Coq au Vin is one of the most popular gourmet French dishes in the world, a dish known for its rustic twist combined with a refined touch. It contains chicken that is cooked with wine, lardons, garlic and mushroom and it’s one of the recipes that has been adapted from region to region and also depending on the wine used.
It seems that Coq au Vin was a popular dish even since the time of Julius Caesar. However, a variant of it was documented in an 1864 cookbook. But officially it was documented at the beginning of the 20th century and soon became a popular dish and one of the first dishes people tried when it came to French cooking.
Its origins seem to be unknown and there isn’t any data that traces this recipe to a certain person or era. There are some legends that state the fact that Caesar was the first who had created this recipe by cooking an old rooster the Gauls gave him. This was to celebrate the fact that he had defeated them and it seemed to have made a good meal and was highly appreciated by everybody. This led to it being a national dish in France. However, most historians believe that this is not quite true and it seems that coq au vin was simply recipe that evolved locally. There are different types of Coq au Vin depending on the wine that is used, one of the most appreciated variants is the one called Coq au Vin a L’Ancienne which comes from the Burgundy region and it’s obviously made with Burgundy wine.
Nowadays Coq au Vin is a dish that is typically cooked during cold months as it is both satisfying and savory. In France, Coq au Vin is usually made with rooster, but in other parts of the world, people usually use chicken or hens to cook the dish. However, most cooks believe that creating this famous recipe usually requires a more mature chicken as that type of meat will give it a special taste that is what traditionally, people are looking for.