I have been wanting to make this dish almost from the minute I saw it in the book.. and a little more each time I flipped across the page again after a few more recipes under my belt. This is one of the MOST famous Julia Childs recipes - a somewhat "basic" French dish - some could say even a staple of French Cooking. (Although - there is time yet to wonder if it was 'French' before Julia 'a la Americana' made it French).
Coq au Vin literally translates to "Rooster in Red Wine"... but in this case (today, at least) - we used a nice chicken breast. The only other 'different' ingredient was Salt Pork (SP). Surprisingly, I was able to find SP in the meat section of my local Meijer Grocery store - no special trip to the butcher shop needed.
SP is a white bacon or salt-cured pork. It's basically a hunk of fat - but tasty one at that. It was used to season the oil that cooked the chicken. The oil was also used to sautee the onions and mushrooms. Once cleared from the pan, the red wine (I used a Spanish Tempranillo.. yum) - and stock were brought to a boil and the chicken came back to the pan. At the end - all were combined, and the sauce was thickened with a beurre manie (flour and butter - so fancy!).
The CaV was.. decent. The sauce WAS really good.. the chicken.. yeah, I think I left it a little longer than the 175-180 degrees. It was an interesting dish, and I'm glad I can finally say that I've joined the club that's made the somewhat exclusive "Coq au Vin". :)
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