Coq au Vin - French Braised Chicken

I'm back again with my home-cooking series! As I often find myself struggling with what to cook for dinner, I hope this will help inspire you somewhat to get cracking in your kitchen too. :)

Although I cook mostly Chinese at home, I do like to mix it up a little sometimes. I've tried Korean, Japanese, Thai, Italian... and now I'm doing French too! Here's my take on French Braised Chicken or better known as coq au vin.

Coq au Vin
Recipe adapted from Taste and modified by The Bakeanista

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp plain flour
• 10 pieces of chicken drumsticks 
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 rindless middle bacon rashers, diced into 4cm pieces
• 8 French shallots
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 cups red wine (such as Pinot Noir)
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 3 dried bay leaves
• 500g button mushrooms, quartered
• 4 tbsp tomato paste

Method:

1. Place the flour in a plastic bag then season with salt and pepper. Add the chicken and shake until meat is lightly coated.
2. Heat half the oil in a stockpot over medium-high heat. Add half the chicken and cook, turning, for 5 minutes or until brown. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining oil and chicken.
3. Add the bacon, eschalots and garlic to the pan and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until eschalots are golden.
4. Add the wine, stock, thyme and bay leaves and bring to the boil. Add the chicken and reduce heat to low. Simmer, covered, for 40 minutes or until tender.
5. Transfer chicken to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm. Add mushrooms and tomato paste to the wine mixture. Increase heat to medium-high and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Return chicken to the pan and let wine mixture simmer away for another 10-15 minutes.
7. Serve Coq au Vin with mashed potatoes, or like I did with pasta on one night and mashed cauliflower the second night. Garnish with some fresh thyme if you like and get ready to dig in!

What I like when it comes to cooking is, unlike baking where we have to measure the ingredients, you can easily tweak things a little here and there to suit your preference.

Like for example, you can have the drumsticks replaced with chicken thigh (with or without skin on) if you are opting for something healthier. Whatever suits you.

Also, I have decided that I would cook a bigger portion the next time around as I found the flavour to be tastier on the second night. That also means I save time on having to prepare dinner the following night.

Good luck, and enjoy! :)