Nigella’s Coq au Riesling

I am a huge fan of coq au vin, cooking with wine, drinking wine… and when I saw ‘Coq au Riseling’ packaged as a ready meal by the Ready Meal Kings – Cook (https://www.cookfood.net/) I knew I had to find a recipe to try out on the family.

After doing a really quick internet search I decided to go with the Nigella Lawson version. It is simpler than most I found, and it is an easy midweek meal.

Serves 6

Ingredients (slightly modified from Nigella’s):

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 tsp crushed garlic
• 200 grams bacon lardons
• 1 leek (finely sliced)
• 750g/7 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 400g mini chicken breast fillets
• 3 bay leaves
• 400 grams mixed mushrooms (torn into strips or sliced)
• 1 x 750 millilitres bottle riesling
• 1 splash of double cream (optional)
• salt (to taste)
• pepper (to taste)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill (to serve)

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a casserole or large, wide pan and fry the lardons until crisp.
2. Add the sliced leek and soften it with the lardons for a minute or so.
3. Cut chicken fillets into 2 or 3 pieces each, tip them into the pan with the bay leaves, torn mushrooms and wine.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste and bring to the boil, cover the pan and simmer gently for 30-40 minutes, stirring in the double cream for the last couple of minutes if you want. Like all stews, this tastes its mellowest best if you let it get cold and then reheat the next day. But it’s no hardship to eat straight off. Whichever, serve sprinkled with dill and together with some buttered noodles.

It is really easy to cook, it is more of an assembly job to be honest. I used a 2.4l round le Creuset casserole and it filled it. It was a bit of a squeeze.

OK, I didn’t add cream. I also served it with basmati rice and broccoli (have to get your veggies). Final scores on the doors to be posted later.

Update: Clean plates all around. No pictures of the finished article (d’oh), however, it wasn’t very pretty. This has made the list of favourites. We might try the leftovers with some cream tonight!

Final update… my Husband warmed the leftovers up and added Bisto. He ate it with my son. I have no desire to find out how it was… think adding Bisto changed the spirit of the dish!