How to cook coq au vin

The first day is all about preparation. We will make the marinade and prepare the chicken to cook the following evening.

First we are going to make the marinade. Dice the celery, onion, and carrot. You'll also need one bouquet garni (next step), black peppercorns and of course red wine.

Take out your chicken. We will want this chicken trimmed meaning wing tips, guts and neckbone removed.

Open your bottle of red wine.

Add the onion, carrot, celery, black peppercorn and bouquet garni to the pot.

Submerge the chicken in the marinade.

The next day, take out the chicken from the marinade. Pat dry with paper towels.

It isn't quite covered so I'm bringing in a second bottle of red wine.

Now it's mostly covered. Cover the top with plastic wrap and put in the fridge overnight.

Day two is where the real cooking happens. Don't worry, you'll have multiple bottles of wine open throughout the process so you can probably mix in a drink here or there.

A bouquet garni is a mix of fresh thyme, parsley, bay leaf tied together so that it's easy to extract later.

Drain our the solids from the marinade using a strainer. Don't get rid of the actual marinade liquid!

Put the marinade and solids aside, we'll use them soon.

Start heating a large pot on medium heat.

Add butter in the pot.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Then we need to sear the chicken. Brown it on all sides.

Take out the chicken and set aside after it's been browned.

Add the carrots, onions and celery solids from the marinade into the pot.

After they've been cooking for a few minutes. Cover the solids with flour.

Mix the flour around.

Add the reserved marinade from earlier in the pot.

Carefully add the chicken back into the pot. Try not to splash the marinade!

Cover the pot with a lid and reduce the heat slightly. This will stew for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Now in a separate pan we will start to create the sauce for the dish. Begin by sautéing your bacon.

After it's done, set aside on a paper towel.

In the same pan, remove the stems from the mushrooms and sauté them.

Set aside the mushrooms with the bacon.

Peel your shallots.

Add the Shallots to the pot and add enough water to cover them.

Cover with parchment paper if you have it. I was out so I used aluminum foil instead.

The shallots are done when the water is nearly evaporated.

Like the bacon and mushrooms, set aside the shallots.

Add a cup of red wine to the pan (yes more wine!) and cook it until it's reduced by half.

After your chicken is done stewing for about 1 hour and 15-20 minutes, remove it from the pot and set aside.

Now we will add the marinade to the sauce pan. Strain out the solids and add the sauce to the pan.

Add the bacon, mushrooms and shallots to the sauce and simmer for a few minutes.

Once your chicken has been aside for a few minutes, it's time to quarter it.

Quarter the chicken. Cut the wings, legs and breasts and place into a deep serving dish.

Use a ladle to serve the dish.

Dinner is served!