Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Coq au Vin
Chicken braised slowly in red Burgundy wine with smoky lardons, browned mushrooms, and glazed pearl onions until the sauce turns silky.
French (Burgundian) · medium · serves 6
prep 30 min · cook 90 min
~867 cal · 68g protein · 57g carbs · 29g fat · 10g fiber · 24g sugars · 11g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Coq au vin began, like so much of the great French repertoire, as thrifty country cooking: a way to make an old, tough rooster tender by braising it for hours in the one thing Burgundy always had, red wine. Only later did chefs enshrine the peasant dish as a monument of French cuisine, and today it is made with chicken, but the soul of it is unchanged.
The technique is everything. The chicken is browned deep and dark, then simmered gently with red wine, a little , and a bouquet of thyme and bay, so the wine and mellows into a glossy, wine-dark sauce. The classic garnish is a trio of smoky lardons, browned mushrooms, and small glazed pearl onions, each cooked with care and folded in near the end.
The cardinal rule is low heat and patience: the wine must never boil hard or it turns harsh. Served with potatoes, buttered noodles, or just good bread to mop the sauce, coq au vin is the rustic classic that dressed up and became a symbol of the French table.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally nut- and egg-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
3 lbs bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks
5 oz smoked bacon lardons
3 cups Burgundy (or any dry red) wine
20 pearl onions
12 oz cremini mushrooms, quartered
2 carrots, sliced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 bouquet garni (thyme, bay, parsley)
2 cups chicken
3 tbsp flour (to dust the chicken)
3 tbsp butter
Instructions
1
Render the lardons in a heavy pot until crisp, then lift them out, leaving the fat behind.
2
Pat the chicken dry, dust with flour, season, and brown it hard in the fat in batches until deep golden, then set it aside.
✎ Chef’s note
A deep brown crust on the chicken is where most of the sauce's colour and flavour come from, so do not crowd the pot or rush this step.
3
Soften the carrots and garlic in the pot, return the chicken and lardons, pour in the wine and stock, and tuck in the bouquet garni.
4
Cover and braise gently for about 1 hour (40 minutes for the plant version) until the chicken is very tender and the sauce has mellowed.
5
Meanwhile brown the pearl onions and mushrooms in the butter until glazed, and add them for the last 20 minutes.
6
Discard the bouquet garni, reduce the sauce to a glossy velvet (or thicken with cornstarch), and serve over potatoes or buttered noodles.
Burgundy tradition, France.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Burgundy. Burgundy is French cooking at its most iconic, beef bourguignon, coq au vin, and escargot, all built on its legendary wines. Slow braises and Dijon mustard define this heartland of gastronomy.
🗺️
France. France turned cooking into a discipline, codifying techniques and sauces that shaped Western cuisine, yet its soul lies in regional home cooking, Provençal vegetables, Alsatian tarts, Burgundian braises. Bread, butter, cheese, and wine are treated as everyday essentials.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
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Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a France meal
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Croque MonsieurLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Coq au Vin?
Chicken braised slowly in red Burgundy wine with smoky lardons, browned mushrooms, and glazed pearl onions until the sauce turns silky.
Where does Coq au Vin come from?
Coq au Vin is a French (Burgundian) dish from Burgundy, France.
Can Coq au Vin be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Coq au Vin recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Coq au Vin safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Coq au Vin take to make?
About 120 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 90 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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