COQ AU VIN CROCK POT RECIPES

Steps:

• Peel and slice garlic cloves. Cut chicken into pieces, or use thighs. Put in large bowl with bay leaves, thyme, and garlic. Pour enough wine over chicken to cover. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate in refrigerator overnight.
• Dice bacon. Fry until crisp. Remove to paper towel. Saute mushrooms in bacon drippings, adding oil or butter if needed, until they begin to brown.
• Remove chicken from marinade, reserving marinade. Pat chicken dry with paper towel. Brown chicken pieces in oil or butter, on all sides.
• Peel and slice carrots into 1/2 inch pieces. Put onions and carrots in bottom of crock pot. Add chicken, mushrooms and bacon . Stir tomato paste into 2 cups of wine marinade (with garlic pieces and bay leaves) and pour over all. Discard remaining marinade. Cover and cook on low setting 6 hours.
• Remove chicken to platter and keep warm. Stir cornstarch into 1/4 cup water and add to sauce. Turn to high and cook until thickened. (You may want to use more cornstarch, depending on how thick you want gravy.) Stir in salt and pepper to taste. Return chicken to pot and serve with mashed potatoes or rice.

Steps:

• If you are using lardons, saute several minutes in 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy bottomed casserole until lightly browned; remove lardons to a side dish and leave fat in pan; otherwise, film pan with 1/8 inch of oil.
• (My weird turkey bacon didn't give up a lot of fat, so I went with a little extra olive oil--).
• Heat fat or oil in pan to moderately hot, add chicken, not crowding pan; turn frequently to brown nicely on all sides (my skinless thighs didn't exactly"brown" as chicken with skin would have; if I had used white meat I would have left the skin on).
• Pour in the Cognac, shake pan a few seconds until bubbling hot, then ignite Cognac with a match.
• (What a rush!).
• Let flame a minute, swirling pan by its handle to burn off alcohol; extinguish with pan cover.
• Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper; add bay leaf and thyme.
• Place onions around the chicken.
• Cover and cook slowly 10 minutes, turning once.
• Uncover the pan; sprinkle on the flour turning chicken and onions so flour is absorbed; cook 3 to 4 minutes more, turning once or twice.
• Remove from heat, gradually stir and swirl in the wine and enough stock or bouillon to almost cover the chicken.
• Add the browned lardons, garlic, and tomato paste.
• Cover and simmer slowly 25 to 30 minutes, then test chicken, remove those pieces that are tender, and continue cooking the rest a few minutes longer.
• (I actually cooked it about 15 to 20 minutes longer so it would reduce and become more of a sauce.) Return all chicken to the pan, add mushrooms and simmer 4 to 5 minutes.
• Taste carefully, and correct seasoning.
• Sauce should be just thick enough to coat chicken and vegetables lightly.
• If too thin, boil down rapidly to concentrate; if too thick, thin out with spoonfuls of bouillon.