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Coq au Vin

UK

The ultimate romantic dish for date night

SUBMITTED BY

Chris & Toby

Toby and Chris’s love story began with a poke.

“Embarrassingly, when Facebook first started you used to be able to poke people,” Chris recalled. “I poked Toby and then we met up for a drink.” Fourteen years and a wedding later, their love story continues on.

“Growing up knowing that I was gay in a time where you couldn’t even talk about it at school with your school teachers — to be then able to legally be married, it was overwhelmingly emotional,” Toby reflected.

The two share a home in Charlton, England, along with their dog, Beryl. (I’m not kidding.) They also share a love of cooking. In their early years of dating, Toby cooked Chris a coq au vin, a French stew of chicken braised in red wine and brandy that Toby has termed a “meal of love.” It was a dish he remembered his grandmother cooking often during his childhood.

Now, it’s a staple of their shared household, with Toby cooking and Chris taking on the difficult task of peeling and preparing the shallots. It’s a dish they make for each other and for the people they love.

“Cooking is very much a gift, isn’t it? That you gift to people,” Toby said. It’s also a way for them to decompress and reconnect.

“It does help nurture your relationship because you are spending time with each other, creating something together,” Chris explained.

“People can drift apart,” Toby added. “Cooking kind of keeps you together.”

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Coq au Vin

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Ingredients
  

  • 4 strips streaky bacon
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 4 large chicken legs thighs and drums attached
  • 1 onion peeled and sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic peeled and crushed
  • 1½ cups red wine
  • 1 large bay leaf or 2 small
  • 1 sprig fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
  • 250 g mushrooms washed/brushed and halved/quartered
  • 1 Tbsp butter softened
  • 1 Tbsp flour
  • fresh parsley for garnish

Instructions
 

  • In a large pot over medium heat, pan-fry the bacon until their fat has rendered and the bacon is crispy. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and crumble the bacon when they are cool enough to handle. Do not discard the bacon fat.
  • Add the butter and olive oil into the pot with the bacon fat. When the butter has melted and the oil is hot, sear the chicken over medium-high heat until all sides are golden-brown in color, about 8 to 10 minutes. Do this in batches if the pot is too small, adding more oil if necessary. Remove the chicken onto a plate and set aside.
  • Reduce the heat to low. Add in the onion slices and crushed garlic and let them sweat till the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add in the red wine, bay leaf, thyme, bacon bits and chicken. Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, turning the chicken several times during cooking.
  • Add the mushrooms into the pot, cover and simmer for another 15 minutes. Check that the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken and place it on serving plates and keep warm. Discard the bay leaf and thyme. Bring the sauce to a fast boil and reduce it by 1/3.
  • Mash the butter and plain flour together and add it into the sauce, stirring constantly until the sauce has thickened. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Garnish with parsley and serve immediately.

Notes

Recipe inspired by foodie baker
Course: Dinner
Region: Europe

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