Coq au vin, merci Gilles

Coq au vin, merci Gilles

Shopping list for 4 people: 1 large chicken, preferably fermier or grain-fed. 4 large onions, 100 grams of bacon pieces, garlic, 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of flour, a bottle of good red wine, bordeaux, cote du Rhone or Bourgogne. 2 glasses of cognac, pepper and salt, a chicken stock cube, 150 grams of mushrooms, thyme, rosemary, 1 bay leaf.

Divide the chicken into small pieces and meanwhile fry the bacon pieces, the finely chopped onions and the garlic in the olive oil until they are translucent. Take half out of the pan. Put the butter in the pan and brown the chicken over high heat. Pour the cognac over it and flambe it. Sprinkle the flour over it and then pour in the wine (taste it yourself first!), add the herbs and the chicken stock cube. Put the pan on and let everything stew for well over an hour on gentle heat. At the end, prepare the mushrooms in a bit of butter. Take the chicken out of the pan and add to the sauce the mushrooms and the reserved bacon pieces and onion. Make the sauce a bit thicker if needed, e.g. with cornflour, or more easily by finishing it with a knob of butter (monter au beurre). Serve the chicken poured over with the sauce and boiled potatoes. Of course it should be accompanied by the same good red wine!