Poulet au vin rosé

I made an itty-bitty coq au vin type dish for lunch yesterday. I had bought a big package of chicken thighs (hauts de cuisses de poulet) at Intermarché last week. I planned to cook just two of them for lunch, and if it were spring or summer Walt would probably have grilled them. Since temperatures outdoors have been at about freezin for days, I decided to cook everything like poulet au vin, another name for coq au vin And rather cook them in red wine, I cooked them in rosé wine, along with a lot of diced and sliced vegetables.

Making poulet au vin rosé meant chopping up a lot of vegetables — onion, carrots, celery, and mushrooms. But it was worth it. I had lardons fumés in the fridge and some home-made chicken broth in the freezer, so they went in too, with the wine. First I browned the vegetables and lardons in olive oil. Then I browned the chicken and put everything together in a wok with some thyme, a big bay leaf, and some garlic and poured the wine and broth over it all.

The chicken and other ingredients simmered on low heat in the liquid for at least an hour. As a side dish I boiled a few potatoes — they were good with the wine sauce and the vegetables. We drank red wine with our lunch and had some good French bread as well. After lunch, there was a cheese course instead of dessert. The cheeses were a Saint-Marcellin and a Bleu au lait de montagne (both cow's milk cheeses), as well as an Eskerri (a ewe's milk cheese).