A classic of French-Burgundian cuisine that deserves attention. We definitely do not skimp on quality wine, as the resulting taste experience depends on it.
Background information:
Coq au vin is a French dish of rooster meat stewed in wine, bacon, mushrooms and possibly garlic. As a rule, red Burgundy wine is used, although many regions of France use local wines, for example coq au vin Jaune, coq au Riesling, coq au Pourpre or coq au Violet, coq au Champagne, etc. The main ingredients are: Rooster, wine, bacon, mushrooms and possibly garlic.
History:
Various legends trace the wine rooster back to ancient Gaul and Julius Caesar, but the recipe was not documented until the early 20th century. It is generally accepted that it existed as a rustic dish long before that. A somewhat similar recipe, poulet au vin blanc, appeared in a cookbook from 1864. Well-known American popularizer of French cuisine and one of the first ever television cooks in the US, Julia Child included coq au vin in her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking from in 1961 and prepared it twice on the PBS cooking show The French Chef. This exposure helped increase the visibility and popularity of the dish in the United States, and coq au vin was considered one of the most typical dishes of French cuisine.
Priprava:
The word coq in French means "rooster" and it is rooster meat that is tougher with a lot of connective tissue, which is softened by slow simmering and gets a typical unforgettable taste, but this may not suit today's ordinary consumer and most modern recipes for coq au vin use ordinary chicken .
Standard recipes call for braising red wine, ideally Burgundy, bacon, mushrooms, onions, often garlic and sometimes brandy. In recipes with vin Jaune, you can also use a very interesting mushroom, the edible morel, instead of white mushrooms. The preparation is similar in many ways to another typical French dish, boeuf bourguignon (beef in Burgundian). The chicken meat is seasoned, quickly fried in fat and slowly stewed in wine until perfectly tender. The usual spices are salt, black pepper, thyme, parsley and bay leaf, usually in the form of a bouquet of herbs tied with string, the so-called "bouqet garni". At the end, the juices are thickened either with fat and flour roux, also called "Roux" in French, or by adding rooster's blood, which is a very rarely used method today.