This classic dish is one of the world’s great cold-weather meals

3 hours ago 3

Ben Groundwater

The dish: Coq au vin, France

Coq au vin has a rich, glossy wine-based sauce.Steve Brown

Plate up

As the weather cools down, we start to think about warming dishes, nourishing dishes, slow braises and thick stews. We think, in other words, of something like coq au vin. This is one of Europe’s, if not the world’s, great cold-weather dishes, one of those that are far greater than the sum of their parts thanks to the long, slow cook and the perfect marriage of flavours and ingredients. Two of those main ingredients are mentioned in the title: coq, or rooster (though any poultry, usually chicken, is acceptable), and vin, or wine. Chicken is seared in a large pot and then mixed with lardons of bacon, onions, small mushrooms and garlic, then the whole lot spends an hour or so braising in red wine and stock with a bouquet garni. The sauce is then thickened with roux, and your hearty, nourishing dinner is served.

First serve

This popular dish originated in one of France’s viticultural heartlands, Burgundy (the red wine used is typically Burgundian pinot noir, though in a cost-of-living crisis you want to look at a drop from a different region). It’s thought that Burgundians – and indeed many French cooks – were braising poultry in wine as far back as the Gallic Empire, though this particular preparation wasn’t recorded in a recipe book until 1864. Coq au vin was popularised worldwide in part by Julia Child, who cooked the dish twice on her iconic American TV show, The French Chef, in the 1960s.

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Order there

In the Burgundy region, enjoy a classic coq au vin at Restaurant l’Ouillette in Santenay (ouillette.fr).

Order here

In Sydney, order coq au vin at Bistro St Jacques in Redfern (bistrostjacques.com.au). In Melbourne, call in to Bistro Guillaume on a Tuesday for the coq au vin special (crownmelbourne.com.au). In Adelaide, try Le Pas Sage (lepassage.com.au).

Cook it

Make coq au vin, in stages, at home following Adam Liaw’s recipe on Good Food.

One more thing

You will find different versions of this dish across France, depending on the wine region that’s closest: there’s coq au vin jaune in Jura, coq au violet in Beaujolais, coq au riesling in Alsace, and coq au Champagne in, yeah, you guessed it.

Ben Groundwater is a Sydney-based travel writer, columnist, broadcaster, author and occasional tour guide with more than 25 years’ experience in media, and a lifetime of experience traversing the globe. He specialises in food and wine – writing about it, as well as consuming it – and at any given moment in time Ben is probably thinking about either ramen in Tokyo, pintxos in San Sebastian, or carbonara in Rome. Follow him on Instagram @bengroundwaterConnect via email.