Coq au Riesling
An Alsatian take on classic coq au vin, Coq au Riesling use dry Riesling wine instead of red.
Servings 4
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter divided
- 4 slices bacon cut crosswise into 1/4-inch lardons
- 4 each, chicken drumsticks and thighs (or a whole chicken, cut up)
- salt and freshly ground pepper
- 2 shallots, sliced (or 1 large onion)
- 1 large clove garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons brandy or cognac (see Kitchen Notes)
- 1-1/2 cups dry Riesling
- 3 sprigs thyme (or 2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon—see Kitchen Notes)
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, quartered (or button mushrooms)
- 1/2 cup crème fraîche (or sour cream—see Kitchen Notes)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
- buttered egg noodles or cooked rice (see Kitchen Notes)
Instructions
- Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large, lidded nonstick sauté pan over medium heat. Add the bacon lardons and cook until they begin to brown and much of the fat is rendered, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Don't let it get too crisp—you want chewy little bites in the finished dish, not bacon bits. Don't worry if it's not cooked all the way through. It will finish cooking with the chicken. Transfer to a bowl with a slotted spoon.
- While lardons are cooking, salt and pepper chicken generously on both sides. Add chicken to the bacon fat in the pan and brown on both sides, about 4 minutes to side. Transfer chicken to a plate. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat in pan and reduce heat to medium low. (If you pour off too much fat—I did—drizzle in a little olive oil.) Add shallots and sweat until soft, stirring frequently to avoid browning, about 4 minutes. Add garlic to pan and cook until fragrant, about 45 seconds.
- Turn off heat and deglaze pan with brandy, scraping up any browned bits. Add Riesling to pan. Quickly bruise thyme sprigs by rolling them with a rolling pin or the side of a glass. Add to pan, along with lardons. Bring mixture to a boil over medium high heat, add chicken to pan, cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes.
- Meanwhile, melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in another large skillet over medium heat and sauté mushrooms until they've released their juices and are nicely browned. Turn off heat and leave mushrooms in pan.
- Transfer chicken pieces to a warm serving platter and tent with foil. Raise heat to medium high and slightly reduce liquid in pan, about 2 minutes. Discard thyme sprigs and add crème fraîche and mushrooms to pan and stir to combine. Cook until mushrooms are heated through. Spoon sauce and mushrooms over chicken and garnish with parsley. Serve immediately.
- Alternatively, you can plate this dish. Spoon buttered egg noodles or rice on individual plates and top with a drumstick and thigh each and spoon sauce and mushrooms over chicken. Or serve chicken next to parsley potatoes.
Kitchen Notes
Brandy? Cognac? When recipes call for a deglazing liquid at all, they call for cognac. I'm sure it's a delicious touch. We had brandy on hand, also delicious—and less expensive than the kind of cognac you'd have on hand if you had it.
Thyme? Tarragon? The one herb all recipes agree on is parsley. For many, that's the only one they call for. As much as I love parsley, I didn't want it to do all the heavy lifting, especially because it's added at the very end. Either chopped tarragon or some thyme sprigs added along with the Riesling help flavor the sauce and the chicken as it braises.
Crème fraîche? Sour cream? If you can find crème fraîche, splurge. It's a French sour cream that's less tangy than its American counterpart and has a higher fat content. So it adds a luxurious richness to the sauce. Crème fraîche is becoming more widely available here—I found mine at Trader Joe's. But in a pinch, sour cream will do.
Noodles? Rice? Potatoes? According to Julia Child, coq au vin (and its variations) are typically served with parsley potatoes. Many recipes call for buttered egg noodles with fresh parsley. The first night, we had the buttered noodles, the second night, rice. Honestly, I liked the rice better, partly because it absorbed the sauce nicely.