Coq Au Vin

 

Chanticleer

Last fall I bought a stewing rooster from Kingbird Farm at the Ithaca Farmer’s Market. Over the years, decades actually, I have been a big fan of the soup chicken. Mostly because a soup chicken costs a lot less than a regular chicken. They are scrawny, tough but flavourful birds. Slow cooking produces a delicious stock and enough meat to figure in the resulting soup. Putting as soup chicken into a crock pot in the morning, and returning after work to the smell of chicken stock is wonderful. In less than an hour a soup of noodles, tofu, chicken and vegetables will be on the table.   

A rooster is a different critter altogether. This bird was not years old, and had not spent its life laying eggs. It was a year old, ten pounder with lots of fat and meat on its bones a Chanticleer who died strutting about among his many Partelets. I have never seen one before but in appearance anyway it reminded me of the capons my mother used to get for special dinners, like Passover. I decided then that I would pay $4 a lb for this guy and make Coq au Vin.

I don’t know why Coq au Vin should intrigue me. Maybe it’s the idea of cooking a chicken with red wine. Maybe because it’s a French dish that appeals to me, where most don’t. And the thing is, you never see a Coq anywhere, unless you live on a farm.

There were many recipes on the web, most for either your standard 3-1/2 pound roaster, or the tough layers. I did find a couple that referred to actual roosters, but none of these was for a ten pounder. So I cobbled together a recipe and made adjustments: instead of pearl onions I would use garlic leaks, which were fresh at the farmer’s market, and instead of bacon I used some lard. Pancetta would have been fine. Bacon would have been great but daughter Q doesn’t like bacon.

The recipe:

Cooking time: all day

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

1-10 pound rooster

Salt and pepper

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup diced carrot

1 cup diced celery

2 T chopped garlic

½ cup olive oil and lard (or brown bacon and reserve the bacon)

2 bottles red wine

2 cups chicken stock

2 bay leaves

2 t thyme

1 t rosemary

1 lb portabella mushroom

1 lb shitake mushrooms

1 large leak or a bunch of garlic leaks

Chop up the rooster: thighs in two pieces, legs whole, wings in three pieces, breast in half and then each half in three pieces, back separated at the middle joint, pat the pieces dry, and sprinkle salt and grind pepper on both sides of each piece

Brown rooster pieces in several batches over high heat

Sautee onions, carrots, celery and garlic over medium heat in the same pan adding a little salt and pepper

Add one bottle of wine to deglaze the pan and let it bubble with the vegetables

Add the herbs

Arrange rooster pieces in a deep roasting pan large enough to hold them in a single layer. Pour over the vegetables and add another bottle of wine and stock. It should be at least 2/3s up the sides of the thickest pieces. Put in the oven until it is simmering and then cover with a tight piece of foil. Bake for 2-3 hours, until tender but not falling off the bone. Then put it aside and let it rest for hours. The next step is to preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Sautee the mushrooms in olive oil and add to the rooster pan. Sautee the leaks, or baby onions and add them to the pan. Taste for salt. Shake it a bit to evenly distribute everything and then bake for another hour or so, until heated through. Remove rooster and vegetables to a platter. Skim some fat and reduce the sauce on the stove over high heat. Serve with mashed potatoes, rice or pasta and a salad. We had a tossed salad and frisee wilted with bacon, garlic and olive oil and my vegan mashed potatoes: russets boiled until soft with garlic and mashed with olive oil and some of the cooking liquid. Oh yes, and a couple of bottle of red wine that was about 10 dollars better than that in which I stewed the rooster.