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OUR LOST CRUSADE
No Bones About It |
Let me tell you about the battle we have waged many times, and lost every time.
Ever since 1984, the California Café has been offering, once in a while, chicken on the bones.
We've tried it all, from the mildest Fricassée Au Riesling, to the fiery Dopiaza.
We've prepared breasts with olives, and Moroccan thighs too.
And hardly anyone ordered them.
It is not a question that Carlisle eaters are tired of chicken, as is shown by the hundred pounds or so of boneless breasts we sell every week. Boneless chicken breasts are fine for a clearly defined use: sautéeing. Quickly seared on the outside, and then finished in a sauce or in cream, they will remain tender, if not terribly individual.
Chicken meat on the bones, however, is incomparable. It can be cooked slowly without tightening, and the flavor as well as the consistency are wonderful, certainly worth a bit of work while eating your dinner.
For the Coq Au Vin on our menu, in order to achieve an authentic flavor while using the popular boneless breasts, we prepare a sauce base, using five pounds of chicken backs, which we brown and slowly simmer in Burgundy wine.
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RECIPE
A "COQ" is a rooster. "VIN" is wine.
Coq Au Vin is a recipe devised as the end of the line for the tough old farm rooster. Original French recipes give very long cooking times, which would reduce an American chicken to mush. This recipe is adapted to today's fryer. But the flavor will be authentic, and your kitchen will smell like a little corner of France. The chicken must marinate overnight before cooking. The finished chicken can also wait overnight and be reheated gently. |
COQ AU VIN (chicken marinated and fricasséed in red wine)
1 chicken cut up into 8 serving pieces
(2 drumsticks, 2 thighs, and 4 quarter-breasts)
2 carrots, peeled and cut into sticks
2 stalks celery, cut into sticks
5 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
1 large onion, peeled and cut in wedges
4 green olives
a few sprigs parsley
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon dry thyme leaves
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 slices bacon
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups dry red wine
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon butter
12 nice mushrooms, halved The day before you plan to serve your dinner, combine the chicken pieces, the carrot, celery, onion and garlic, the olives, the parsley, bay leaves and thyme, the salt and the pepper in a big glass bowl.
Cover with the wine. Swoosh everything around just a bit.
Cover with plastic wrap.
Refrigerate overnight.
The following day, pick out the chicken pieces and lay them on a triple layer of paper towel.
Keep everything else in the bowl.
In a non-stick frying pan with a lid, fry the bacon until almost done.
Add the chicken pieces, skin down. Keep fire medium to medium high.
Let chicken fry until nicely browned on skin side, about 10 minutes. Turn pieces over.
Brown chicken on the other side.
Get rid of about one third of the collected fat.
Dust chicken with the flour and toss around well for a minute.
Add contents of the glass bowl (marinade + vegetables), as well as the tomato paste.
Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover.
Cook gently for 40 minutes, flipping meat over once or twice.
Separately, in a little saucepan, quickly sauté the mushrooms in the butter with a pinch of salt.
Remove meat from sauce very gently onto a plate.
Strain sauce with a colander or a strainer, pushing down on the vegetables a bit to extract the flavors.
Discard the vegetables. They have done their bit for La France.
Return strained sauce, meat and the mushrooms to the pan. Correct salt.
Serve very hot, traditionally with canned peas.
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