This week’s food network chef cooking challenge features Brian Boitano.  Yes, that Brian Boitano.  I watched it once and thought the food he was cooking sounded repulsive (It was a bacon themed day, how he made bacon sound bad, I don’t know, but he did!).  So it was with some apprehension that I browsed his recipes for this week.  The show is so new that there are relatively few recipes to choose from, so I suspect we’ll see some of us duping recipes too.  I picked his very un-authentic version of Coq Au Vin – which I love, but it is so time consuming and difficult to make “real” Coq Au Vin, it doesn’t happen as often as I’d like.

 

Thanks to my camera problems as mentioned in a post earlier, I ended up with a bunch of unusable pictures.  I’ll post one of the few that came out, so you can see that I really made it ;)  Ignore the filthy stove.  I had a little accident with the leftover flour from dredging and it got all over the place.  The only sustitution I made is listed tbelow — I couldn’t find cipollini onions.

 

Coq Au Vin-guine, recipe courtesy Brian Boitano

 

1/2 cup olive oil, divided

1/4 pound pancetta, chopped

1 pound cipollini onions, peeled and sliced in 1/2 (I couldn’t find these at either grocery I frequent right now, so I subbed pearl onions)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces

1 pound crimini mushrooms, sliced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 bottle medium-bodied Italian red wine (I have no idea what “medium bodied” means. We don’t drink around here.  I bought a middle of the road pricewise wine.)

3 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 pound linguine

Fresh parsley leaves, roughly chopped

 

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook until brown and crispy about 8 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with a paper towel.  To the same skillet add the onions and cook until they just start to caramelize, about 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside on a baking sheet. While the onions cook, add the flour to a glass baking dish and season with salt and pepper. Add the chicken and toss to coat. To the same skillet add 3 tablespoons olive oil, add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Saute the mushrooms until browned, about 8 minutes and remove to the baking sheet with the onions. Shake off any excess flour from the chicken and put on a plate. Add 3 tablespoons olive oil to the skillet and add the chicken. Cook the chicken until browned, about 6 minutes and transfer to the baking sheet. Turn the heat to medium and add the garlic and tomato paste. Cook for 2 minutes and deglaze the pan with 3/4 of the bottle of wine, making sure to scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. While the wine comes to a simmer, add the thyme, chicken, mushrooms and onions and let simmer for 3 minutes.   

That's just steam, its not burning.

If sauce is too thick add remaining red wine. Add butter, taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the pasta and cook until al dente about 8 to 10 minutes.  Drain the pasta, transfer to a large serving bowl and top with the chicken and wine sauce. Garnish with the parsley, pancetta and a drizzle of the remaining olive oil.

What we thought:  I thought it was very good.  The sauce was delicious!  Especially on the pancetta, YUM!  It would be even better over mashed potatoes, IMO.  I can’t say that it is as fantastic as the “real” thing, but seriously, who can find an old rooster and spend 24 hours cooking it?  For a quick coq au vin, it was amazing.  Quick is a relative term.  It probably took about an hour from start to finish.

 

DH complained (as usual) for me making something new.  Kidlet thought it looked horrible.  He isn’t really eating meat right now, so I just took one chunk of the chicken, rinsed off the sauce and shredded it up.  When he saw mine in a bowl, he asked me “are you eating poop?”  GAH!  Why can’t my house be full of people that appreciate food!?

 

Although he doesn’t say so, you wouldn’t want to try making this in a non stick or cheap skillet.  Use a nice heavy bottomed one (much <3 to my all clad!). By the time you get the garlic and tomato paste in the pan, the bottom is really gummed up with all the good bits from the pancetta, onions, mushrooms and chicken that were cooked in before.  It’s the deglazing of all those wonderful bits that really adds depth to the sauce.

Posted by Kristen in Cooking