visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads. In fact, as we found ourselves with only a few hours to buy all the freshest ingredients for our meal, clean our apartment, and cook for six people, tensions were running high around 4R.
Then, as we were making our last-minute grocery list, Cara stopped to asked me what ingredients I needed. I started rattling off everything we needed for the Braised Shank of Lamb – essentially a Lamb Stew that I had learned to make during Techniques of Italian Cooking and had been dying to recreate – when I stopped. One of the hard, cold truths about life had suddenly dawned on me – lamb is expensive. We both looked at each other with the realization that in order to cook this meal, in Manhattan, we would wind up spending more on the lamb itself than on all the other ingredients put together.
With this in mind, I did a quick Food Network search for a new main course idea, turning to Tyler Florence first since I’ve found his recipes to be foolproof in the past. After skimming the top 50 most popular Tyler Florence dishes (every single one was a chicken dish, which just goes to show how creative us American home cooks are) I finally settled on a classic I’d been longing to try out for some time now – Coq Au Vin. With the newest addition to my kitchen, a beautiful red-enameled French Oven that my parents bestowed upon me, the evening seemed the perfect opportunity to voyage into the world of French Cooking.
And the truth is, dabbling in classic French cuisine really isn’t that difficult at all! I found that Coq Au Vin is actually very easy to make, as long as you have all of your ingredients fully prepped and ready to go (we’re talking pearl onions peeled, carrots chopped, brandy measured out) before you start cooking – this way you can focus on making sure the techniques you’re employing on whatever has gone into the french oven are spot-on.
In order to impress your parents, your roommates parents, your grandparents, your boyfriend’s parents, or basically anyone’s parents by making Coq Au Vin (while cooking five other things simultaneously, juggling plates, and writing a symphony), here’s what you’ll need:
Coq Au Vin (adapted from Tyler Florence’s Recipe)
- 4 slices bacon
- 2 chicken breasts
- 2 thighs
- 2 legs
- 1/2 cup flour
- Salt and pepper
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 cups pearl onions, peeled
- 2 cups mushrooms
- 2 carrots, cut in 2-inch pieces
- 1/4 cup cognac or brandy
- 1 bottle Burgundy wine
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 5 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 teaspoons herbs de Provence
- 3 bay leaves
- Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish
First, prep everything. This includes cleaning the chicken (and breaking it down, if not already done for you) and tossing it in salt, pepper, and flour, skinning the pearl onions, chopping the mushrooms (again, if you can’t buy pre-chopped), peeling and chopping the carrots, and measuring out the brandy. You can also measure out the other liquid and dry ingredients in advance, if you’d like, but these are easier to do on the fly.
Next, set your french oven up on the stove over medium-high heat. Add the four pieces of bacon and fry, tossing with tongs occasionally, until the bacon is crisp and most of its fat has rendered in the bottom of the dutch oven. Remove the bacon and set aside to drain, immediately adding the floured chicken pieces to the hot fat in the french oven. Brown the chicken in the bacon fat on both sides, about two minutes per side.
Once the chicken has browned, remove it from the heat and set aside. Add the pearl onions, garlic, mushrooms and carrots to the pan and saute for about two minutes until softened. Add the chicken back to the french oven, and add the cognac or brandy. Now, if you really know what you’re doing/aren’t already flustered at this point/don’t have a crowd of five people watching you, you can attempt to flambe the brandy as Florence’s recipe recommends. I opted not to do this, given how many balls we had in the air, and the dish came out just delicious anyway – so it’s up to you.
After you’ve used the brandy to deglaze the bottom of the pot slightly, gradually stir in the wine and chicken broth. When all the ingredients in the french oven are well blended, add the Herbs de Provence, bay leaves, and thyme. I also threw the crisp bacon back in there, even though the recipe doesn’t call for it. It’s bacon. Enough said.
Then, the best part. Move the french oven to a back burner, reduce the heat, cover it up, and just let it simmer for about an hour. This gives you time to a) relax, b) finish cooking the rest of your dishes, and c) have a glass (or three) of wine. It’s the second best part of making this dish, after eating it.
Once your hour has passed, remove the cover from the french oven and continue to simmer for 15 minutes to allow the sauce to reduce a bit. At this point, my sauce was still fairly thin and I wanted it to be a bit thicker, so I removed the bay leaves and transferred the chicken, mushrooms, onions, and any other larger pieces of the coq au vin to the serving dish.
Then I added a tablespoon or so of flour to the remaining liquid and vigorously whisked it over high heat until the sauce started to thicken, sort of like a gravy. Once that is done, adjust the seasoning of the sauce with salt and pepper, and pour it over the chicken and vegetables that have been transferred to the serving dish. Garnish with fresh parsley (and crumbled bacon, if you didn’t add back in), and serve!
Whew, I’m glad we got that hard stuff out of the way. Now, on to the fun stuff – Cookie Baking!!
That looks like a pot of heaven! I have never tried Cog Au Vin before. It sounds simple to make.
Thanks for sharing 🙂
As one of the lucky people to have reaped the benefits of “Deck the Halls, and Dinner with All” — The food was fabulous ! I have added the Coq au Vin to my recipe collection ! Thanks 🙂
I work with “Cara’s” mom and when she told me that she would be attending I demanded all the details. As she told all about her wonderful evening I found myself green with envy. And now it is just as enjoyable reading about it. I have also added a few of your recipes to my collection. Throw the bacon back into the Coq au Vin? Love it! Your blog is teriffic and I never missing reading it. Keep it up. I look forward to your future writings.
[…] parm. I’d imagine this would also be very fitting with this quick and easy chicken or this French classic. But then again, when you combine four wonderful ingredients like wild rice, mushrooms, pecans, […]
[…] Coq Au Vin (Classic French Chicken in Red Wine) […]