From Julia · 2022-2023 · Reconstructed
Coq au Vin
Serve when
Serve when the pilot's braise finally comes together on camera after the crew spends the whole day fighting the thirty-minute clock.
In the series
Season 1
- S1E2 · ~00:35:00 Julia films the pilot for The French Chef, working out how to compress a slow braise into a live thirty-minute broadcast
In the series
Coq au vin is the dish the pilot lives or dies on — a slow, forgiving braise that Julia and her friends have to reverse-engineer into something a home cook can start and finish inside a single half-hour broadcast. The pressure of that compression, not the recipe itself, is what the episode is actually about.
Ingredients
- For the chicken:
- For the braise:
- For finishing:
Method
- Render the bacon in a Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp; remove with a slotted spoon and reserve.
- Season the chicken and brown it in the bacon fat in batches, then remove.
- Add the wine, stock, tomato paste, garlic, bay leaf, and thyme, scraping up the browned bits. Return the chicken to the pot, cover partially, and simmer gently for about 45 minutes, until the meat is tender and starting to pull away from the bone.
- Meanwhile, brown the pearl onions and mushrooms in a separate pan and set aside.
- Lift the chicken out, strain the braising liquid, and skim the fat. Return the liquid to the pot and reduce slightly.
- Mash the softened butter and flour together into a smooth paste (beurre manié) and whisk it into the simmering liquid a little at a time until the sauce coats a spoon.
- Return the chicken, bacon, onions, and mushrooms to the sauce, warm through, and finish with parsley.
Substitutions
- Burgundy: any dry, medium-bodied red without heavy oak works fine — the dish doesn't need a splurge bottle, just one you'd also pour at the table.
- Pearl onions: frozen pearl onions, thawed and browned, save real time over peeling fresh ones.