Nigel Slater’s Coq au Riesling
Deeply savoury and delicious, Nigel Slater’s Coq au Riesling will quickly become a favorite quickly. Chicken cooked with white wine, cream and mushrooms.
For my birthday a week or so ago, I was spoiled with something I have wanted for a very, VERY long time. A perfect, white Le Creuset 30cm Buffet Casserole. Well that was my idea anyway. I went to my local Le Creuset store very much intent on buying one of the pristine beauties but was told that the white range only gets made twice a year in France and as it’s also a very popular range, it gets sold out relatively quickly.
I took to Twitter to see if anyone could help me and within minutes the amazing folk at Le Creuset South Africa tweeted me back saying they are going to search high and low and within 24 hours they had located the very last white buffet casserole in the country and had it sent to my local store. I mean, is there anyone that does customer service better?
Anyway, so buffet casserole purchased, I needed something to christen it with. A good friend suggested that I make Nigel Slater’s Coq au Riesling from his book Real Food and I knew it had to be. I tweeted about it (well of course) and what do you know, Mr Slater himself shared my sentiment that this dish was made for my dish.
You should make this if you like chicken. If you like mushrooms. If you like creamy sauces. If you like Food. And most importantly if you like a bit of plate licking. This recipe is so gosh-darn delicious that I did, in fact, lick my plate. While it’s cooking, the scent of onion, garlic, mushrooms and wine will waft through your house, teasing your senses and when you take your first bite, you will swoon.
The chicken was soft and succulent and the sauce deeply savoury. Serve it with steamed rice or on top of al dente pasta or as I did, with a loaf of crusty bread to mop up the sauce. A zesty green salad won’t be out of place either.
Nigel Slater’s Coq au Riesling
Ingredients
- 50 g butter
- splash of olive oil
- 2 onions finely chopped
- 125 g bacon/pancetta sliced into thin strips
- 4 garlic cloves thinly sliced
- 8 chicken pieces on the bone I used 4 thighs and 4 drumsticks
- 250 g portabellini mushrooms sliced
- 500 ml Riesling or dry white wine of your choice
- 250 ml cream
- salt & pepper to taste
- handful chopped parsley
Instructions
- Melt the butter and oil together in a large pan.
- Brown the chicken pieces all over and remove from the pan.
- Add the onions and bacon and allow to fry until the onions are soft and translucent and the bacon has rendered it’s fat.
- Add the garlic and allow to saute for another 30 seconds before removing the mixture from the pan (leaving the fat behind).
- Add the mushrooms and allow to fry for 5 minutes.
- Add the onion and bacon mixture along with the browned chicken back to the pan.
- Pour in the wine and allow to come up to a boil. Turn down the heat and cover. Allow to simmer for 15-25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
- After 15 minutes, uncover, turn up the heat and add the cream. Allow to cook for another 10 minutes.
- Add the chopped parsley and season to taste.
- Serve with rice, pasta or crusty bread.
Other chicken dinner recipes you will love:
Easy coconut curry chicken thighs
Creamy Dijon mustard chicken thighs
Pan-roasted chicken with lemon garlic butter
Glad you liked it!
This was great! It was a tad rich for me, but it was still very enjoyable. My husband and kids absolutely loved it!
I’m lactose intolerant. What can I use instead of cream?
From someone who occasionally had that problem, try either Almond Milk (you will need to thicken the sauce) or soy-based coffee creamer….hope it works for you.
Can we use another kind of mushroom? I have white button mushrooms and would love to use that in place of portobellini. My husband hates portobellini.
Did anyone make this with boneless chicken? I have some picky eaters.
Jen, I’m sure this would be just perfect with boneless chicken. Just adjust the cooking time as bone-in chicken takes longer to cook.
great thanks!
I made this with boneless chicken. Was great 🙂
Do you drain the grease after cooking the bacon?
Angelique, I didn’t as I like to fry the mushrooms in the fat but if you like, you can remove the fat.
Roe, I’m sure if you Google you’ll be able to find an online converter.
Hi, maybe I am misunderstanding something in the recipe but it says to brown the chicken pieces twice. Could you please clarify this for me. Do I just brown it a little bit the first time? Thanks, can’t wait to try this.
Nadine, I amended the recipe. So sorry for causing so much confusion!
Can this recipe be converted to pounds and cups
Of course Denise. 🙂
The recipe looks delicious. Can I use a Dutch oven to make this?
This is a wonderful dish. Made it today. Only thing I did different was I used half and half
Glad you likeds it Patricia.
So glad you liked it.
I made this tonight, it was delicious and my family loved it. I can’t wait to make it again.
for those of you who need a conversion chart I have it. 50g. = 2tlbs, 125g. = 4OZ. ,250g.=9oz, 500ml=1pt/2c., 250ml=1c. hope this helps
Thanks Linda!
i believe 50g. = 3 1/3 T
thank you so much!
Fabulous recipe!!! What great flavor!! I am adding this to my new favorites, thank you for sharing such a tasty dish <3 I found it on Pinterest 🙂
Thanks for your lovely comment Michelle. So glad you liked it!
Saw the picture of this dish and thought I MUST make it ….until I read that there are mushrooms in it. I know, I know….how can i not like mushrooms?!?! Sadly, they are my greatest food aversion!! Is it possible to make this without them and still end up with a wonderful dish? Thanks for your help!
Julie, I completely understand. I HATE mushrooms in anything other than a creamy sauce. Can’t stand it on pizza, hate them on their own. People think I’m weird ALL the time.
Yes, you can make this without the mushrooms and it will still be delicious. The only thing mushrooms add to this is that rich, meaty umami taste. If you can tolerate the flavour of them, I would say cook them with the mushrooms and just take them out before you eat OR soak a few dried porcinis in hot water and use that to cook the chicken in. Just so you get that deep flavour the mushrooms lend to this.
Though I like mushrooms, I can’t eat them. My boeuf bourguignon hasn’t suffered one bit from a lack of mushrooms, and I’m sure this dish won’t either.
I make a dish a lot like this but use artichoke hearts in it. If not in season, use canned, well rinsed or even better, frozen ones.
plan on making this tonight , but have to convert the measurements , so I hope it turns out …lol
Barbara, with cooking you can relax a little more than with baking where exact measurements are a must. With this dish, go on taste and tweak it to suit your own tastes. 🙂 I hope you love this dish as much as I do!
Dawn, it could but you won’t get the same flavour as with the wine. After all, this dish is named after wine. But the dish will still be tasty if you substitute.
have you tried it with boneless chicken? with it alter the flavor too much?
Kendall, depending on where you’re based I’m sure you can Google “Le Creuset” or follow the suitable handle on twitter. They are incredibly helpful.
Chicken breasts on the bone should cook in a similar amount to the thighs. The flavour will have less depth only because the thighs are so very flavourful but chicken breasts will do fine as well.