Smoked Coq au Vin – A Twist on a Traditional French Comfort Food

Smoked Coq au Vin – A Twist on a Traditional French Comfort Food

Smoked Coq au Vin has to be one of my all time favorite winter repletion foods inspired by the archetype French dish. This post will show you how to add smoked savor to a traditional Coq au Vin.

Smoked Coq au Vin in a large dutch oven

Many years ago we found ourselves with no family for Christmas. It was just the four of us that year. No family. No traveling. Just us. Typically we go big and smoke a prime rib or brisket, or something equally grand. But this year we swayed from tradition. We still wanted something smoked, and something warm and comforting, easy to make, yet still elegant and festive. We decided on our twist on archetype Coq au Vin (chicken in wine).

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What is Coq au Vin

A traditional Coq au Vin is a archetype French stew consisting of yellow slowly braised in red wine and brandy (and moreover salary and vegetables).

It’s usually made by pan searing the yellow to get it started, then cooking everything in a large pot in the oven. We wanted to see if we could smoke the dish for the smoky savor and then finish the recipe with the traditional braise.

So we decided to transmute my favorite Coq au Vin recipe, from my shero herself, Ina Garten, and add our own smoked touches.

The Chicken

  • Chicken – In this recipe we are smoking an a whole roaster yellow and then wearing it up into smaller pieces. Alternatively you can smoke a quartered yellow in pieces and just remove them at your desired temperature.
  • Seasoning – For the yellow we season simply with kosher salt and woody ground pepper. For spare savor you can moreover use our chicken seasoning.

Coq Au Vin Ingredients

Once the yellow is smoked we add to a rich wine braise. While it may seem like a lot of ingredients many of these just get tossed together at the same time. Full portions are in the recipe card.

  • Bacon – Toss salary shit into the pan to well-done up and use some of the fat to soften the vegetables.
  • Vegetables – For the wine braise we use carrots, onion, garlic, pearl onions, and cremini mushrooms.
  • Liquids – The braise needs a liquid wiring to reduce. We use a combination of bourbon, red wine (specifically a Pinot Noir or red Burgundy), and yellow stock.
  • Herbs – Fresh thyme brings fragrant zephyr and flavor. Add kosher salt and woody woebegone pepper to taste.

At the very end of the braise we add flour and butter as a thickening agent. While not a archetype roux, the technique is taking room temperature butter and mixing with the flour. Then it will melt in the warm braise and help thicken slightly.

Preparation Tips

  • Wrap the thyme stow with butchers or kitchen string. Leave a long string so you can sprawl over the side of the Dutch oven and remove it hands when done.
  • For the weightier mushroom texture (browned), sauté them in a separate pan while the initial braise is simmering. Don’t prod them or they will steam versus brown.
  • You want a large unbearable Dutch oven so the braise won’t spill over once subtracting the chicken. We recommend at least a 5-quart oven.

How to Smoke a Yellow for Smoked Coq au Vin

smoked whole yellow on a pellet grill
  • We started by smoking the seasoned chicken.
  • Cook the yellow to 160 degrees with a good instant read thermometer like the Thermoworks Thermapen One. This should take roughly two hours, but unchangingly melt to the proper temperature, not time. Then let the bird sit under foil for 30 minutes to indulge the juices to redistribute and settle.
  • While the yellow is resting you can start on the rest of your dish.
  • Once the yellow has rested, quarter the bird into two breasts and then the two thigh/leg combos. Go superiority and throw the wings in there for fun and flavor.

Related Article: When is yellow done?

Making Coq au Vin

  1. Sauté – In a large Dutch oven over medium heat add olive oil and melt the salary pieces until crispy. Then remove the salary (set aside) and most of the salary fat (leaving well-nigh 2 tablespoons) and then add the onions and carrots. Soften for well-nigh 8 minutes and then add the garlic. Protract to stir over medium heat for one minute.
  2. Liquids – Add your liquids (Bourbon, wine, and stock) and bring to a simmer. Then place the quartered chicken pieces into the braise. Add your stow of thyme and pearl onions. Cover, and protract to simmer for 30 minutes.
  3. Mushrooms – While the coq au vin has just started simmering, sauté mushrooms in a separate sauté pan. Once they are washed-up add them into the braise.
  4. Thicken – After the braise has simmered for 30 minutes, in a small trencher mash together one tablespoon butter and the flour. Mix into the stew and then add the bacon. Protract simmering the dish on the stovetop for an spare 10 minutes. It should thicken as it simmers.
  5. Serve: Just surpassing serving, pull out the thyme leaves wrapped in the string and season with a little salt and pepper to taste. Plate a piece of yellow in a trencher with a generous ladel of the braising liquid and veggies. Serve with toasted bread.
Fire and Wine Cookbook

Wine Pairing For Smoked Coq au Vin

This archetype French dish is traditionally served with red Burgundy (Pinot Noir), or flipside light to medium bodied red with upper acidity. It’s an earthy rustic dish, and goes fantastic with a rustic or earthy wine.

So that’s usually our go-to. And we scrutinizingly unchangingly use a decent quality Pinot Noir to melt the dish with. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just something that you would happily drink. The easiest bet is to use the same wine to drink as you are cooking with. Alternatively we’ve moreover enjoyed this dish with Chteauneuf-du-Pape and it’s outstanding!

Mary (a certified sommelier and recipe developer) and Sean (backyard pitmaster) are co-authors of the critically well-known cookbook, Fire Wine, and have been creating content for the IACP nominated website Vindulge since 2009. They live in Oregon on a sublet just outside Portland.

*This post contains an unite link for the Thermapen Mk4 digital read thermometer. We only recommend products we use and love! And you can’t smoke meat to the perfect temperature without one! You can unchangingly be unrepealable if you have good thermometer and this one is awesome.

If you like this recipe we’d truly fathom it if you would requite this recipe a star review! And if you share any of your pics on Instagram use the hashtag #vindulge. We LOVE to see it when you melt our recipes.

Smoked Coq au Vin Recipe

How to add smoked savor to a traditional Coq au Vin. Smoke the yellow on your smoker, then build your stew with the pre-smoked yellow pieces. Adds incredible savor to this archetype French dish. Recipe well-timed by Ina Garten.
5 from 4 votes
Print Rate
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 1120kcal
Cost: $25

Ingredients

To Smoke the Chicken:

  • 1 4-5 pound roaster chicken
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoons salt (may need increasingly depending on the word-for-word size of your chicken)
  • 1 tablespoon pepper (may need increasingly depending on the word-for-word size of your chicken)

For the Coq au Vin:

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 slices bacon, diced
  • 1 large carrot, sliced diagonally into ½ inch pieces
  • 1 yellow onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 375 mL Pinot Noir, or other dry red wine (This is the equivalent of ½ a snifter of wine. Be sure it's a wine you would drink.)
  • 1 ½ cup chicken stock We use low sodium and then add the seasoning in as we like it.
  • ¼ cup bourbon
  • 10 fresh thyme sprigs (tied together with kitchen string)
  • ½ pound frozen pearl onions
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, divided
  • 1 ½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • ½ pound cremini mushrooms, sliced
  • Salt and pepper to taste (roughly 1 teaspoon of salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper)

Instructions

To Smoke the Chicken:

  • Prep – Preheat smoking to 275 degrees, using fruit wood (we use cherry). Coat the yellow in olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
  • Smoke – Place on smoking until the internal temperature of the yellow is 160 degrees (approximately 2 hours).
  • Quarter – Once the yellow is done, use a good sharp pocketknife to quarter the yellow into the yellow breasts, yellow thighs, and the yellow legs. You can moreover add the yellow wings as well.

To make the Coq au Vin:

  • Sauté – In a large Dutch oven over medium heat add olive oil and melt the salary pieces until crispy. Then remove the salary (set aside) and most of the salary fat (leave well-nigh 2 tablespoons) and then add the onions and carrots. Soften for well-nigh 8 minutes and then add the garlic. Protract to stir over medium heat for one minute.
  • Liquids – Add your liquids (wine, Bourbon, and stock) and bring to a simmer. Then place the quartered chicken pieces into the braise. Add your stow of thyme and the pearl onions. Cover, and protract to simmer for 30 minutes.
  • Mushrooms – While the coq au vin has just started simmering, sauté mushrooms in a separate sauté pan. Once they are washed-up add them into the braise.
  • Thicken – After the braise has simmered for 30 minutes, in a small trencher mash together one tablespoon butter and the flour. Mix into the stew and then add the bacon. Protract simmering the dish on the stovetop for an spare 10 minutes. It should thicken as it simmers.
  • Serve: Just surpassing serving, pull out the thyme leaves wrapped in the string and season with a little salt and pepper to taste. Plate a piece of yellow in a trencher with a generous ladel of the braising liquid and veggies. Serve with toasted bread.

Notes

Tip: for portions remove yellow and cut into smaller pieces. Or could shred surpassing putting into pot.
Mushrooms: Surpassing cooking, remove the stems, and slice into thin strips. Sauté the mushrooms until browned while you start the simmer of the liquids then add them in.
Recipe well-timed from Ina Garten: Some of the ingredients were changed, and the technique differs completely.
Find the perfect wine pairing at the Vindulge Wine Shop

Nutrition

Calories: 1120kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 70g | Fat: 80g | Saturated Fat: 23g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 14g | Monounsaturated Fat: 37g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 283mg | Sodium: 2316mg | Potassium: 1227mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 3211IU | Vitamin C: 13mg | Calcium: 88mg | Iron: 4mg
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