Time for another installment of cooking I think, especially since it's not often you get to say coq on OcUK and get away with it 
This is basically a rich chicken casserole made with red wine rather than water and has a distinct taste and colour compared with normal casserole made with just water and stock. The heaviness of the red wine means you can use a stronger tasting stock, I've used beef stock and that means that a whole host of different veggies can be added since the stock can handle the extra flavours. In mine is lots of onion, carrot and celery. Don't worry if you don't like celery, it just enhances the flavour and pretty much dissolves away. You'll never know it's there!
I've used a poussin which is a young chicken, if you use a normal sized chicken simply double up the quantities.
Ingredients:
1 poussin, skin removed and cut into 4
1 medium onion roughly chopped
1 large carrot chopped
3 sticks of celery chopped
1/2 bottle of cheap red wine (eg Les Fonteilles Bordeaux, £2.64 in Sainsburys)
1 beef stock cube
salt/pepper/tiny pinch of chilli
1 teaspoon of cornflour or flour
Get a large saucepan very hot and brown the chicken in a little oil or duck fat, this will add a lot of flavour. Tip in the chopped veggies and fry for a minute or two. Pour over half a bottle of cheap red and crumble in the stock cube with a tiny pinch of chilli, lots of pepper and salt to taste. Bring back to the boil, cover and reduce the heat and allow to simmer for about an hour. Near the end mix a teaspoon of cornflour with a little water and tip it in which will thicken the gravy.
Serve this up with plenty of crispy roast vegetables like potatoes, parsnips, carrots and whatever is in season.
This is basically a rich chicken casserole made with red wine rather than water and has a distinct taste and colour compared with normal casserole made with just water and stock. The heaviness of the red wine means you can use a stronger tasting stock, I've used beef stock and that means that a whole host of different veggies can be added since the stock can handle the extra flavours. In mine is lots of onion, carrot and celery. Don't worry if you don't like celery, it just enhances the flavour and pretty much dissolves away. You'll never know it's there!I've used a poussin which is a young chicken, if you use a normal sized chicken simply double up the quantities.
Ingredients:
1 poussin, skin removed and cut into 4
1 medium onion roughly chopped
1 large carrot chopped
3 sticks of celery chopped
1/2 bottle of cheap red wine (eg Les Fonteilles Bordeaux, £2.64 in Sainsburys)
1 beef stock cube
salt/pepper/tiny pinch of chilli
1 teaspoon of cornflour or flour
Get a large saucepan very hot and brown the chicken in a little oil or duck fat, this will add a lot of flavour. Tip in the chopped veggies and fry for a minute or two. Pour over half a bottle of cheap red and crumble in the stock cube with a tiny pinch of chilli, lots of pepper and salt to taste. Bring back to the boil, cover and reduce the heat and allow to simmer for about an hour. Near the end mix a teaspoon of cornflour with a little water and tip it in which will thicken the gravy.
Serve this up with plenty of crispy roast vegetables like potatoes, parsnips, carrots and whatever is in season.
