Posh Coq Au Vin

Heart month is the perfect time to broaden your repertoire of heart-healthy dishes. And just in time is Healthy Eating for Your Heart: 100 Mouthwatering and Heart-Friendly Recipes From a Leading Chef and Dietitian. Chef Paul Gayler has teamed with Jacqui Morrell, BSc, RD, to offer both a primer on heart-healthy eating and a tempting collection of recipes, such as this:

Posh Coq Au Vin

A retro recipe based on a classic French dish, chicken in red wine is usually made with button mushrooms, but I’ve replaced them with the woody flavour of wild mushrooms. Dried wild mushrooms are now ready available, and need to be soaked before using.

Oil-water spray*
4 large chicken legs, skinned and cut into thighs and drumsticks
1 tablespoon plain flour
Freshly ground black pepper
150g small pickling onions, peeled
4 bacon rashers, cut into strips
200g mixed fresh wild mushrooms, cleaned, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
150ml good-quality red wine
1 tablespoon tomato purée
850ml low-fat chicken stock
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 small bay leaf

Serves 4

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas mark 6.

Heat a squirt of oil-water spray in a large non-stick flameproof casserole dish. Dust the chicken pieces with the flour mixed with black pepper. Add to the pan and fry for 4-5 minutes on each side until the chicken is browned. Remove the chicken from the pan and place to one side.

Add the onions and bacon and cook for 5 minutes, until browned all over. Then add the wild mushrooms and garlic and cook for a further 5 minutes until the mushrooms are browned. Add the red wine and boil for 2-3 minutes.

Return the chicken to the pan, add the tomato purée and carefully mix well. Add the stock a little at a time to form a sauce. Bring to the boil, tuck in the thyme and bay leaf, cover with a lid and place in the oven to cook for 25-30 minutes or until the chicken is tender and the sauce reduced in consistency and intense in flavour.

Remove the thyme and bay leaf and serve with mashed potatoes and steamed spinach.

Per serving: 265 kcals, 7g fat, 2g saturated fat, 0.89g sodium

*Oil water sprays can be bought commercially or made up at home by combining your favorite high-quality oils (add seven parts water to one part oil.)

Recipe reprinted with permission from Healthy Eating for Your Heart, by Paul Gayler with Jacqui Morell, BSc, RD

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