What you need:
– ca 800 g chicken pieces with skin and bones (thigh, or half a chicken or whatever you get)
– 500 ml dry red wine
– 70 g unsalted butter
– 100 g smoky fatty bacon
– 1 carrot
– a shot of brandy
– 3 medium onions
– 5 cloves of garlic
– 2 tablespoons of flour
– 100 g dried mushrooms (chanterelle + parasol mushroom) (or, if you want the original recipe – go with normal fresh champignons, 100-200g,but then you need to fry them before you put them into the chicken mix)
– 300 – 400 ml chicken or vegetable or veal stock*
– rosemary (if dried, around 1 teaspoon)
– thyme (if dried, around 1 teaspoon) (or any herb you like)
How to make:
It is surprisingly easy to make and will succeed 100%, if you use the alcohol. The difficulty comes from setting aside enough time for this one, because it demands several steps.
In the evening before: chop the garlic cloves, thyme and rosemary (a bit of parsley etc what you like) and mix with half a liter of red wine. A decent wine will definitely improve on the taste, but well, I try to get a cheap one… Then put the chicken pieces into the mixture and massage for a bit. The wine should cover the chicken. Then put a cling film over the bowl and let it rest in refrigerator or in a cool place in your home overnight, the longer, the better. French recepies say at least 12 hours, so trust them.
Cooking day: Cube the bacon, chop the onion and carrots, set aside. Then take the chicken out of the marinade (leave marinade, you will need it!) and fry the pieces sharply in a bit of butter until both sides have browned a bit. It is not necessary to cook the chicken 100% through, but this frying gives it extra taste. Put the chicken aside.
In a large deep pan or dutch oven, or a large cast iron wok – trust me, you need the space – put the bacon cubes and fry on medium heat until the fat has come out and you are left with crispy bacon cubes. Add the onions and carrots, fry for a minute or two. Throw the shot of brandy on the mix and wait for a minute for the alcohol to evaporate. Then add the chicken marinade and vegetable stock* and let it cook for a couple of minutes until it starts to diminish. Then add the chicken pieces, cover and let the mixture simmer for around 1 hour.
Meanwhile, mix around 10-20g of butter with the flour into a small ball, set aside.
After 1 hour, take the chicken out of the mix and put the flour ball inside and stir the mixture until the sauce starts to thicken. Put the chicken back inside, cover and let it sit over a low heat for another 15-20 minutes which gives you ample time to get your bread, potatoes or noodles ready.
Enjoy!
If you have any leftover chicken left next day, then just put it into a pan, toss in half a glass of water and a bit of stock and you will have more chicken with sauce.
How much does it cost:
Wine is the real killer here in Estonia… even the cheapest wine tends to be around 4-5 euros, so this will be around 4 euros. Chicken on bargain could be around 2 euro, full price more like 4-5 euros. Butter comes at 1 euro. Bacon around 1 euro, carrot and herbs and stock still not more than 1 euro, add an euro if you need to buy champignons. So, in total it is around 9 euros and there is enough for 4 people. I managed to get a bargain and ended around 7-8 euros. These mushrooms, though… you need to get yourself anyway. I have never seen dried giant mushrooms on sale here. They taste like young veal meat. For dried chanterelles – the kilo price is somewhere around 300 euro, so you better go into the forest or go broke : ) Still, the taste will be very different to your normal coq au vin due to the wild mushrooms. Behold super expensive mushrooms:
