Try this Slow Cooker Coq au Vin recipe, or contribute your own.
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 2 tbsp water
- 1/2 cup beef stock
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 4 strips bacon thick cut
- 1 whole chicken quartered and seasoned liberally with kosh
- 1 onion, sliced (i use a large spanish onion)
- 1/2 cup leek sliced (approx 1 small leek)
- 10 oz crimini or baby bella mushrooms quartered
- 5 cloves garlic small dice
- 1/2 cup white wine (i use an unoaked french chardonnay)
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 1 tsp arrowroot or corn starch
- Carbohydrate 6.22143320339863 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 3.9187779062243 g
- Fiber 0.300970578432083 g
- Protein 9.49548033887599 g
- Saturated Fat 0.685282809165397 g
- Serving Size 1 1 recipe (799g)
- Sodium 1556.6294699211 mg
- Sugar 5.92046262496655 g
- Trans Fat 0.14335850742054 g
- Calories 95 calories
Step-by-step
- Using a heavy bottom pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add in the bacon when the oil is hot and cook until crisp. Remove the bacon, leaving the rendered fat in the pan and set aside.
- Increase the heat to high. Add in the chicken, skin side down. Cook for 3 minutes. Check for browning. If it looks nicely browned, flip and repeat on the other side. When the chicken is browned, remove the pan from the heat. Using tongs, add the chicken to the bottom of the slow cooker, skin side down.
- Reduce the heat to medium-high and return the pan to the heat with the fat still in the pan. Add in the onions with a good pinch of kosher salt. Stir and as the onion releases its water, scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook the onions, stirring occasionally, for 8-10 minutes. When cooked, use tongs to remove the onions from the pan, keeping as much fat in the pan as possible. Add the onions over the chicken in the crock pot.
- Return the pan to the heat and add in the leeks with a pinch of salt. Cook for 5-6 minutes, stirring well. If they look dry, add in olive oil. When they have browned just a bit, add them to the crock pot.
- The pan should look fairly dry now. This is good. Add in the mushrooms and NO salt. Cook them until they start to release some water, about 3 minutes. Add in a pinch of salt, some olive oil and the garlic. Cook, stirring consistently, until fragrant (approx 4 minutes or so). Add the white wine and reduce for 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and garlic to the crock pot.
- Add the beef stock, red pepper flakes and kosher salt to the chicken. Roughly dice the cooked bacon and add to the slow cooker. Cook for 3 hours at the high setting on your crock pot.
- Just before you remove the chicken from the slow cooker, make a slurry in a small bowl with the water and arrowroot. Set aside.
- When the chicken is ready, remove the quarters and set aside, covered with foil.
- Using a strainer, strain out the solids. Set aside.
- Add the strained braising liquid to a wide saute pan. Cook over high heat, reducing to approximately 2 cups. Reduce the heat to medium and add in the slurry, stirring constantly. The sauce will thicken nicely. If it is still too thin, make some more slurry and add sparingly!
- On a large platter, add the mushrooms and onions as a base payer. Cover with chicken and coat everything with the crazy good gravy.
- Serve hot and enjoy!
Swapping an unoaked French Chardonnay for a heavy, oak-aged red wine alters the foundational balance of acidity and fruit, shifting the sauce from bright and savory to aggressively woody. Traditional preparations rely on stove-top braising vessels, but adapting the method to a countertop electric appliance requires careful attention to moisture management and heat retention to avoid boiling the poultry instead of braising it.
- Render the thick-cut bacon over medium-high heat until completely crisp, reserving every drop of animal fat in the heavy-bottom pan to sear the chicken quarters.
- Place the chicken skin-side down in the hot skillet for exactly three minutes to render subcutaneous fat and set the protein before transferring it to the crock pot.
- Cook the crimini or baby bella mushrooms without salt initially, allowing them to sweat for three minutes before introducing seasoning and garlic.
- Strain the braising liquid through a fine-mesh strainer after the three-hour high-setting cooking window, transferring the extracted juices to a wide saute pan for reduction.
- Whisk the arrowroot or corn starch and water slurry constantly into the reduced liquid over medium heat until the sauce achieves a glossy coat.
Properly managing the fat left in the skillet prevents the aromatics from becoming greasy while building a deep foundation of umami. Straining the solids prior to the final reduction ensures the finishing gravy achieves a smooth, velvety consistency.
