Coq Au Vin

Classic chicken in red wine, also known as Coq Au Vin. This has a ton of ingredients but none of them are hard to find. It's usually a big hit although I'm starting to stray away from cooking with red wine. I'll still cook with white, but red is so acidic that I think I need to go buy some Prilosec before I make food with red wine again. Too much info? Ah well, it's a free recipe. A free purple recipe, even.

• 8 slices bacon, cut crosswise into thin strips
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 6 quarter chicken pieces
• 1.5 tsp kosher salt, plus more for chicken
• freshly ground black pepper
• one 1lb bag of frozen pearl onions, thawed
• 8 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 pound cremini mushrooms, halved
• 3 russet potatoes, peeled & cut into large rounds (thirds)
• 3 carrots, peeled & cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 2.5 cups full-bodied red wine
• 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves, roughly chopped
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar

Cook the bacon over medium heat in olive oil in a large dutch oven until crisp, about 8 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Season the chicken pieces generously with the salt & pepper and brown the pieces in two batches in the bacon drippings (mmm...bacon drippings...). Set aside.

Pour off about half of the pan drippings, then add the onions, garlic and mushrooms. Cook over medium-high heat until browned, about 8 minutes. Stir in the potatoes and carrots. Add the 1.5 tsp salt & the flour, stir to coat the vegetables.

Pour in the wine and chicken broth, stir until you don't see any lumps of flour. Add the chicken, thyme, bay leaves, and half of the bacon to the stew. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.

Cover and braise until the chicken and vegetables are almost tender, about 40 minutes. Uncover and cook until sauce thickens, about 10 more minutes.

Stir in the parsley and vinegar. Adjust seasoning with salt & pepper, to taste, and search with the remaining bacon.