Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin

5 Servings
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 8 hours
Total Time 8 hours 20 minutes

Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin has all the red wine braised chicken flavors with shallots, chicken, garlic, mushrooms and carrots in the classic French dish you love.

Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin has all the red wine braised chicken flavors with shallots, chicken, garlic, mushrooms and carrots in the classic French dish you love.Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin

Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin is the day two of three of my favorite French dishes. Yesterday was Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon and tomorrow is the final favorite, Slow Cooker French Onion Soup. As a college kid we had a restaurant in the neighborhood that had a three course meal, the first course of which was an option for French Onion Soup or Vegetable Beef Soup (my version is in the Slow Cooker), and Coq Au Vin was always the main course.

French food can come across intimidating to people (it certainly did to me when I was younger) but it doesn’t have to! Great flavors don’t need to take a ton of time in the kitchen.

Classic French flavors like these dishes are fantastic dinner party dishes too! Serve these main courses with crusty french bread, some good butter (I just found that Trader Joe’s has French butter!) and a nice bottle of wine and you have a wonderful evening with friends. Bonus points if you guys wear berets and tie handkerchiefs around your necks.

Where does Coq Au Vin come from?

Coq Au Vin is a classic French dish of red wine braised roosters. The older the rooster the the more tough the meat would become so the more necessary the braise would become. The longer the braise the more tender the chicken would become. In today’s reality most people use fryer chicken pieces, but the braising still makes things incredibly tender.

What kind of wine should I make Coq Au Vin with?

Classically Coq Au Vin is made with a variety of Pinot Noir called Burgundy Wine. These can be expensive, so choose a bottle of Pinot Noir you’d enjoy enough to drink (not the time for two buck chuck) and it will fit the bill perfectly.

What do you serve Coq Au Vin with?

Coq Au Vin is delicious served with Ultimate Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes or egg noodles. You can also serve with Parmesan Garlic Crash Hot Potatoes for a less traditional option.

The easiest French Coq Au Vin ever made in your crock pot.

Tips for making this Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin:

  • Don’t overcook the bacon, burnt bacon is bitter and the bacon will not stay crisp in the stew anway. Get a good crisp but don’t stress perfection.
  • Make sure to brown the chicken well but don’t burn the skin, the more brown the more flavor, plus browning the mushrooms and shallots in the chicken fat is very flavorful.
  • Crimini mushrooms add more flavor than white button and shouldn’t be more than a couple cents a pound more expensive. You can use sliced too but cutting in half tends to help them stand out in the end dish better.
  • Pearl Onions are totally classic to the dish and I love them. I used fresh and I made a tutorial for how to peel them quickly.
  • I call for chicken broth in the recipe but I use chicken base in place of stock. I double the strength of it and add it to either water or more stock/broth.

All the classic French flavors of Coq Au Vin with a fraction of the effort!

Tools Used in making this Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin:
Slow Cooker: Love this slow cooker and how programmable it is, it has been a workhorse for me… until…
My New Slow Cooker: This recipe was made in this slow cooker. I brown the meat in the insert without losing a bunch of the flavor by transferring the meat and leaving the browned bits behind. If you’re thinking of a new slow cooker, consider it if your budget is open.
Cast Iron Skillet: If you don’t have a slow cooker with a stovetop friendly insert, this is my most used pan in my kitchen, heavy, keeps heat well and gives the BEST sear ever.
Chicken Base: I almost never buy boxes of broth because I keep the beef, chicken and vegetable version of this Better Than Bouillon.

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Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin

Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin has all the red wine braised chicken flavors with shallots, chicken, garlic, mushrooms and carrots in the classic French dish you love.
Yield 5 Servings
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 8 hours
Total Time 8 hours 20 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine French
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 1 bottle Pinot Noir
  • 8 ounces thick-cut bacon diced
  • 5 chicken thighs skin on and bone-in
  • 1 teaspoon Kosher salt divided
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 1 pound crimini mushrooms halved
  • 3 shallots quartered
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • 5 carrots peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 3 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 5 fresh thyme sprigs
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1/2 pound white pearl onions peeled
  • 2 tablespoons butter unsalted
  • 2 tablespoons flour

Instructions

  • In a medium saucepan on high heat add the bottle of wine and boil for 15 minutes until reduced to half the amount.
  • Cook the bacon until crisp, then remove.
  • Season the chicken with half the salt and the pepper.
  • Add to the skillet and brown on each side for 4-6 minutes or until browned on each side.
  • Remove the chicken from the pan and add in the mushrooms and shallots and lower the heat to medium high.
  • Cook for 3 minutes, stir then cook another 3 minutes.
  • Into the slow cooker add the mushrooms, shallots, garlic, carrots, half the bacon, broth*, rest of the salt, tomato paste, thyme, bay leaf, pearl onions and the reduced red wine.
  • Stir all the ingredients until well mixed, nestle in the pieces of chicken and cook on low for 7 hours.
  • In a small bowl mix the butter and flour and add it to the slow cooker and stir.
  • Cook an additional hour or until thickened.
  • Top with remaining bacon and stir before serving.

Notes

Adapted from Canal House Cooking, Vol. 2, by Christopher Hirsheimer & Melissa Hamilton.
*Alternately use a big scoop of Chicken Better than Bouillon like I did in addition to water/stock.

Nutrition

Calories: 578kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 29g | Fat: 41g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Cholesterol: 152mg | Sodium: 1363mg | Potassium: 1219mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 10630IU | Vitamin C: 19mg | Calcium: 80mg | Iron: 2.6mg
Keyword: Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin
Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin has all the red wine braised chicken flavors with shallots, chicken, garlic, mushrooms and carrots in the classic French dish you love.
The easiest French Coq Au Vin ever made in your crock pot.

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. So delicious! Was exactly what I was looking for, thank you!
    Really helpful info in the main post, too. The only details that were possibly missing to help a noob like me (which luckily my much more experienced partner directed me on!) were:
    Taking the stem off the thyme, as I was about to luzz it in, woody stems and all, which apparently wouldn’t have been good?
    Was about to use a hand-mixer for the flour and butter but was told just to mash it with a fork into a paste instead.

    1. I literally chuckled while reading your comment. Thank you for that Bobby and your partner is an astute cook in the kitchen! Great points and you’re right, that would have been good information to include in the article. Thanks so much for the 5 star review! I hope you both will try more recipes from the site. If you love slow cooker recipes just type in “slow cooker” in the recipe index browser to see all your options!!

  2. Hi, I was wondering on the red wine. I haven’t tasted alcohol in over 25years and was wondering if there is a non-alcohol substitution for the red wine that would work?
    Thank you

    1. Hi Melissa,
      I haven’t tested this personally, but some have said that a splash of red wine vinegar can emulate the red wine for a more paleo style recipe.
      Let us know what you decided to use and how it turned out!

  3. It’s delicious! I cheated and used a whole rotisserie chicken. Will definitely make this again. Thanks for the recipe 🙂

  4. I really would like to do it but, can you tell me what do you serve with that Coq Au Vin, mashed potatoes, spaghetti or noodles. That should be a good yummy meal. Thank you.
    Sincerely Jeannine

  5. I haven’t made this because I am unsure as how to use the bouillon, is it cubes?? Or is it a powder and she use teaspoon or tablespoons? Then do you omit the stock? Do you add bouillon to water, how much?? Sorry for all the questions, just confused.
    Thank you so much

    1. I highly recommend using chicken stock (check out the blog for links) rather than bouillon. The recipe I referenced said use a “big scoop” and I can see why that would be confusing.

  6. I cooked this last night and it was great! I have been cooking for longer than I care to admit, but this tweaks my recipe for Coq au Vin. Always glad to pick up new ideas and hints.

  7. Made this Coq au vin recipe for the first time yesterday. The result was excellent. Very tasty. Will definitely be using this again

  8. This is our go to Christmas Day meal. I’ve made it 4 years in a row and this year’s was the best! Thank you for this delicious recipe!

  9. Is it possible to do the first 7 steps as prep ahead and just finish in the crockpot the day you want to make it?