Chicken Thigh Coq Au Vin

Chicken Thigh Coq Au Vin is just as good as the original but a lot easier to make with some short cut ingredients as well as using chicken thighs instead of a whole rooster. Which are hard to find these days for cooking. 

There are legends that date this rustic chicken dish back to Julius Caesar time, but some dispute it’s been around much longer than that. Julia Child made it a household name with her first cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking and prepared it often on her PBS cooking show. It’s hard not to think of Julia Child when you hear Coq Au Vin.

Classic Coq Au Vin is a braised rooster in a red wine sauce with bacon, mushrooms. pearl onions and garlic. It also traditionally takes a long time to braise so this is more of a weekend dish where you have the time to cook all the components then babysit the braise so all the flavors come through. Definitely not a meal to make from scratch on a busy weeknight. Its perfect for a cold, rainy fall day where the heat from the stove and oven ( and glasses of wine) keep you warm all day.

This dish is essentially all made in one pot, with each item cooked in the cast iron pot or Dutch oven, then removed to cook the next part. Then it’s all added together for the slow braise in red wine. There are many varieties of this dish. To make it quicker I used bone in, skin on chicken thighs. Boneless, skinless would take less time. I don’t recommend chicken breasts since they tend to dry out in a braise and don’t hold on to as much flavor as thighs do. Chicken drumsticks would even be a delicious variation. I have seen this done with different types of wine too besides a dark red French Burgundy or Pinot Noir. Coq Au Vin Blanc, with white wine, is another popular version. Since I am more of a red wine gal I went with this version. It is excellent served over egg noodles, the type I typically use in chicken noodle soup.  Serve with glasses of red wine and of course crusty French bread.

 Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments on my blog here if you have any while make it. In the words of Julia Child, “Bon Appétit!!”