Coq Au Vin

A 3 to 4 ounce chunk of lean bacon
A heavy, 10 inch, fireproof casserole or a electric skillet
2 tb butter
2 ½ to 3lbs cut up frying chicken
½ tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
¼ cup cognac
3 cups young, full-bodied red wine such as Burgundy, Beaujolais, cotes du Rhone, or Chianti
1 to 2 cups brown chicken stock, brown stock, or canned beef bouillon
½ tb tomato paste
2 cloves mashed garlic
¼ thyme
2 bay leaf
12 to 24 brown braised onions (see recipe)
½ lb. sautéed mushrooms (see recipe)
3 Tb flour
2 Tb soften butter
A saucer
A rubber spatula
A wire whip

Remove the rind and cut the bacon into lardoons (rectangles ¼ inch across and 1 inch long). Simmer for 10 minutes in 2 quarts of water. Rinse in cold water. Dry.

Saute the bacon slowly in the hot butter until it is very browned but just lightly Remove to a side dish.

Dry the chicken thoroughly. Brown it in the hot fat in the casserole.

Season the chicken with salt and . Return the bacon to the casserole with the chicken. Cover and cook slowly for 10 minutes, turning the chicken once.

Uncover, and pour in the cognac. Standing back away from the flame, ignite the cognac with a lighted match. Shake the casserole back and forth for several seconds until the flames subside.

While the chicken is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms.

Salt and pepper the chicken.

Pour the wine into the casserole. Add just enough stock or bouillon to cover the chicken. Stir in the tomato paste, garlic, and herbs. Bring to the simmer. Cover and simmer slowly for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and the juices run clear yellow when the meat is pricked with a fork. Remove the chicken and set aside.

Simmer the chicken cooking liquid in the casserole for a minute or two, skimming off fat. Then raise heat to a boil rapidly, reducing the liquid to about 2 ¼ cups. Adjust the seasoning. Remove from the heat, and discard bay leaf.

Blend the butter and flour together into a smooth paste (beurre manie). Beat the paste into the hot liquid with a wire whip. Bring to a simmer, stirring, and simmer for a minute or two. The sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Arrange the chicken in the casserole, place the mushrooms and onions around it, and baste with the sauce (*) if the dish is not to be served immediately, skim the fat from the top of the sauce with stock or dot with small pieces of butter. Set aside uncovered. It can wait indefinitely.

Shortly before serving, bring to the simmer, basting the chicken with the sauce. Cover and simmer slowly for 4 to

Oignons Glace A Burn
(Brown – braised Onions)

For 18 to 24 peeled white onions about 1 inch in diameter
1 ½ Tb butter
1 ½ Tb oil
A 9 to 10 inch enameled skillet
½ cup of brown stock, canned beef bouillon, dry white wine, red wine, or water
Salt and pepper to taste
A medium herb bouquet: 4 parsley sprigs, ½ bay leaf, and ¼ tsp thyme tied in cheesecloth


When the butter and oil are bubbling in the enameled skillet, add the onions and sauté over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, rolling the onions about so they will brown evenly as possible. Be careful not to break their skins. If they don’t brown uniformly, its okay.

Then either braise them as follows:
Pour the liquid, season to taste, and add the herb bouquet that you prepared previously. Cover and simmer slowly for 40 to 50 minutes until the onions are perfectly tinder but retain their shape, and the liquid has evaporated. Remove herb bouquet. Serve them as they are, or follow one of the suggestions at the end of this recipe.


Champignons Sautes Au Beurre
(Sauteed Mushrooms)

A 10-inch enameled skillet
2 Tb butter
1 Tb oil
½ lb. fresh mushrooms, washed, well dried, left whole if small sliced or quartered if large
Optional: 1 to 2 Tb minced shallots or green onions
Salt and pepper


Place the skillet over high heat with the butter and oil. As soon as you see that the butter foam has begun to subside, add the mushrooms. Toss and shake the pan for 4 to 5 minutes. During their sauté the mushrooms will at first absorb the fat. In 2 to 3 minutes the fat will reappear on their surface, and the mushrooms will begin to brown. As soon as they have browned slightly, remove from heat.

Toss the shallots or green onions with the mushrooms. Saute over moderate heat for 2 minutes.
(*) sautéed mushrooms may be cooked in advance, set aside, then reheated when needed. Season to taste just before serving.


So this recipe was adapted from Mastering The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck. Before the whole Julie and Julia craze, I had this cookbook in my library. Belive it or not I found my copy of this book in a used book store for $3.00 (hence the concept of this blog The Second Hand Cook.) Can you believe that!!! Now I log onto ebay and I find people hocking their damn copies of this book for up to $75.00. Crazy huh? So, onto the recipe. Make sure that you read the recipe fully and know everything that you need before you begin. This is truly ambitious dish to make for anyone who has never had any cooking experience or someone who wants to be bold. So first of all if you have never cut up a whole chicken…… don’t!!!!! Have your butcher do it for you at the local supermarket, if that option is available or you can purchase a whole cut up chicken. I hacked that damn chicken the fuck up. I think I used like 3 different knifes and I ended up ripping that bird up with my hand because I was so fustrated. They make it look so damn easy on the Food Network!! So first the mushrooms…… I ended up cooking the wrong damn recipe. I made creamed mushrooms instead of sautéed mushrooms, that recipe will follow, so look for it. The mushrooms were pretty easy. The sautéed onions were a pain in the ass. Only because they were not available when I went to the damn store. I went to 2 grocery stores before I found pearl onions. These are not something that are at the local grocery store that I normally go to. So I had everything that needed and I began my cooking. So no major missteps with everything and I was done after about an hour and half. My critique is that it came out okay but it tasted a little “winey” (the wine was wayyy too prominent) if you know what I mean. If you are gonna try this I say reduce the wine amounts by about half and increase the beef stock to make up for it. But, overall it was a very tasty dish and is meant to be served when guest come over and not when you are home alone (belive it or not, that is how I spend my Friday nights.) I did this over the snowstorm of 2010 in the DC metro area. So I had nothing else to do but sit around for 2 days and cook. So if I was gonna be trapped in the house I might as well try one of Juila’s most decadent dishes. Well...... till the next entry.