Recipe: Coq au vin (chicken in wine)

Ingredients

2 Elgin free range whole chickens
100g rindless streaky bacon
30ml butter or margarine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
75ml sherry
250ml dry red wine (Spier Signature Collection Merlot is a great choice at only R75)
Chicken stock to cover
15ml tomato paste
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 fresh thyme stalks, or 2ml dried thyme
4 sprigs parsley
1 bay leaf
250g pickling onions
250g button mushrooms
15ml cake flour
Chopped parsley

Method

1. Sauté bacon in 15ml butter or margarine in a heavy based oven proof dish until lightly browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

2. Brown bacon and chicken in remaining fat in dish, adding more butter if necessary. Season with salt and pepper, and pour off excess fat.

3. Pour sherry over chicken. Add wine and enough chicken stock to cover chicken.

4. Stir in tomato paste, garlic, thyme, parsley and bay leaf. Cover and braise for 45 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, sauté onions in remaining butter or margarine. Add a little stock and cook until just tender.

6. Add the mushrooms and stir fry until just tender.

7. With a slotted spoon, remove chicken from oven proof dish. Reduce liquid remaining in dish by half. Skim off scum and discard herbs.

8. Mix cake flour with a little soft butter or margarine and use to thicken sauce in dish. Add chicken, onions and mushrooms and heat through.

9. Spoon onto a large serving platter and sprinkle with parsley.

Recipe supplied by the South African Chefs’ Association

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