Coq Au Vin Blanc

Description:

Most people are familiar with the red-wine cousin of this dish. This is a dish that I invented to bring together the cooking style of the county-French classic, Coq Au Vin, with the Italian-style chicken scaloppini. White wine is used in place of red wine and lemon; capers are added to create a very unique dish. I prefer to use a Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc for the wine.

Ingredients:

Whole roaster chicken, cut into pieces
6 slices thick bacon
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lb white button mushrooms (quartered)
10 oz frozen baby or pearl onions
2 tablespoons Italian parsley, chopped
1 lemon, sliced
2 tablespoons capers
1 cup flour
1/4 cup brandy
1 bottle dry white wine
4 cups chicken broth
Salt and pepper
Pinch of cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions:

Cut chicken into pieces and rub with fresh garlic, ground pepper, and sea salt. Then place in food storage bag with entire bottle of white wine. Set bag on a large bowl and place in refrigerator overnight.

In a large pan on high heat, cook bacon until crispy, extracting all grease. Remove bacon and reserve all but 1 tablespoon of fat for frying the chicken. Save remaining oil to add as necessary.

Salt and pepper chicken, then roll in flour.

Add one tablespoon of olive oil to heated pan with bacon grease.

Brown the chicken on all sides until golden brown. As you add and remove chicken pieces, add equal parts of bacon grease and olive oil to keep pan fully coated with grease.

Place all chicken in large pot with lid (Dutch oven), starting with the dark meat (thighs and legs) on the bottom. Set pot on stove with high heat. After 5 minutes, pour brandy over chicken, cover pan, and cook one minute.

For the next step it is important to make sure your hood fan is off and have a soaking wet dish cloth near by. The dish cloth needs to be larger than the pot surface. You will remove the lid, and using a lighter, ignite the brandy soaked chicken. If flames get too large, you can place lid on pot or cover with wet dish cloth.

When flames disappear, add left over wine from marinade, chicken broth, lemon slices, and garlic to the pot; cover and cook for one hour.

In a separate pan, use the remaining bacon fat to brown the mushrooms (3-5 minutes). Then add onions and cook for 2-3 minutes. Then add parsley, capers, and a pinch of cayenne pepper; mix thoroughly.

Pour mushroom and onion mix into pot with chicken; remove lid and cook for 20 minutes until sauce thickens.