Quick Coq au Vin - Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals

Saturday night was date night in for Hubby and me. We try and have at least one night a week where we spend intentional time together, and more often than not it is at home after the kids go to bed because babysitters are expensive. In the winter we often enjoy cooking a meal together that either the kids wouldn't enjoy or something new we might like to try. There have been times over the years where we have gone over the top and created massive five-course meals together just for the fun of combing through recipes, shopping for ingredients, and then spending the time to prepare the food together. This mostly happened before we had kids and a few times when the grandparents have had them for the weekend and we have our house to ourselves again. We are so grateful for wonderful grandparents in our childrens' and our lives!

We have not done a lot of cooking yet this winter because it is sometimes frustrating to not start cooking until the kids are tucked in by 7:30, or having a Big Boy Sleepover in Big Man's room, and then it is 8:30 or 9:00 before we are eating. By the way, we are not on the European schedule, Hubby and I are on the "we still have young kids who are always hungry and eat between 5:00 and 5:30 schedule." So by the time we get them behind closed doors at 7:30 we are starving and ready to eat. A meal that can be completed in 30 minutes sounded great to us!

Since we also like to do something a little bit more involved when we cook together I decided this week to try the Quick Coq au Vin recipe. We have made the coq au vin from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in the past, so this sounded like a fun comparison. Julia's version is wonderful and being able to make it in 30 minutes would be great. We opened up two bottles of wine to taste and see which one we wanted to use in the recipe and which one we would drink while we were cooking.

When we worked together Hubby does the chopping and knifework. He got the chicken cut then I started cooking that while he chopped all the veggies to go in later. Then while I continued to cook the main chicken and vegetables in the meal, Hubby made the giant garlic croutons. At first, he didn't want to make the croutons because Hubby didn't feel they were necessary. In the end, we decided to make them because we had a loaf of bread left that I had made for sandwiches earlier in the week that was perfect for the croutons and we wanted to see how this part of the recipe worked out.

We sat down to eat about 45 minutes after we started cooking and didn't think that was too bad for our first attempt at this recipe. Hubby and I were both very glad that we decided to make the croutons. For us, they were the highlight of the meal. The coq au vin was fine, but it lacked the depth of flavor that Julia's has from the long cook time. We did miss that and felt like this was a fine chicken dish, but it was not the same as spending all day making it.

Do you cook with your spouse? What should we try making next weekend?

Timing: Recipe States: 30 minutes, My Actual Timing: 45 minutes
Servings: Recipe States: 4 to 6 servings, Servings For My Family: 5 servings
Leftovers: The recipe states that the leftovers improve in flavor and I would agree, the flavor of the sauce improved as it sat overnight. The chicken did not do so well when it was reheated, it ended up a little bit dry.


Family Ratings:
Me: I enjoyed the meal, the combination of chicken and mushrooms with a rich red wine sauce is a favorite. The croutons were fabulous with it. I just know how much better the flavor can be with more time.
Hubby: Hubby enjoyed this meal, especially the timing of it, that we were not eating at 9:00 at night. He was especially glad that we made the croutons for dipping. Overall he would prefer to make a more extended version of this dish for the depth of flavor and start cooking while the kids are still awake.
Big Man:
Bear:
Mr. T:

Will I repeat: Possibly if I was looking for a recipe that was just different from what we had been doing and quick.

What will I change: When making the croutons Hubby finely minced the garlic to go into the oil instead of just smashing it. I would do this again because we REALLY like garlic in our house!