Smoked Coq au Vin — and wines to pair

Smoked Coq au Vin has to be one of my all time favorite winter comfort foods inspired by the classic French dish. This post will show you how to add smoked flavor to a traditional Coq au Vin. 

Many years ago we found ourselves with no family for Christmas. It was just the four of us that year. No family. No traveling. Just us. Typically we go big and smoke a prime rib or brisket, or something equally grand. But this year we swayed from tradition. We still wanted something smoked (sheesh, we can’t sway THAT far from traditions!), and something warm and comforting, easy to make, yet still elegant and festive. We decided on Coq au Vin.

A traditional Coq au Vin is a classic French stew consisting of chicken slowly braised in red wine and brandy (and also bacon and vegetables).

It’s usually made by pan searing the chicken to get it started, then cooking everything in a large pot in the oven. We wanted to see if we could smoke the dish.

So we decided to adapt my favorite Coq au Vin recipe, from my shero herself, Ina Garten, and add our own smoked touches.

How to Smoke a Chicken for Smoked Coq au Vin

• We started by smoking a chicken.
• We season simply, with lots of olive oil, and a generous amount of kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper.

• Cook the chicken to 165 degrees with a good thermometer like this one. This should take roughly two hours, but always cook to the proper temperature, not time. Then let the bird sit under foil for 30 minutes to allow the juices to redistribute and settle.
• While the chicken is resting you can start on the rest of your dish.
• Once the chicken has rested, quarter the bird into two breasts and then the two thigh/leg combos. Go ahead and throw the wings in there for fun and flavor.

Making Smoked Coq au Vin

1. Start your stew by cooking up the bacon until crispy, then softening all of the vegetables.
2. Add your liquids then the quartered chicken pieces. Cover, then put in the oven (or increase your smoker to 375) and cook for just about 30 minutes.
3. While the pot is in the oven or smoker, sauté mushrooms in a separate saucepan.
4. Transfer pot back to the stovetop and add the mushrooms, and bring back to a simmer.
5. In a small bowl mash together one tablespoon butter and the flour. Mix into the stew. Continue simmering the dish on the stovetop for an additional 10 minutes for desired thickness.
6. Just before serving, pull out the thyme leaves wrapped in the string and season with a little salt and pepper to taste.
7. Serve with crusty bread.

Smoked Coq au Vin Recipe

Smoked Coq au Vin

How to add smoked flavor to a traditional Coq au Vin. Smoke the chicken on your smoker, then build your stew with the pre-smoked chicken pieces. Adds incredible flavor to this classic French dish. Recipe adapted by Ina Garten.

5 from 1 vote

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Servings: 4 servings

Author: Mary Cressler | Vindulge

Ingredients

To Smoke the Chicken:

• ▢ 1 4-5 pound roaster chicken
• ▢ 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ▢ 1 tablespoons salt (may need more depending on the exact size of your chicken)
• ▢ 1 tablespoon pepper (may need more depending on the exact size of your chicken)

For the Coq au Vin:

• ▢ 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ▢ 4 slices bacon, diced
• ▢ 1 large carrots, sliced diagonally into 1/2 inch pieces
• ▢ 1 yellow onion, diced
• ▢ 2 cloves garlic
• ▢ 1/4 cup bourbon
• ▢ 1/2 bottle (375 ml good dry red wine such as Burgundy)
• ▢ 1 ½ cup chicken stock
• ▢ 10 fresh thyme sprigs (tied together with kitchen string)
• ▢ 1/2 pound frozen pearl onions
• ▢ 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, divided
• ▢ 1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, stems removed and thickly sliced
• ▢ Salt and pepper to taste (roughly 1 teaspoon of salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper)

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Instructions

To Smoke the Chicken:

• Preheat smoker to 225 degrees, using fruit wood (we use cherry).
• Coat the chicken generously with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
• Place on smoker until the internal temperature of the chicken is 165 degrees (approximately 2 hours).

To make the Coq au Vin:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Alternatively, you can increase your smoker to 375 degrees and cook it in the smoker.
• Preheat a large ovenproof pot (like a cast iron Dutch oven) to medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil then the bacon. Cook until bacon is crispy (8-10 min) then remove bacon and most of the bacon drippings. Leaving too much rendered fat will make dish oily.
• Add onions and carrots to that same pot and cook for 8-10 min, to soften. Add garlic and cook for 1 additional minute. You want the veggies translucent, not caramelized.
• Next add the bourbon, wine, and stock. Add your cut up chicken pieces, the thyme, and frozen onions. Bring to a simmer. Transfer to oven (or smoker) for 30 minutes.
• While the pot is in the oven get started on your mushrooms. In a medium saucepan, set to medium heat, add 1 tablespoon of butter and the mushrooms and cook for approx 10 minutes, or until nicely browned. As Julia Child said "don't crowd the mushrooms", we do ours in two batches.
• Transfer pot from oven back to the stovetop and add the mushrooms, and bring back to a simmer.
• In a small bowl mash together one tablespoon butter and the flour. Mix into the stew. Continue simmering the dish on the stovetop for an additional 10 minutes for desired thickness.
• Just before serving, pull out the thyme leaves wrapped in the string and season with a little salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve with crusty bread.

Notes

Tip: for portions remove chicken and cut into smaller pieces. Or could shred before putting into pot.

Recipe adapted from Ina Garten: Some of the ingredients were changed, and the technique differs completely.

Tried this recipe? We would love to see!Mention @vindulge or use the hashtag #vindulge!

Wine Pairing For Smoked Coq au Vin

This classic French dish is traditionally served with red Burgundy (Pinot Noir), or another light to medium bodied red with high acidity. It’s an earthy rustic dish, and goes fantastic with a rustic or earthy wine. So that’s usually our go-to. And we almost always use a decent quality Pinot Noir to cook the dish with. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just something that you would happily drink. The easiest bet is to use the same wine to drink as you are cooking with.

But when we tried this with a Pinot Noir from Louis Jadot (which we used for the braising wine), it got a little masked by the smokiness of the chicken. The wine is just fine on its own, easy drinking, nice balance of red berries and earth. But there was more richness to this dish than a typical Coq au Vin, likely due to the smoked meat. We then decided to try a Châteauneuf-du-Pape from Château La Nerthe, which I was admittedly a little nervous about thinking the opposite could occur, that the wine would overpower the dish. That didn’t happen at all. Hot damn this was a fantastic wine and was a darn delicious match for the dish. 

The wines were provided as samples for review. See my review policy here. 

*This post contains an affiliate link for the Thermapen Mk4 digital read thermometer. We only recommend products we use and love! And you can’t smoke meat to the perfect temperature without one! You can always be certain if you have  good thermometer and this one is awesome. 

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