Coq Au Bordeaux

Many years back, I came across a coq au vin recipe and as I studied the recipe, the moment I saw the name of red wine popping up, I flipped the page and looked at another recipe. Yes, indeed to me, although it's not difficult to cook with alcohol, it's not a common ingredient in the pantry so I still find it 'challenging'. Since my last cook for Cook like a Star starring Della Smith, I find cooking with alcohol a whole lot easier. It's just cooking our chinese wine chicken and red wine chicken with the reduction of the chinese wine by cooking or stewing the chicken in it. 

This time, I came across Nigella Lawson's recipe for Coq Au Riesling from her book, Nigella Express. I used Bordeaux instead since I didn't have any Riesling on hand.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons garlic infused olive oil
• 150 grams bacon lardons
• 1 leek (finely sliced) (I used celery and carrots)
• 12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 3 bay leaves
• 300 grams oyster mushrooms (torn into strips)
• 1 x 750 ml bottle riesling (I used bordeaux)
• 1 splash of double cream (optional) (I omitted this)
• salt (to taste)
• pepper (to taste)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh fresh dill (to serve)

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a casserole or large, wide pan and fry the lardons until crisp.
2. Add the sliced leek and soften it with the lardons for a minute or so.
3. Cut chicken thighs into 2 or 3 pieces each, tip them into the pan with the bay leaves, torn mushrooms and wine.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste and bring to the boil, cover the pan and simmer gently for 30-40 minutes, stirring in the double cream for the last couple of minutes if you want. Like all stews, this tastes its mellowest best if you let it get cold and then reheat the next day. But it's no hardship to eat straight off. Whichever, serve sprinkled with dill and together with some buttered noodles.

When I saw Nigella's tips above to serve this coq au bordeaux with buttered noodles, I thought of cooking some pasta and coating it with some butter to give it the smoother texture.

For me, overall I did like the coq au bordeaux as it was rich and the ingredients had soaked up the essence of the bordeaux after simmering for so long. Mr G still prefers the usual stewed chicken (roll eyes) Chinese-style. Oh well, I guess sometimes you can't satisfy all. This is a good recipe to try if you want to have less fuss. I do believe that like what Nigella said, when this coq au bordeaux gets cold and reheated again, it will definitely taste much much better. But then again, even before I could try that method, it was ALL gone. So much for rolling eyes hahaha!

I'm going to submit this post to Cook like a Star where the Star for this month is Nigella Lawson. Cook Like A Star is an event organized by Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids, and the co-hosts for this month are Anuja from Simple Baking and Joyce from Kitchen Flavours. Do join us by cooking or baking any of Nigella's recipes for the month of August but do remember that it must be a current post. Don't forget to mention 'Cook like a Star' in your posts.