Amy & Julia: Coq au Vin

"Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it." What better words could come from a zany, enthusiastic foodie like Julia Child, right?

While I wasn't around for the heyday of Julia's The French Chef, my first trip to Paris in 2008 confirmed how easy it was to fall in love with this city and its superb culinary pursuits like Julia did. And while I sampled some incredible food (and not so incredible) both in the original trip and a follow up in 2009, replicating French cooking is intimidating. Overall, standard meals aren't necessarily complicated as they are involved. Many steps, components from scratch and an emphasis on sauces and garnishes are French recipe staples.

Kudos to Julia Child for her work making this intimidating French cooking process feel more approachable and doable for American cooks. 

While baking and cooking are areas I already feel pretty skilled in, I wanted to try one of Julia's standard recipes: Coq au Vin. Translating to rooster/chicken with wine, the Coq an Vin recipe is reflective of my earlier statements about French cooking: many steps, focus on building the wine sauce that the chicken cooks in and everything from scratch. The biggest risk you take is timing and multi-tasking. While each component isn't hard, there's a ballet of ingredients to manage. 

Pearl onions, lean bacon, mushrooms and a little French bread and potatoes to accompany my chicken slathered in wine.

Soon to be covered in mushrooms, onions & red wine.

Another first for me was the need to section an entire chicken. I typically take the shortcut here and buy the pieces in the grocery store that I need ready to go. But, Julia would have been disappointed. The bird went down.

Although I feel pretty experienced in the kitchen, I've never had the chance to flambé anything either. But leave it to Julia to ask me to dump liquor on this chicken and set it on fire. Click here for a little video of my lighter struggles, but ultimately it worked.

 With about two hours from start to finish, here is the final product.

Would I make Coq au Vin again? I'm one the fence. While it was very good, I think I would rather explore other French recipes. I have other chicken dishes in my repertoire that I feel are better and take less time. But, completing this recipe does give a boost of culinary confidence.

If you want to try your hand at Coq au Vin, here's the recipe to follow.

Bon appétit!