A coq and bowl story

Ah, the first rains of the season—and on the first few days of fall. Parfait! Except for one thing: Henri was miserable—suffering from the first cold of the season. Sniffly, sneezy, achy.

Mostly I lay on the couch curled up under blankets, dozing off during I Love Lucy reruns, thanks at least partly to the TheraFever Night-time Plus-Extra that Colette had insisted I take—and which tastes much better with a shot of Jameson.

One afternoon, though, I woke to a delightful smell that took me back to cold winter mornings snuggled around the fire at maison Bourride. Inspired by the rain, Colette was in the kitchen, cooking, and the rich smells of simmering chicken, wine, onions and mushrooms were wafting my way. Just what the médecin ordered.

My dear sister was making coq au vin, the Bourride version of chicken soup.

Comfort food takes lots of different forms. But it seems always connected to childhood, to winter days, to family—sometimes to less-than-happy times when food helped brighten a mood or a darkening afternoon, or a day spent home sick in bed.

For the famille Bourride, it was coq au vin, chicken cooked in wine. Mon père, Alain Etienne Bourride, made a coq au vin that could brighten the darkest of spirits, and he could do it at the drop of a châpeau: All he needed was one whole chicken and two hours—we always had enough other ingredients on hand, certainly the vin.

While purists might make a case for specific recipes, coq au vin—like paella, bouillabaisse, cioppino—can include a range of ingredients, and creative cooks take great pleasure in improvising, adding to the basics: usually onions and tomato sauce in addition to the chicken and wine.

The following is Colette’s version, at least the one she made for me last week. By the way, the leftovers the next morning worked wonders on my TheraFever hangover, and by mid-afternoon I was an homme nouveau.

Collette’s coq au vin

Ingredients:

8 pieces of chicken—any combination of thighs, drumsticks, breasts

2-3 cups full-bodied red wine

1/2-3/4 lb. bacon, diced

2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

2 yellow onions, chopped

8-12 cloves garlic, sliced

2 stalks celery (in bite-size pieces)

1 green bell pepper, cubed

10-12 white pearl onions, peeled

1/2 lb. mushrooms, halved (porcini, chanterelles, etc.)

1 tbsp. tomato paste

3 tbsp. flour

2 tbsp. Cognac

1 bay leaf

1 tsp. fresh thyme, ground

1 small rosemary sprig

Kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper

Cooking instructions: Place chicken pieces in a large bowl with the red wine, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate—at least a couple of hours, overnight if possible.

Remove chicken from wine (preserve to add later) and pat dry with paper towel. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Cook bacon in large pan or Dutch oven until crisp, and then set aside on a plate (with a paper towel to drain fat). Add oil to bacon drippings, and place chicken in pan and cook in oil and fat over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, turning once.

Add sliced onions, garlic, celery, and bell peppers, and cook 4-5 minutes. Add pearl onions and mushrooms, and cook another 3-4 minutes. Add tomato paste and flour, stir well, and cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in Cognac, and add the bacon, herbs, chicken and preserved wine. Cook until the mixture simmers, cover, move to oven and cook at 325 for about an hour, or until chicken and vegetables are fully cooked (chicken meat should be starting to separate from bones).

Serve in large bowls with a salad, French sourdough bread and a hearty red wine such as a good cab or Barolo. Or: Serve the chicken separately, and ladle the rich, delicious sauce over orzo, couscous, quinoa or risotto.

Optional additional ingredients: carrots, potatoes, red onions, kidney or garbanzo beans, peas, various peppers.