Food You Can Eat: Eric Ripert’s Quick Chicken Red Wine Stew


Mr. McGee sent me this tweet and said “I think we have all of these things except the mushrooms”. Which in husband-speak means, “you gonna make this for dinner or what?”


First, get out the good stuff, you’re going to need it.

Don’t be shy

Then drag out your good, heavy pan. I have this Le Creuset braiser, which is the bomb.
Salt and pepper your chicken thighs. Heat up some olive oil in your pan til HOT and sear the chicken quickly on both sides.
Once done, pull out and set aside. Add your ‘ladrons’ (fancy word for bacon people; just use some bacon), carrots, onion and mushrooms.
Salt and pepper: easy on the salt because of the bacon, but I always go hardy on the pepper.
Sadly, I had no mushrooms today; we are in a pandemic after all.
I bet they would be delicious.

Mushroom-less sadness
No fresh garlic around these parts either, but this works in a pinch!

Once all that is in there and cooking down, toss a little flour in there (I guesstimate about a tablespoon) and a splash of brandy.

Brandy for thee, brandy for me

Add your chicken back into the pan, cover with red wine, cover and simmer.
Mine took about 25 minutes, and I had to pull the chicken out because it was getting overdone but my carrots were not done yet.
So try and keep an eye on it while you drink the rest of the wine.

Add red wine, cover and simmer

In the meantime, I peeled some potatoes and set them to boil.

mmm taters

Serve your red wine chicken stew over your speedy potatoes with another glass of wine.

et voilà 

This turned out great! I could have used a nice crusty bread to go with it, but no complaints.

Enjoy!

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18 Comments

  1. Looks great. It reminds me of the meal Ripert’s close friend Anthony Bourdain made for his crew when they were stuck in Beirut while the city was being bombed, except I think that had lamb.

    I’m not a vegetarian, but if you wanted to make a vegetarian version of this with white cassoulet beans it would be excellent, maybe with a hefty extra dose of butter or olive oil to make up for the lack of bacon and chicken fat.

  2. Can you use boneless, skinless chicken breasts? I don’t care for thighs.

    • I think that would work, but don’t over cook them and maybe a little extra bacon to make up for the missing fat.

      • I’m getting a list ready for my next grocery store trip. I’ll be adding chicken.

    • That white chicken chili looks tasty!

      • It’s fabulous. Ignore all the branding in the recipe – get what works. But yes, it is super good. We made it yesterday, and there’s enough for two dinners for two, plus a lunch.

    • I love to cook and I love reading food-related articles. I especially like the stuff around the recipes themselves. The noodles in peanut sauce didn’t disappoint. The writer, Fuchsia Dunlop, reports, “This particular recipe is inspired by similar noodle dishes I’ve tasted in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan.”

      How fun would it be to wander around Chengdu with someone named Fuchsia Dunlop?

      • Observations like this are the reason I adore you Cousin Matthew! I’ve been thinking for some time that you’d be an excellent person to write a Food You Can Eat post. How about it?

        • I may do one. I could do a vintage one, with lots of commentary. They are somewhat difficult to pull off because the ingredients and the ovens have changed. The ovens, I would have to guess, were a lot more powerful than today’s, and there are some microwave recipes that you really have to expriement with because I think the microwaves, when they were first introduced, were capable of achieving nuclear fission. If you’re old enough or you’ve seen reruns on the Game Show Network or on YouTube a common prize and much desired was an Amana Radar Range. That is a microwave and they were incredibly expensive.

          Same with the food. People imagine the food was incredibly bland in the 1950s but I bet it wasn’t. Sure, a little more Jell-O than we see now, but that was basically serving something in (flavored) aspic, which has been done for centuries, and usually only by the well-to-do. You have to imagine that the meat was modern-day farmers market quality, since industrial livestock practices, including all the growth hormones. were very slowly introduced. Had they been around during WWII they would have been put into practice to optimize output. Instead we got SPAM.

          What was up with the cream of mushroom and cream of tomato soup that features so prominently in all the recipes? There again, I bet the canned soups were much heartier than what we get now, and the cream of mushroom soup so thick it was probably like eating a bowl of modern home-made mushroom sauce for lunch. Filling, but perhaps not quite so healthy.

          So I will think about this. To whom would I submit my attempt?

      • If drafted, you must serve. Cousin, you are hereby inducted into writing a Food you can eat.

  3. chicken thighs are the best! they’re so meaty, so tender. but I don’t think I can make meg’s recipe. not because it won’t be tasty, but because I can’t have chicken chicken thighs and not grill them!

    I love grilled chicken thighs. probably too much! clean them up, season them (italian seasoning, chili powder, seasoned salt) and throw them on the grill. I eat them at least 2 times a week!

    photo from duck duck go images
    https://i.imgur.com/GkOdGTl.jpg

    • That does look tasty.

      • I can’t resist them! I used to be a drumstick guy. Once I tried thighs, I was hooked.

        What don’t you like about thighs? Taste? Cleaning?

    • btw, every ingredient I mentioned came from ALDI. the chicken thighs ($.69/lb or $1.69/lb boneless) are from the fresh family packs they sell on most Wednesdays. the seasonings are all from ALDI too.

      • (Success on the comment!)
        Can’t wait to try out Aldi once things settle down…so like July? (She says hopefully)

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