Coq Au Vermouth

With tender chicken, bacon lardons and a rich sauce, this is classic one-pot French cooking at its very best. The recipe comes to us from Rebekah Peppler via her cookbook “À Table: Recipes for Cooking and Eating the French Way”. Rebekah suggests using bone-in dark meat chicken to make the final dish even richer and thicker, and to serve it with plenty of crusty bread to dip in the aromatic sauce perfumed with vermouth.

3 pounds chicken legs and thighs
Fine sea salt
Ground white pepper
4 ounces lardons or bacon, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch strips
1 medium yellow onion, quartered and thinly sliced
4 medium carrots, cut into 1 to 1 1/2-inch diagonal slices
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, quartered
2 fresh thyme sprigs
1 1/2 cups dry vermouth
2 tablespoons unsalted European butter
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Season the chicken with salt and white pepper.

In a large Dutch oven or pot over medium heat, add the lardons and cook, stirring occasionally, until very well browned and crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the lardons to a plate. Add the chicken pieces in a single layer to the pot, working in batches as needed, and cook until well browned on both sides, about 5 minutes on each side. Transfer to the platter with the lardons.

Add the onion and carrots to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and the carrots start to soften, about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic, mushrooms, and thyme sprigs; season with salt. Cook for 5 minutes, then pour in the vermouth and increase the heat to medium-high. Return the chicken and lardons as well as any juices on the plate to the pot, nestling them into the vegetable mixture. Bring to a simmer, then lower the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Cover the pot and cook, basting occasionally, until the chicken is very tender and cooked through, about 30 minutes.

Remove the lid, transfer the chicken to a platter, and increase the heat to medium-high. Cook until the sauce thickens slightly, about 5 minutes, then stir in the butter and lemon juice. Once the butter is melted, return the chicken to the pot for a few minutes to rewarm. Season with salt and white pepper as needed. Serve warm.

(Photography courtesy of Joann Pai)