- 10 minutes ago
Learn how to make Coq au Vin from scratch with French chef Alexia Duchêne. From marinating chicken overnight in red wine to slow-braising it until it falls off the bone, discover the essential French cooking techniques you need to master this comforting classic at home.
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00:00Today we're making coq au vin, which basically means rooster in wine.
00:05And it is a braised chicken dish with a red wine sauce.
00:09To start, the chicken is going to be carved and then marinated.
00:14We want all the different pieces separate to cook them at different speed.
00:19The most important thing when you debone anything, and especially poultry,
00:22is knowing where the joints are so that basically you're not doing any work.
00:27It's really the knife that's kind of like moving around the joints.
00:31So I kind of like pull the pieces apart.
00:34So you want to be very, very gentle.
00:37I like a boning knife.
00:38I also have a Japanese Deba small knife.
00:43It's a bit heavier than usual knives, which is great when you have to put a bit of pressure
00:47and cut like a neck, bones and stuff like that.
00:51You can go to the supermarket and buy drumsticks, thighs, breasts.
00:55If you don't want to do the work, it is actually cheaper for you to buy a whole chicken and
01:00do it yourself.
01:03So here we have the breast.
01:07So now it's time to cut the garnish for the marinade of the chicken.
01:12The aromatics, pretty simple.
01:14Shallots, carrots, celery, thyme, bay leaf and garlic.
01:18The way we're going to cut the aromatics don't really matter.
01:21This is just going to serve for the marinade.
01:23And then the shallots, just going to peel.
01:26That's pretty much it.
01:28Now everything is going in this bowl.
01:30Now we're going to submerge this in red wine.
01:35Something in the range of $15, $20 is where I would go if you want to make something nice.
01:42So red wine, submerge, perfect amount.
01:46The wine in this recipe is used to tenderize the meat.
01:49The acid part of the wine kind of acts like you would do when you fry a chicken in buttermilk.
01:54Then when you're going to braise it for so long,
01:56you're going to have meat that pulls off the bone and is extremely juicy.
02:00This will marinate for roughly 12 hours overnight, I'm going to say.
02:06Okay, so chicken has been marinated overnight.
02:10You really see that the color went even through the bone.
02:13It's really this nice burgundy color.
02:16So now the idea is to pat dry that chicken so that when we're searing it we get a crust.
02:23Skin side down because this is the side of the chicken that we're going to sear first.
02:28And that's where we want the browning to happen.
02:30Just do the same with the other side, patting it dry.
02:33Okay, so now it's going to be time for searing.
02:36So I want a big pot, really want a high heat.
02:40I'm seasoning just to make sure that we have salt throughout the recipe.
02:45Even though we marinated the chicken, we did not put salt in the marinade.
02:48So this is really to give flavor and to build layers throughout the recipe.
02:51Oil to start, neutral oil, we'll add butter later on.
02:55But it's important to just start with oil because it has a higher smoking point.
02:59So I don't really use its thermometer.
03:01I just put my hand and kind of try and feel the heat.
03:04That's the technique.
03:10You really want to hear the sizzle.
03:12It's really a good indicator of if the oil is hot enough to sear.
03:18So this is what we call braising.
03:19So it's the action of coloring a piece of meat.
03:23You add liquid.
03:24You let it cook for a decent amount of time.
03:26And then you kind of reduce the sauce and it kind of becomes one.
03:31The action of searing is to give depth and color and flavor.
03:36And then obviously you're adding liquid.
03:38So you're not getting that crust, but you're getting intensity.
03:42And then the fact that you're cooking it for now in 30 minutes, two hours,
03:45it will just intensify and kind of bind the sauce with the chicken.
03:50You're just looking to sear both sides.
03:53You're not looking to cook fully the chicken since it will cook in the sauce.
03:58You see, you really want to go deep brown.
04:02You have what we're looking for.
04:03So I poured off all the grease from the chicken skin and the excess oil.
04:10And this is the state of the pan.
04:13I'm going to deglaze this pan and get all of these delicious brown bits that will give flavor.
04:19So now it's time to sweat the vegetables.
04:22A big tablespoon of tomato paste.
04:25You want the tomato paste to kind of completely stick to your veg,
04:29not have any moisture.
04:31Now when you see the deep browning, you have to go with the cognac.
04:35This is the moment.
04:38I smell this kind of compote of grapes.
04:42You're looking for something that still stays quite sticky, but you're cleaning the pan once again.
04:46We're going to put the wine back in.
04:51The red wine is reduced by half.
04:53So now it's time to put all of these chicken pieces back in.
04:56And make sure nothing is too crowded, that none are on top of the other.
04:59And a nice homogenous flat surface to make sure they all cook at the same speed.
05:05Now it's time for chicken stock.
05:07The stock is going to depend on the pan you're cooking the chicken in.
05:12You really want to make sure that it's covered, but you don't want to completely submerge everything.
05:17If you completely submerge the chicken, it's not going to taste bad, it's just going to be a bit more
05:21watered down.
05:23Now that I've seen the first signs of simmering, it's going to go in the oven at 300 for roughly
05:29an hour and a half, up to two hours.
05:31Okay, the chicken is in the oven and now it's time to prepare the garnish.
05:36We have bacon, in French we call it lardon, and then pearl onions and mushrooms.
05:43We'll start with the bacon.
05:45Cut them in pieces that are roughly this size, like that.
05:51It doesn't need to be too precise.
05:53What's really going to be interesting is all of the bacon fat that's going to flavor the sauce.
06:00When you cook bacon or any fatty cart of meat, you want to start with a cold pan so it
06:06renders low and slow.
06:08It's a bit like when you're cooking duck skin, you know, Mcgray.
06:11If you're cooking it on a high heat straight away, you're going to lose a lot of fat, but you're
06:17not going to render it how it should be.
06:21The mushrooms, we're going to go pretty simple and do quarters.
06:27If they're smaller, you can do just halves.
06:30Okay, so we're pretty good with the bacon here.
06:34The idea is to put all of our garnish at the end here to assemble in the sauce at the
06:39end.
06:41All of that fat here.
06:43Smoking a touch, but that's fine.
06:45I'm going to add the onions to the pan.
06:49Some water.
06:52These are pearl onions.
06:54They're very small.
06:55They're quite sweet.
06:56We use these onions in France quite a lot to what we call glacé, which is what I'm doing now.
07:01Glacé means glazed.
07:02And it's the action of adding water to a vegetable with butter, or in this case also bacon fat,
07:09a bit of sugar and salt.
07:11Basically, what we want is to reduce all of this liquid to a glaze.
07:16And so it glazes the onion with this kind of sweet, buttery sauce.
07:21I'm going to add a touch of butter.
07:23So while the onions are cooking, I'm going to sauté my mushroom in a bit of oil to start.
07:30Looking for like nice, deep caramelization.
07:33This will be more like white and soft and sugary.
07:36This will have more of a, you know, intense flavor, nice crusty edges, and it will complement each other.
07:44Mushrooms lose a lot of moisture.
07:46I like to add the salt early on.
07:49Take all that moisture out, let it evaporate, and then add the butter and really baste.
07:54If you're adding all of these things in a pot that's going to cook for two hours,
07:58they're not going to be at their prime.
08:01Obviously, you can put everything in a pot.
08:03You know, when you don't have time and you want to make it quick, it's definitely possible.
08:07You just won't have that same level of textures,
08:11which is what brings dishes that are so simple in a way, like truly exceptional.
08:16I just poked an onion.
08:18I feel like there's still resistance.
08:21You need to cook it more.
08:22Just add water, let it reduce, and you'll be fine.
08:26It's time for a bit of butter.
08:27I feel like a lot of people don't like mushrooms because they feel like they're soggy.
08:32It's not crispy enough.
08:33And this is how you get crispy mushrooms.
08:36The mushrooms are nice and golden.
08:38You can start seeing that shine on the onions.
08:41It smells like onion candy.
08:43It's so beautiful as well.
08:45The glaze is forming at the bottom of the pan.
08:48You can see that it's becoming like a caramel.
08:51Okay, we'll stop here.
08:53The whole garnish is done.
08:55It smells so good.
08:57A bit of black pepper.
08:58And now it's time to check the chicken.
09:01It's just the perfect, for me, winter-fall dish.
09:04It's also the perfect dish to prepare in advance.
09:08And now it's ready.
09:10You kind of want to just poke a spoon and see if it starts falling apart, which it completely is.
09:16It's perfect.
09:17It's going to be removing all the chicken, putting it on a tray just to cool for a sec.
09:23We'll warm it back up at the end.
09:25Be careful because it literally falls off the bone.
09:29At least you can see that I'm not joking when I say that it's falling apart.
09:33Now it's time to strain it.
09:35So you want a fine mesh sieve and a bowl underneath.
09:39For the sauce, what we're looking for is a glaze.
09:42You want something that what we call nappe.
09:44It means that when you put the sauce on the spoon and you do across it like that,
09:49it should completely stay and not have any juices fall over that little division you did.
09:55We're going to use the same pot.
09:57It doesn't look beautiful, but it is where all the flavor was built.
10:01So you kind of want to keep that that way.
10:03The goal is to put all of that back in and now you want to reduce that for a bit.
10:09Reducing is important because it concentrates flavor.
10:12It also gives the silky consistency to your sauce and will perfectly glaze every piece of chicken,
10:20which you want.
10:21The bigger pot you use, the better it is to reduce fast and to place fast,
10:26just because you have a bigger surface for the bubbles to come up.
10:30Finishing touches, fresh parsley will bring some freshness, even though it's a pretty rich dish.
10:37And also visually just having a bit of green, especially when the sauce is so deep and in color.
10:41But I think it's nice.
10:42If you want something really rough, honestly, don't try and be too precious about it.
10:46Just want to make sure that there are no stalks.
10:49It's a very rustic dish, more countryside dish.
10:52I grew up in Paris, so it's definitely not something that you see on a lot of menus.
10:55And my only memory of eating this was in the countryside in Normandy.
10:59My granddad's friend, who cooked it for us, she served it with some toasted sourdough
11:04to soak up all of the juices that you put at the bottom of the pan.
11:08You can find some classic brasseries.
11:10And usually it's served either with mashed potatoes,
11:13thin potatoes, or even, kind of like Boeuf Bourguignon,
11:16you can find in a few places in Paris, served with coquillettes, which is elbow pasta.
11:20I can see the reduction is doing its thing.
11:25It's not quite there yet, but I need to think of the fact that I'm adding butter.
11:30So I'm going to stop right now, take it off the heat.
11:33When you're adding butter to a sauce, you do not want it to boil.
11:37Otherwise it will split the sauce and the fat will go on top.
11:41So you want to wait for all the bubbles to be out of sight.
11:45And we're going to be able to mount our butter.
11:48Mount our butter means incorporating it and basically thickening it with butter.
11:54Add it bit by bit. Do not add it all at once, just because it will separate.
11:59I'm going to finish the seasoning with some sherry vinegar.
12:04You just want a touch of acidity to brighten up the dish.
12:08A bit of black pepper.
12:10Just this little level of acidity really made me want to eat it right now.
12:15Here you have perfect pan sauce.
12:18It's time to add all of the pieces of chicken back in.
12:22Try and make it look beautiful, especially if you're serving it in the pot.
12:26Try and put all of these different garnishes all around, in the center.
12:32Just take your time, make it look nice for your guests or even for yourself.
12:37Finish with the parsley.
12:41Let's see.
12:46That's a very tender chicken.
12:50I love how tangy the sauce is with the red wine and the bacon brings the smokiness.
12:55I love mushrooms.
12:57So the sauce has this great consistency where it kind of coats everything.
13:01But it also is not too thick and heavy.
13:05It's just decadence.
13:06Let's see.
13:061
13:10B