"Weeknight" Coq au Vin

I knew, going into it, that the allegedly weeknight coq au vin was probably not actually a weeknight recipe. That's why I cooked it on Sunday. And I wasn't wrong -- it took me about two hours from start to eating, and while I could probably get that down a bit with practice, it's not ever going to be a recipe I have time for most weeknights. That being said, there's a lot of downtime in this recipe, so if your problem with weeknight cooking is energy rather than time, it could work. Else, wait for the weekend.

It starts by boiling down a mixture of bacon and onion while the chicken roasts in the oven. I used pre-diced pancetta, which worked fine, but it may have been better to use actual bacon to get both a larger dice and a bit more fat. Once it had boiled down and the onions had caramelized, it's time to add the chicken, mushrooms, carrot, and wine. This is where it took me longer than it had to -- it took longer than 20 minutes for the bacon/onion boil to boil down and for the onions to caramelize, so I had to wait to toss in the chicken. Next time, it may work better to start the boil first (or maybe just have the onion chopped beforehand).

Complaints about prep time aside, I really liked this dish. The chicken was juicy with a nice depth of flavor, and the sauce was good. The diced pancetta was a bit chewier than ideal; again, next time, I'll use bacon. We paired this with sauteed cauliflower, whose subtlety matched well with the flavor-forward nature of the chicken.

Rotisserie Chicken and Leek Soup

I don't think I've ever made chicken soup before, but to be fair, I really don't make soup very often. After making this recipe, I'll have to make it more often -- this was great! It starts off with a chicken. The recipe calls for a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket, but Ruhlman recommends just roasting a chicken yourself. I had plenty of spare time, so that's just what I did. My trussing skills leave something to be desired, but I stuffed the cavity with a lemon, sliced in half, some thyme, and a shallot, so it wasn't particularly important. Roasting a chicken is actually really, really easy; after stuffing the cavity, I doused it in salt and tossed it in the oven for an hour.

The leeks were simple to prepare, though a pain to clean. Once the chicken was done, the green part of the leek went in the soup pot with the carcass, a carrot, a parsnip, some tomato paste, garlic, and bay leaves. That simmered for an hour, and in a cast iron pot, I softened the white part of the leeks in some butter. Once the leeks softened, I strained in the stock and added the meat. After simmering for a couple minutes to warm the chicken, it was ready. And boy was it! Just the right amount of saltiness, layers upon layers of flavor, and a silky butteriness to the liquid, I can't wait to have it for lunch again tomorrow.

Braised Chicken with Dates and Moroccan Spices

For some reason, when I started looking for a recipe to cook for dinner tonight, I had harissa on the brain. Probably because of the harissa spiked mussels my wife had at Bistro la Bonne last night. (They have a new mussel menu. You should go.) Searching for recipes involving harissa, I was tripped up by my desire to avoid red meat for once, especially after having spicy beef stew for lunch. There weren't that many chicken recipes that involve harissa, and most weren't braised. But I did find a recipe for braised chicken with "moroccan spices" and decided to go with that.

The recipe I ended up cooking involved a lot of substitutions. The grocery store was out of dates, so I threw in some raisins instead. I also wanted it to be a bit spicy, so I roasted some red chili peppers to saute with the shallots. I used veal stock to make it a bit richer. And I added some Urfa pepper flakes to give it a bit more smokiness and tie in the red chili peppers.

It turned out fairly well. It was definitely good, and the sauce had a nice savory/sweetness to it. But I was hoping for a bit more spicy/smokiness along with it, from the roasted peppers and the urfa. I have to say, thought, that while I normally don't like the vegetable medley that goes along with this sort of dish -- I often feel like once it's given it's flavor to the meat, it's done and should be discarded -- in this case, I ate it up. The shallots were just melt on the tongue delicious, and that counts for something.

Braised Chicken with Thyme

Braising is one of the things I love to do in the kitchen because it's so flexible. Toss some chicken, some herbs, and some wine in a pot, and you can get all sorts of results. Of course, this isn't to say that I've really mastered the technique. Consider these general instructions:

Saute aromatics (garlic/shallots) in oil
brown chicken, 5 minutes each side
remove chicken, deglaze with dry white wine, add herbs (thyme, rosemary, savory), reduce
braise chicken, 20-25 minutes

Did it turn out good? Well, it was fine. It could have been crispier -- I'm not sure if I want to saute the chicken longer or put it (briefly) under the broiler after braising it. The flavor was good, and if I had had the time to reduce the sauce after braising the chicken, it would have been really good. Some of this is just the peril of starting dinner at quarter after eight. But practice makes perfect, right?