Coq au Vin

I'm making Coq au Vin tomorrow and have made it many times. Are there any interesting variations to the basic recipe that you all have made over the years that make it impressive, distinctive, different, one of a kind that you might share with me? Thanks up front......

Drew

I've used turkey legs for the large volumes of flavorful dark meat. Very good.

I don't know that it's all that different but I like using a white wine if making it in the summer. A decent VA Viognier works well.

Use Riesling instead of Pinot or another red wine.

[Jenise]

Several things come to mind. Like others mention, I've used white wine a number of times. The thing I probably like best about that, however unclassic, is that doesn't stain the meat. Adding star anise to a white wine version and using shitakes instead of standard mushrooms takes it nicely Asian--use rice for your starch. Just before serving, garnish with a few snow peas zapped in the microwave for 60 seconds (rinsed/wet but not in standing water) to really sell the look.

If going standard with the red wine, consider deconstructing it a bit. Don't braise the carrots but instead slice and pan cook them briefly in a little butter, then fold them in at the very end. Or use whole baby carrots, and save them for a garnish--if you're lucky enough to get your hands on such a thing at this time of year. A baked stuffed mushroom also makes a good looking garnish and flavor contrast--consider a bread crumb, goat cheese and green onions stuffing for that--very Burgundian, as is the dish.

Does your recipe call for flaming a bit of brandy? I find that a nice touch.
As others noted, can do coq au Riesling, quite traditional. Or poulet bonne femme (I made today), which is basically coq au vin but using white wine (or white wine and chicken stock, as I did). Or stick to red wine and add some tomatoes & some wild mushrooms and make it more a cacciatore

did coq au riesling new years eve and it was a hit. used thighs with bone and skin as they are harder to overcook and more flavorful. and of course its an excuse to serve a good riesling.

This past Christmas I made Coq au Vin when I visited my mother at her retirement home. I used Julia Child's recipe from her book The Way To Cook. For the wine I used a wine-in-a-box: Moullard's AOC Cotes du Rhone Les Violettes. I flambeed the chicken using cheap US domestic brandy. I've had Coq au Vin in Michelin-starred restaurants in its native land of Burgundy, and I noted that the haute restaurants in Burgundy reduced the sauce to a thick, almost black, syrup. I did that on this occasion and the result was superb. The best Coq au Vin I've ever done--approaching that I enjoyed at Le Montrachet in Puligny.

I think the choice of wine was the major thing that distinguished this most recent effort at Coq au Vin over my previous attempts. If you can find the Mouillard Cotes du Rhone Les Violettes in a box, it's an excellent value for the money. It's so-so as regards a drinking wine--there are a lot better Cotes du Rhones out there, to be sure--but it beats anything else I know of as a cooking wine for Coq au Vin--unless you're willing to sacrifice something twice the price to the culinary cause.

-Paul W.

sounds like that coq au vin was thickened with blood - the old original way.