Sunday Gravy with yeah right: Chef’s Series. Julia Child’s Coq Au Vin

Good morning everyone!

Welcome back to Sunday Gravy.

This week we are going to resume the Chef’s Series.

Last season you may remember when we did James Beard’s classic Chicken and 40 Cloves. Which was fucking delicious by the way and one of my favorite efforts from last season.

This time I figured we would make an attempt at Julia Child’s classic Coq au vin.

Coq au vin literally means Cock and Wine, which is also, not coincidentally, my Tinder profile name.

The recipe is a French stew that utilizes a “past his prime” rooster and to tenderize his old ass he is soaked in wine, then stewed.

Legend has it that this recipe can be traced all the way back to ancient Gaul and is linked to Julius Caeser. It wasn’t brought into the American public eye until Julia Child first wrote about it in her cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and later was televised on her cooking show “The French Chef.”

Julia Child was one of the original TV cooking personalities. She was friendly, exhuberant, approachable and holy good goddamn the old girl could pound down the vino. She was also known for her distinct voice.

Not Coq au vin in that video but her videos are pretty tough to track down.

Of course most of you will remember this sketch from Saturday Night Live.

Julia was most well known for bringing French style cooking to the American kitchen. While she was a graduate of the Cordon Bleu cooking academy, she oddly enough didn’t even start cooking until she was married. Her life makes for pretty fascinating reading if you have the time.

By the way Meryl Streep was fucking brilliant playing Julia Child in “Julie & Julia.”

This was my very first effort preparing coq au vin and after doing a couple of hours of research I discovered that you know what? This shit is pretty fucking easy.

It’s basically a simple stewed chicken cooked in wine with some mushrooms, onions and bacon.

That sounds goddamn delicious!

Away we go!

Coq Au Vin!

1 whole chicken cut into sections

2 cups red wine – use the good stuff and make sure it’s French

1 cup chicken stock – homemade? Bet your ass!

1/4 cup of cognac

3 strips of bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 medium onion diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 teaspoons dried thyme

2 bay leaves

Salt and pepper

8 ounces mushrooms, sliced

8 ounces pearl onions (note: the original recipe calls for pearl onions and I was unable to find any at the store. Goddamn pandemic. Just use a diced white onion instead.)

Roux: 3 tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of flour

Got a whole shitload of photos for you today so let’s get to the pictorial!

Important note! For maximum flavor this will be a 3 day prep. You do want maximum flavor yes?

Day 1.

We’re going to start with a whole fresh chicken since we had a distinct lack of Coq hanging about.

And not surprisingly we’re going to remove it from the bag.

Go ahead and remove the giblets and neck etc from the body cavity.

One of the online recipes said to use all thighs or all legs, Julia Child’s original recipe called for cutting up a whole chicken, and according to the online recipe “Nobody does that!”

Fuck right off.

Not only are we going to “do that” I’m going to give you step-by-step instructions so you can do it yourself!

For the squeamish you may want to skip past the next couple of photos if you’re really attached to chickens or are a vegan. It gets a bit hardcore.

First thing to do is remove the spine. A trick known as “Spatchcocking.” Using a pair of kitchen shears cut along both sides of the spine and snip that fucker right out!

You long time readers may remember this technique from a few years back when I made Peruvian chicken.

That’s a proper goddamn recipe there too!

Removing the spine makes the rest of the dismemberment easy as pumpkin pie!

Let’s separate the bits.

Here’s the leg and thigh. Find the joint between the two and basically hyper-extend the leg so you can cut through the leg joint.

The wings are easy to separate from the main body. Just find the joint and repeat the hyper-extend thing that you did for the leg and thigh.

For the breast cut it right down the center like so.

That’s it.

Start to finish this took me less than 10 minutes. “Nobody does that” my hairy ass!

We’re going to soak the coq overnight in wine. Let’s get a good French wine for this.

That’s a Côtes du Rhône from the Rhône region of France. It’s a lovely wine that’s a bit dry and not too sweet. You could use a burgundy here as well.

Get the bird in a bowl and pour in 2 cups of the vino.

Make sure the chicken is fully covered then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put that thing in the fridge. Get yourself a glass and enjoy the leftover wine.

That’s all we have to do on day one.

Day 2.

Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and let it sit out until it reaches room temperature.

After soaking overnight the bird will take on a somewhat alien purple hue.

Reserve the wine marinade for cooking the chicken.

Dry the chicken and get ready to cook!.

Yeah, that’s a little…

Go ahead and season the chicken with salt and pepper. Both sides.

Next. Lardons?

Lardons!

Saute?

Saute.

That’s cooking the bacon bits until it renders out the fat. Please notice I’m using my Dutch oven for the whole cooking process. This is started over a medium/high heat. Remove the cooked bacon bits and set aside for later usage.

Now we’re going to, wait for it, sear the chicken in the bacon fat. Shit yes!

Brown each side for about 5-6 minutes per side.

First turn?

Getting sexy!

Brown on both sides.

There it is.

Place the chicken aside for the non and let’s get busy with the rest of the prep.

That’s the part where we dice up our onion and garlic and prepare our mushrooms. Dicing is thirsty work.

Gonna need some tomato paste too. Yep, the shit in the tube we talked about.

And if we’re using cognac? That shit better be the “Hen”.

Get that chicken back in the pot, turn the flame to medium, dump in the cognac and get ready to party.

Using a long kitchen match, or if you have a grill lighter like I do, tilt the pan to the side and light that thing on fire!

at no time were we under danger of lighting an empty 30 pack box of Budweiser on fire. My shit is scientific.

FLAME ON!

Don’t panic, that shit’s easy to put out if you need to. Just place the lid on the pot.

Ideally let it cook until the alcohol cooks out and the flame extinguishes. This step gives a very distinct flavor to the chicken and really should be included. I’ve seen a few recipes that call this step “optional.”

Optional? Since when is lighting shit on fire “optional?!”

This was cool as fuck!

Now that we’ve flamed the chicken, remove it from the pot and let’s get after the mushrooms and onions.

Saute them down for about 5 minutes.

Nice.

Now add in the garlic and let it cook for about a minute. Just until it gets aromatic.

Then we stir in the tomato paste.

Toss the veggies in the tomato paste and fully coat.

Add in the bay leaves and dried thyme and stir.

Now let’s get our chicken back into the pot.

Remember our homemade chicken stock from a couple of weeks ago when we made red beans and rice?

I still had 3 cups on hand.

Add 1 cup of the stock to the pot (save the remaining two cups for a side dish to be named later) and also add in the reserved wine/marinade from earlier. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to medium/low and let cook for about 10 minutes.

Next we’re going to need a roux to tighten up the gravy so let’s build one. Flour and butter, 3 tablespoons of each.

Melt the butter while stirring constantly. A blonde roux today.

When ready add the roux to the pot.

Stir well to combine.

Now we add the bacon bits, onion and the mushrooms back to the proceedings. If you were able to find the pearl onions now would be the time to add them in. Let simmer on low heat for about an hour. .

When the hour has elapsed, remove the pot from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

Know why?

It’s going to refrigerate overnight!

Yes, you could serve it right away with a choice of side, maybe some bread and a salad but…

Maximum flavor right?

Day 3.

Remove the pot from the refrigerator and let come up to room temperature again.

I know this seems like an extra step but several of the recipes I read said the refrigeration overnight was vital.

Place the covered pot BACK on the stove and bring to a simmer. Over a LOW heat let this very gently simmer for 45 minutes or so. Make sure the heat stays low. We want to delicately cook this part.

When the chicken has cooked through?

Oh fuck.

Now the choice of side dishes is pretty much up to you. Hell man, you could grab a crusty loaf of bread, tear off a chunk and just eat this right out of the pot.

You can serve over mashed potatoes with a choice of veggie.

OR.

You could make some rice.

Yes we will cook the rice in our remaining 2 cups of leftover homemade chicken stock!

Bring to boil, reduce heat to as low as you can, cover with a lid and let cook – undisturbed – for 20 minutes.

Look! It’s ready!

Yes, NOW you can finally eat.

Grab a plate. Scoop on the rice. Sauce that shit up with some of the wine/gravy. Grab some chicken, maybe a side salad and serve.

Now we’re talking.

Shit yes, I grabbed a leg and a wing.

Man, that chicken is tender! 

The wine is front and center with the onion, garlic and mushrooms in the mix. But that bacon? Oh boy does this shit work!

Having no point of reference I really do think that letting the flavors meld after cooking this was the right step.

You want the real truth?

Anybody else here like cold chicken?

I mean right out of the refrigerator and straight into your damn mouth cold chicken?

The next day (Day 4?) I had a cold piece of leftover wing that had a little breast piece attached. There were mushroom and bacon bits stuck to it too.

THAT was the best bite of all. Mind blowing! I could eat that shit every fucking week!

This is a simple and very delicous recipe. Actually you could pretend that you worked your ass off making this.

You could serve this with a phony French accent and say “Zis took Sree Fool Dayz to prep-AIR!”

Then you simply wait for the applause!

I had a lot of fun making this. It also took a lot of the mystique away when you realize it’s a fairly simple stewing process.

You done good work Julia and it’s still appreciated.

Thanks for being there everyone.

Please stay in and be safe and for the love of fuck people, wear your goddamn face coverings!

Much love folks.

See you next week.

PEACE and UNITY!

0 0 votes
Article Rating
yeah right
yeah right is a fully vaccinated lifelong Vikings fan, food guru and LA Harbor resident with a black belt in profanity.
Subscribe
Notify of
84 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

comment image

Viva La Tabula Raza

I don’t expect you to talk, Mr. Bond. I expect you to talk American.
—35% or so of Americans

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

comment image

Game Time Decision

Same. Hate that feeling

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

Moobs can rain.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

comment image

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

comment image

Dunstan

More fake baseball results! We’re down to the Elite Eight:

Vin Scully Region
(1) Yankees ’27 def. (4) Dodgers ’55 in six games
(6) Braves ’95 def. (2) Orioles ’70 in six.

Harry Carey Region
(4) Cubs 1907 def. (1) Yankees ’98 in seven
(11) Dodgers ’88 def. (7) Athletics ’73 in five

Jack Buck Region
(16) Red Sox ’67 def. (12) Astros ‘2017 in four
(14) Giants 2012 def. (15) Brewers ’82 in seven

Bob Uecker Region
(1) Athletics ’29 def. (12) Cardinals ’82 in five
(2) Yankees ’61 def. (14) Twins ’91 in four

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

comment image

Gumbygirl

Monsieur Right, your coq looks magnifique! I am defrosting pork chops for dinner, but later this week I will try this.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

It has some nice girth.

King Hippo

I’d appreciate Hellas Verona not shitting they dick here. SEVEN minutes added time????

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

comment image

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

comment image

Well, he IS honest……

Viva La Tabula Raza

I wonder how many fingers.

Game Time Decision

Bad turnover for Man in their third and then Newcastle misses the chip in for the tie. Wow

Game Time Decision

Found the Man City – Newcastle game. Damn the Man City kits are ugly

scotchnaut

Pastel Power!

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

comment image

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

Remember when hoarding was…… different.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Fun fact: a young Andy Reid was cast an an extra for that scene but was ultimately removed from the set after he kept trying to tear open the prop chocolate bars.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

How pissed was he when he found out the candy was plastic props? That was worse than any playoff loss.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

comment image

scotchnaut

Upward Cat has obviously moved on past Downward Dog.

Gumbygirl

Is that the cat from yesterday? He is a talented puss. I wish my back could twist like that. Or at all.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

Yes, but I think he’s just geefed on strong ass catnip and laser pointer action.

Gumbygirl

The nip is a powerful drug.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

No hangover they say, but you can tell the meow.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

comment image

It’s fine.

scotchnaut

But it’s a dry Apocalypse.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

Yes, much more comfortable than a moist Apocalypse.

scotchnaut

This Just In-Newcastle has crossed midfield. I repeat. Newcastle has crossed midfield.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

comment image

scotchnaut

The Broom is up 1-0.

scotchnaut

Man City has 115 passes to Old Castle’s 15.

scotchnaut

Smoke Break!

scotchnaut

My favourite 90’s cartoon? It’s gotta be Pinky and De Bruyne.

Pinky: “Gee De Bruyne, what do you want to do tonight?”

De Bruyne: “The same thing we do every night-TRY TO TAKE OVER THE MID-FIELD!”

rockingdog
scotchnaut

Pretend crowd not very happy with that last call… You don’t want to get them riled up.

scotchnaut

It’s The Broom’s Birthday! I think I’ll get him a Dyson.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Such interesting timing – I actually made the James Beard recipe just last night!

scotchnaut

I know-I can smell your breath from here.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

But seriously, the garlic roasts so nicely that it’s actually very mild.

scotchnaut

Absolutely. The difference between raw/lightly cooked garlic and roasted garlic is crazy. Just a completely different flavour profile.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Oh, I’d done it before (which is why I did it again). It could have used more salt, but it’s really easy to do.

scotchnaut

I can haz some hot Kevin The Broom action?

rockingdog

lester gonna try and do something…

Gratliff

Tim Robbins on a children’s show as an antifa WTO protestor describing undercover cops throwing bricks to provoke violent backlash from the state. Feel some real flat circle energy watching this show.

bk109

Funny, I’m not a lawyer, but I’ve watched enough JAG and Boston Legal to know that throwing out such allegations around without actual proof is an actual crime or two…
Also, Hi gang, apparently for once the refs’ incompetence was in our favour XD

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

You are correct; you are not a lawyer.

Gratliff

Not when it’s part of a comedy sketch

rockingdog

bark bark bark bark bark barkleyyyyyy
chelski up 1-0

Gratliff

Someone let Lennox Lewis speak on a comedy show just so they could do an endless string of Mike Tyson jokes. Goddamn, he was forgettable.

rockingdog

shit dicks….
flag was up

rockingdog

chelski looking better….

Gratliff

Moved from sketch comedy to news for 5 seconds and the first thing I saw was “Trump deletes ‘White Power’ tweet”, so it’s back to sketch comedy

Brick Meathook

comment image

rockingdog

wait there is a “drinks break” now?
ok!

scotchnaut

Vardy looks like a guy that should be running an antiques shop in London’s west end.

rockingdog

that dude is legit though

herodotus450

Too bad that Cock in Van went out of fashion since the 70s.

Horatio Cornblower

comment image?itemid=4432244

scotchnaut

After her divorce my mom hooked up with a guy that had a shaggin’ wagon. I figure she saw her fair share of the carpeted ceiling over those coupla months.

Don T

Now it’s cock in vain!
-Incels

Horatio Cornblower

That Julia Child skit is probably my favorite thing Akroyd ever did, other than Donna Dixon.
comment image

Brick Meathook

Her parents owned a bar called “Hillbilly Heaven” near Fort Belvoir in Virginia, outside of D.C.

Gumbygirl

I liked Irwin Mainway too. What a glorious sleaze!

rockingdog

Had a nice little breakfast and did some more reading.
Settling in for Chelsea vs leister
hopefully this is a good match.

Horatio Cornblower

Premier League is showing a montage of Liverpool highlights while playing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and all I can think of is how big the brick was that Hippo just put through his TV.

Gratliff

I’ve reached the point in MadTV where Will Sasso was in shape for exactly one year and it’s fucking weird to see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljPO6H1c7tw

rockingdog

LOL

scotchnaut

I don’t know how I happened upon him but he’s frickin’ hilarious on podcasts. Very quick-witted and spontaneous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYHvoADgT0Y&t=504s

Gratliff

It’s surprising no real superstar types came out of the first half of the show’s run for as prominent as it was. Of course, Jordan Peele ended up being the standout in the long run. About half of them rake in cash as voice actors. Sasso pops up on random TV shows, but the last thing I remember him being in was Super Troopers 2, though apparently he’s working on another Three Stooges movie (oof).

Gratliff

Also, he sort of pigeon holed himself early on by doing every wrestling crossover he could get his hands on. Here’s Bobby Heenan calling a Will Sasso match:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewFFOc-Oye8

scotchnaut

He’s actually carved himself out a nice little career on tv and in the movies as a bit player. His IMBD page shows that he’s got anywhere from 7-15 credits in any given year.

Gratliff

TIL he was in a Doctor Who TV movie just before Mad TV started.
comment image

rockingdog

found a funny:

priest: you may now kiss the bride

me: hell yea

priest: sir please get back in your seat

scotchnaut

Having been thoroughly marinated in alcohol myself, I can really relate to that chicken.

montythisseemsstrangetome

In retrospect I feel bad that we spatchcocked you afterwards.

scotchnaut

I’m just grateful all of you were generous with the lard.