Sous-Vide Coq au Vin: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Not to start this off on too negative a note, however, this was probably the most unattractive coq au vin the Accidental Locavore has ever made!
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

Not to start this off on too negative a note, however, this was probably the most unattractive coq au vin the Accidental Locavore has ever made! Even lovers of all things purple might find cause for (visual) alarm here. And I didn't really want to post two sous-vide recipes back-to-back, but it's what I've been up to, so let's explore the good, the bad and the ugly.

The good: Tasty and tender chicken.

The bad: Seal on vacuum sealed bags broke as I took them out of the slow cooker, squirting sauce all over the counter. This was mitigated, slightly, by dumping the water out of the slow cooker (my improvised sous-vide machine) and tossing the leaky bags in to contain them. If I'm going to do more of this I need a better way of sealing the contents.

The ugly: Everything had a plum-purple tinge. It probably didn't help that I used small "red" onions (they look pretty purple to me). An overnight marinade in red wine only helped enhance the purple haze.

The technique: Essentially I made coq au vin the way I normally do. Rendered some bacon, dredged chicken parts in flour and browned them. Tossed everything in a very large bag, vacuum sealed it and let it sit overnight in the fridge to marinate. Brought it to room temp, then placed it in a crock-pot with simmering water. Cooked on high for 4 hours and low for another 4. The idea was to then remove the chicken and reduce the sauce, which is what I did after mopping up what spilled all over the kitchen...

The verdict: Good but not substantially better than how I normally cook it (straight into the slow cooker). Now, since my "sous-vide machine" is a jerry-rigged slow cooker, doing it in a real machine might give a superior product. However, if you're making anything that is cooked slowly, over low heat, I'm not sure how much the sous-vide process will add to the final product. With the salmon, it was quick, easy and a beautiful texture, same for duck confit. With my chicken, it was negligible and I missed the wonderful aroma and the ability to check, taste and adjust to make it great.

The next time: If I give it another shot, a good idea would be dividing up the chicken into portions to have smaller, more cooperative bags. I will also freeze or semi-freeze the wine mix so that doesn't make a mess when sealing. As I write this, it's sounding like a lot more work and time (cooking, cooling, freezing), so maybe for sous-vide, coq au vin is a thumbs down. What do you think?

Popular in the Community

Close

HuffPost Shopping’s Best Finds

MORE IN LIFE