Coq Au Vin with a twist

Tonight was an all day affair. I love long, slow cooking with a Dutch oven and some nice country peasant ingredients. I wanted a stew with chicken but not red and tomato-y but white and creamy.

I have 4 large chicken breasts that I boned and cut into 4 huge chunks each. Skin on

1 cup flour
1 T salt
1/2 bottle Chardonnay
3 T oil
3 carrots rough chop
1 medium onion rough chop
3 salks celery rough chop
2 cloves garlic minced
4 cups chicken broth
8 baby red potatoes quartered
8 ounces white mushrooms quartered
2 t thyme
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper

Mix the salt into the flour. Heat the oil in the Dutch oven, medium heat. Dredge the chicken in the flour and cook unitl golden in batches. Set aside the chicken. Add a little oil if needed to the pot and cook a few tablespoons of the flour until it is a dark copper penny color. Stir the roux constantly. Once browned, add the wine and stir. It will thicken then add the broth.

Mix in the vegetables, spices and tuck the chicken pieces into the fray. Cover the pot and place in the oven at 250 for the next few hours. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.

I am re thinking leaving the skin on the chicken. It browned nicely but cooking it just made it limp and rubbery. I removed it before the final serving. In the future I might just skin the chicken before flouring.  The chicken was very tender and fallind apart. The potatoes held up nicely. If we were big Carb eaters I would have made some biscuits to serve with it. Yum.