Chicken drumsticks stewed in red wine and stock
I wanted to make coq au vin but I couldn’t find any pearl onions. And when it came time to cook, I realised I had used up all the chicken stock.
I think coq au vin was once a farmhouse dish made with a cock rather than a hen, that was stewed in a mix of the usual vegetables, its blood and red wine. So I decided to try a darker stock, beef stock, and it worked out just fine. The wine here was lovely, but I do recommend if you have a bottle that isn’t quite to your taste, just add some honey and herbs to it and use it to stew some meat.
Coq au vin, like boeuf bourguignon, sounds fancy, tastes great and looks cute too with the small and/or nicely cut vegetables. But the basic recipe of some meat, onions, carrots and celery, stewed with some herbs, wine and stock, generally works very well every time. I’ll have to try it with mushrooms … and maybe some black beans?
I didn’t marinate the chicken in wine for this. Which will add a depth to the flavour of the chicken. This is a very simple recipe and so I’d recommend following a recipe for coq au vin if you’re cooking for others. But if you just want a lovely stew that can easily be made with things you probably have to hand, this simple recipe works great too. By the way you can use chopped up bacon rashers if you don’t have lardons to hand.
Ingredients
- ~950g chicken drumsticks
- 150g bacon lardons
- 2 large onions, chopped
- 2 carrots, sliced
- 2 celery sticks, sliced
- 200g mushrooms, sliced
- 1 large garlic clove, crushed
- 3 sprigs of thyme
- 300ml stock, chicken or beef
- 250ml full-bodied red wine
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
- 25g butter
- 4 tbsp gluten-free plain flour
- ½ tbsp sunflower oil
- salt & freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Turn the oven on to 180° C. On the stovetop, heat a large and deep oven-safe casserole pot. When the pan is hot, add in the bacon lardons. They do not need oil as they have enough fat on them. Let them turn pale to golden-brown, stirring just occasionally, and then remove from the pot onto a large plate. Next, add half the sunflower oil to the pot, add in the chicken drumsticks and sear them to golden brown. Remove from the pot onto the large plate with the lardons.
- Pour in the rest of the sunflower oil. If there are burnt bits on the bottom use a little stock to scrape them up. Add in the onions, celery and carrots, reduce the heat, cover the pot and leave to sweat for 5 minute or until the veg has begun to soften. Next, add in the butter, then the flour and mix around well. Let it cook for a couple of minutes to ensure the flour is properly cooked. Add a little bit more stock and mix around well. The stock should mix in well and develop a glazed look. Add the lardons and the drumsticks back into the pot. Slowly stir in the rest of the stock and then the wine. Bring to the boil. Stir in the garlic and the tomato puree. Add in the sprigs of thyme. Add in a pinch of freshly ground black pepper. Because bacon can be very salty, I like to add in salt at the end only if needed.
- Cover the pot with a tight fitting lid and transfer to the oven to stew for an hour. 30 minutes before it’s done, stir in the sliced mushrooms.
