We’ll be posting a series of comforting, perfect-for-winter recipes that are easy to make at home – and much healthier than your takeout versions!
Coq au vin is a classic French dish that means ‘chicken in wine’. When you’re in the mood for French cuisine that is hearty and delicious, but without excess cream, butter and fat that often comes with French cooking. For this specific recipe, we make use of much leaner meat, using skinless chicken thighs. This recipe makes use of 2 cups of red wine. The alcohol will cook off, leaving the rich, deep flavour of the wine.
What You Need:
Ingredients
- 8 skinless chicken thighs
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 12 whole baby onions, peeled
- 1 punnet (250g) brown mushrooms (or button mushrooms)
- 2 cups of chicken stock
- 2 cups of red wine
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Himalayan salt
- Tapioca starch for thickening, optional
- 1 bunch fresh thyme
Method:
- Set a large deep skillet or saucepan over medium-high heat. Sear chicken pieces in olive oil until just browned on each side, then remove.
- Add more olive oil to the pan and sauté the baby onions and mushrooms for a minute. Put the chicken back in, cover with stock and red wine, add thyme and seasoning and simmer for 40 minutes to an hour until the sauce has reduced and thickened to your desired liking.
- You can add one tablespoon of tapioca starch (mixed with some of the red wine sauce to make a paste) to the red wine sauce to help thicken it further.
- Serve with wild rice or cauliflower mash for a low-carb option.
*Note: if you’d like to try to make this a vegan dish, you can try a product like seitan to replace the chicken and use vegetable stock.