The things I remember most about Julia Child are that she spoke in an exotic accent (which is strange because she was an American from California), she had a cooking show on public tv, she wrote books about the joy of cooking, Bill Cosby imitated her on The Cosby Show, and Robin Williams' Mrs. Doubtfire reminded me of her. I had heard her say "coq au vin" and "boof berjunon" and wondered at what the heck those were.
Hmm, chicken in wine sauce and beef stew..... wow, so much less intimidating when you take the mystery away.
Let's make this super easy and make it for dinner.... or for lots of dinners.
This is a variation of the Julia Child recipe using mostly what I have at home or was a quick grab at the grocery store. Remember, you can substitute some ingredients for others and still come away with a winning recipe. Don't let not having pearl onions stop you from making this great dish. Get some medium onions and chop them into that size. Sure, it's a difference, but not one that should stand in your way.
Let's prep and go!
Ingredients
3-4 pound whole chicken, cut up
1 pound of bacon
1 bottle of red wine (the one you would drink)
1/4 cup cognac
2 cups of beef broth (chicken works, also)
1 pound button mushrooms
12-24 pearl onions
salt
pepper
1/4 teaspoon of thyme
2 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon tomato paste
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons butter
cooking oil
Got it all, or a good substitution? Great... Chefs Assemble!
First, let's talk bacon. I get mine from Butcher Box. I love Butcher Box. You can get your chicken here, too, but I didn't think about this recipe that far in advance, so I went to the local market and practiced my knife skills on a whole chicken.
Julia Child's recipe says to boil the bacon, then remove from water and cook to a light brown. Reserve the fat. Ummm... I just lined my cast iron skillet, put it in the oven at 400, and baked it until golden brown,
I was also supposed to cut it into 1" pieces first. I just cut it up after it was cooked.
Put your chicken into a large pan with the bacon fat. Here you can season with salt and pepper before cooking or after. Julia says after, but Alton Brown always says first, so it cooks into the meat. I trust Alton.
I made chicken broth out of the leftover pieces.
Brown the chicken on both sides, cooking for about ten minutes at 300 degrees. You could probably do this in a pre-heated oven, but I didn't think about that until I was typing this.
When chicken is browned, and darker than this is ok, add your chopped bacon.
Are you ready to play with some fire? Have a lid handy, just in case. And a phone, again, just in case. Get your cognac. Ok, deviation here... I didn't have cognac, but I had some really excellent scotch whiskey. You might have a nice brandy. Raid that liquor cabinet before you go to the store. Pour in the cognac and light with a match.
Ok, so I thought that doing this on the counter might be safer. It might flame pretty high. Besides, it made for a better picture. Shake the pan until the flames dissipate.
Wine time! You need three cups. That equates to one bottle minus a small glass for you to sip on. See, it should be a wine you like. Add wine to the pan, then top with broth until it just covers the chicken.
Add your garlic, tomato paste, and thyme to the pan and stir gently.
Reduce heat to simmer, cover (I just used foil), and simmer for 30 minutes until chicken can easily be pierced with a fork.
Prep your onions. If you used pearl onions, blanche them in hot water before browning them. This helps them to cook through faster and make them tender. Trim the end, cut an x in the bottom and add to a pot until they glisten. Cutting the x helps them to keep their shape. I used 3 small Vidalia onions.
Saute onions in 2 tablespoons of butter to brown them slightly.
Add cleaned and sliced button mushrooms and cook through. They will still have a nice bite to them.
When chicken is tender, remove it from the liquid. You can also pour the liquid off into a saucepan. This is a 14" cast iron skillet... I was NOT pouring anything out of it. Simmer until liquid reduces to about 2 1/4 cups. In the meantime, make a paste out of the remaining butter and flour. Using a wire whisk, wisk the paste into the liquid, stirring to thicken. Add the onions and mushrooms and let simmer for a few minutes.
Return chicken to the sauce OR let it cool and store. This will refrigerate well for a couple of days. You can separate it into meal prep containers. Just add the chicken to the container and top with sauce.
I scooped it up and gobbled it down for lunch. It was yummilicious! Let me know how you changed yours up to make it work for your house.
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