For a dinner party of six to eight, Delia Smith’s coq au vin starts with a big jointed chicken browned in batches, then simmered in red wine with lardons, shallots, garlic, thyme and bay. The mushrooms go in late, and the wine is boiled down and thickened into a glossy sauce, all in about two and a half hours.
It’s in the 1983 and 1992 editions of her Complete Cookery Course, and the earlier one feeds 6 with a 1.8 to 2.25kg bird cut into 6 joints rather than 8. The card uses the 2003 version from The Delia Collection: Chicken, which lists dry cider beside the red wine and pancetta beside the lardons.
Coq means cockerel, and she points out that the authentic dish is made with one, with some of its blood in the sauce, which is almost black by the time it’s served. Hers is the British take on it, made with an ordinary large chicken. For a smaller red-wine supper, her chicken chasseur recipe simmers chicken quarters with tomatoes and rosemary instead of bacon.
In the 2003 book she serves it with creamy mashed potatoes, which are just the thing for all that sauce. Expect chicken stained deep red by the wine, salty little pieces of bacon and soft, sweet shallots and mushrooms, all bathed in a dark wine sauce scented with thyme.
Delia Smith’s Coq au Vin
Course: DinnerCuisine: FrenchDifficulty: Medium6-8
servings30
minutes1
hour55
minutes665
kcalA French classic done her way, every joint browned in small batches before a gentle simmer under the lid, then the wine cut down by a third.
Ingredients
- For the coq au vin:
1 chicken of 2.25kg (5lb), jointed into 8 pieces
25g (1oz) butter
1 tablespoon groundnut or other flavourless oil
225g (8oz) unsmoked bacon lardons or cubed pancetta
16 shallots or button onions, peeled
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 sprigs fresh thyme
725ml (1¼ pints) red wine, or dry cider
225g (8oz) small dark-gilled mushrooms
salt and freshly milled black pepper
chopped parsley, to garnish
- For the thickening paste:
1 rounded tablespoon softened butter
1 tablespoon plain flour
Directions
- Brown the chicken: Melt the butter with the oil in a large frying pan over a fairly high heat. Fry the chicken joints skin side down until golden, then turn them to colour the other side, working in 3 or 4 batches so the pan never gets crowded. Lift each batch with a slotted spoon into a 3.5 litre (6 pint) flameproof casserole, wide enough to hold all the joints in one layer and deep enough for the wine to cover them.
- Bacon and shallots: Brown the lardons in the same frying pan and tip them in with the chicken. Then fry the shallots until lightly browned and add those too.
- Season: Tuck the garlic and thyme sprigs in among the chicken pieces, season with black pepper and just a little salt, and add the bay leaves.
- Simmer: Pour in the wine, cover with the lid and simmer very gently for 45 to 60 minutes, until the chicken is tender. Stir the mushrooms into the liquid for the last 15 minutes.
- Keep warm: Lift the chicken, bacon, shallots and mushrooms onto a warm serving dish with the slotted spoon and keep them warm. Fish out the bay leaves and thyme and throw them away.
- Reduce: Boil the liquid hard until it has reduced by about a third. While it bubbles, mash the softened butter and flour together into a smooth paste.
- Thicken and serve: Whisk the paste into the liquid and keep whisking as it comes back to the boil and thickens. Pour the sauce over the chicken and scatter with chopped parsley.
Notes
- In the 1983 and 1992 books the bacon is unsmoked streaky in one piece. Cut off the rind and dice it into small cubes, then brown it just like the lardons.
- Before lifting the chicken out, cut into the thickest thigh by the bone. It's done when there's no trace of pink near the bone, and I like a probe reading of 75°C as well, my own check.
FAQs
Can I make coq au vin with cider instead of red wine?
Yes, dry cider works well, in the same 725ml, and all three printings allow the swap. She finds the result different from the wine version but just as good.
Her Frugal Food has a section on cooking without wine, and it names coq au vin and beef bourguignon as dishes that came out very well with dry cider. For a dish made with cider from the start, try her chicken in cider recipe with bacon, or her Catalan chicken with aubergines.
How do I make coq au vin in a slow cooker?
Brown the chicken, lardons and shallots as on the card, bring the wine just to the boil in the frying pan, then put everything except the mushrooms into a slow cooker that has been heating for about 20 minutes. It’s my own adaptation, as every printing cooks it on the hob.
That 20-minute warm-up comes from her Complete Cookery Course, which also notes that slow cookers are sometimes called crockpots and times a casserole at around 5 hours on high or 8 on low. Chicken joints need less, so I’d give them about 5 hours on low, then pour the liquid into a wide pan, add the mushrooms for 15 minutes, and reduce and thicken it there, my own way of finishing it.
How do I split the cooking over two days?
Give it half the simmering on the first day, cool it quickly, chill it overnight and give it the second half just before serving, which is what the 1992 Complete Cookery Course suggests. Turn the joints over at the halfway point so they take in the wine.
On this card that means about 25 to 30 minutes each day, with the mushrooms going in on the second day, followed by the reducing and thickening. How to Cook Book Two points out a bonus too, as the fat sets on top overnight and lifts off easily before you reheat.
How do I freeze and reheat coq au vin?
In foil containers, which the same book recommends for casseroles, as long as they’re fully defrosted before reheating. I’d cool it quickly once the sauce is thickened, freeze it for up to 3 months and thaw it overnight in the fridge, my own guide.
Take off any cardboard lids, cover each container with a double sheet of foil and reheat at gas mark 4, 180°C (160°C fan), for 35 to 45 minutes, her timing. It needs to reach a gentle simmer all the way through.
Can I use guinea fowl instead of chicken?
Yes, and it’s her own idea. In the poultry chapter of her second How to Cook book, guinea fowl tastes somewhere between chicken and pheasant and suits any chicken recipe. For a dish like coq au vin, where the bird has to be jointed, she recommends asking the butcher to do it, as it’s quite a fiddly job.
She reckons one guinea fowl only really feeds two, so for this card you’d need three or four birds, my own sum. They’re not as plump as chicken, as she says, so I’d start checking them after about 35 minutes of simmering, again my own call.
