Better than a purple nurple (Coq au vin)

What's better than a purple nurple? Why, purple chicken! OK, so it wasn't my intention to start this blog off with three purple dishes, but the only decent bottle I had for this coq au vin was an Rhone with the typical inky color of the Grenache. It certainly doesn't make the chicken any less delicious - it just makes it purple.

Wash, dry and cut up your chicken. Gourmet Sleuth has a great how-to.

Cut up 3 strips of thick bacon and render it in a casserole.

Bacon comes out. Brown some chopped onions and the chicken (both sides) in the bacon fat. I had to do it in batches because my casserole wasn't big enough.

Bacon goes back in. Add some black pepper -- should be plenty of salt from the bacon. Douse with armagnac and light it up. You'll have to use a match or a fireplace/candle lighter. Keep your face/hair/precious body parts away from the flames.

Pour yourself a glass of young, dry wine. The rest of the bottle goes in the pot. I used a 2007 Vinsobres (southern Cote de Rhone) because that was the best candidate in the wine fridge.

Chicken poking up out of the wine? Add chicken or beef stock to cover it. Add a good dash of thyme, a bay leaf, 2 cloves of minced garlic and a little tomato paste. Cover and let simmer for 30 minutes.

When the 30 minutes is up, take the chicken out. It will be ugly.

Make a paste from 3 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of soft butter. You know what this means - gravy!

Rapidly boil the wine-chicken liquid until there's about 2 cups left. Whisk in the beurre manie (that's raw rue to the rest of us) and simmer until the sauce thickens.

You can put chicken back in the casserole to serve or just plate it and baste with the sauce. More sauce = less ugly, especially if your chicken is purple. Technically there should be braised onions and sauteed mushrooms with a coq au vin, but I wasn't in the mood (read: too lazy.)