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Coq au Ale: Drunk French Chicken + A Case for Proper Glassware

Coq au Ale: Drunk French Chicken  

Coq au Ale 2

I’m in a back room of a brewery a few minutes after delivering the keynote address at a beer conference and I settle in to listen to a presentation about glassware. I’m bracing for the typical arguments, still vaguely uncertain that a "proper" glass has anything more than a minimal impact on my experience. Is it possible that it’s a placebo effect? The visual excitement of the glass convinces me that it does, in fact, taste better?

I’m given a Spiegelau stout glass, filled with, well, a stout. I’m also given a shaker pint, filled also with a stout. "Taste the shaker pint," we’re all instructed and we comply. It’s good. It’s a great stout and I like it. "Now, taste the beer in the stout glass." It’s bigger. The flavors are more pronounced and the carbonation is more even, it has a better head that has survived the trip from the tap-room far better than the first beer. These aren’t the same beer, I can tell. The second is a much better beer with bolder flavors. Then comes the bombshell that has firmly convinced me that glassware matters as much as beer storage, "It’s the same beer. It’s a Shakespeare Stout, you can try the experiment again in the tap-room if you don’t believe me." He’s right. It’s such a pronounced difference that it tastes like a different beer.

Proper glassware has a few key impacts on that brew you love so much. First, it protects the carbonation helping it to survive longer, it does the same with the head. The head of a beer acts like a net for oils, fermentation byproducts, yeast and other aroma producing compounds altering the experience you have when you drink it. This is a key reason that flat beer tastes different: there has been a lot that has left the beer. A proper glass helps hold the aroma producing compounds in the glass where your nose will be able to partake, which has an impact on the perception of taste.

Think about it: have you ever drank wine from a coffee mug? Would you? Try this experiment yourself, even if you don’t have proper glassware. Pour half of a stout into a regular glass or mug, pour the other half into a large bowl wine glass or a whiskey snifter. Try them side by side and they will taste different. This doesn’t mean that you need to invest in hundreds of special glasses for each beer you might want, just have a few at your disposal for when you want to open a bomber of the good stuff. If I could only have one beer glass it would be a tulip pint. Start there, spend some time drinking out of a glass that helps your beer stay at it’s best and expand your collection.

Coq au Ale: Drunk French Chicken

Servings 6 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 6 chicken thighs bone in skin on
  • salt and pepper
  • 3 tbs all purpose flour
  • 4 oz salt pork or thick bacon chopped
  • 2 tbs chopped fresh thyme
  • ½ lbs mushrooms chopped (crimini and white button)
  • 1 white onion chopped
  • 2 carrots chopped
  • 2 ribs celery chopped
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp kosher or sea salt
  • 2 tbs tomato paste
  • 12 ounces stout beer
  • 1 cup chicken stock or low sodium chicken broth

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 325 (unless preparing in advance).
  • Sprinkle the chicken thighs with salt and pepper, then with flour. Rub the flour in until well coated. Set aside and allow to rest while you prepare the rest of the dish.
  • Add the salt pork or bacon to a large skillet over medium heat (medium heat will render more fat than high heat). Cook, stirring frequently until most of the fat has rendered and the pork is crispy, 8 to 10 minutes.
  • Using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon and add to the bottom of a large Dutch oven.
  • Place the chicken in the skillet, skin side down, allowing to cook until the skin has browned and most of the fat has rendered, about 8 minutes. Turn over, cook until just browned. Transfer the chicken to the Dutch oven.
  • Add the mushrooms and the thyme to the skillet, cooking until the mushrooms have turned a darker browned and softened, about 6 minutes. Using a slotted spoon transfer the mushrooms to the Dutch oven.
  • Add the onion, carrots, celery, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper, cooking until all the vegetables have softened and started to brown, about 6 minutes.
  • Add the beer to the pan, scraping to deglaze the bottom. Allow to simmer for about 5 minutes.
  • Stir in the tomato paste, then sprinkle with flour, whisking until sauce has thickened.
  • Add a strainer over the Dutch oven, pour the sauce into the strainer, straining out the onions, carrots and celery. Pour the chicken broth into the strainer to make the process easier. Using a spoon, press the vegetables to make sure all the sauce and broth gets into the Dutch oven. Discard the vegetables.
  • If possible, cover and refrigerate for up to three days. This is will give you a deeper, richer flavor but the dish is ready to cook immediate.
  • When ready to cook,cover and transfer to a 325F oven, baking until the chicken is cooked through, about 30-45 minutes (if the chicken is cold from the refrigerator, the baking will take longer).
  • Remove the chicken from the pot and add the pot to a burner over high heat, simmer until thickened. Add additional salt and pepper to taste. Place the chicken back into the pot.
  • Serve hot over rice or noodles.

Coq au Ale 4

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Comments


Patricia Pond February 18, 2016 um 3:32 am

Nice! I subbed whole shallots for the onion, and left the veg in, rather than strain. I added tomato paste to the list as I was saving the recipe, as it seemed appropriate for this dish, then noticed that the paste is not in the ingredient list, but is added in the instructions. Delicious eating for a winter’s dinner.

Reply

Jackie February 18, 2016 um 10:04 am

Oh good, glad you liked it! And yes, 2 tablespoons, updated the recipe just now.

Reply

Rebeccah February 18, 2016 um 6:51 am

We have a huge glassware collection in my house, but are shamefully bad at using it! (We’re usually just savages who drink straight from the bottle.) Definitely passing this along to help convince the S.O. that the two extra glasses to wash are worth it in terms of flavor!

Reply

Jackie February 18, 2016 um 10:01 am

I used to do that until I did the "stout challenge" it’s so different that drinking from the bottle is like drinking a stout when you have a cold. I love the stout glasses, but they are so expensive and SO thin that I break them a lot. I usually use the tulips for stouts.

Reply

Hannah Helm February 18, 2016 um 8:24 am

Thanks. I am now convinced about glassware, especially since I am a huge fan of stouts. Another yummy recipe. I made something very similar using a local brown ale and used a parsnip instead of celery. It turned out delish!

Reply

Megan February 18, 2016 um 8:55 am

I love when little experiments like that demonstrate the science behind the art. Thanks for sharing, I also always wondered if I was just suffering from the placebo effect.

Reply

Jackie February 18, 2016 um 10:03 am

The stout glasses also have these etched nucleation points on the bottom that help with carbonation, the science behind it is so fascinating.

Reply

Michael February 18, 2016 um 9:32 am

How Much Tomato Paste ?
Thanks

Reply

Jackie February 18, 2016 um 10:00 am

two tablespoons! Thanks 🙂

Reply

Kirstie February 21, 2016 um 5:51 am

…definitely just glanced, shamefacedly, at my coffee table, where there may or may not be a coffee mug which held pinot noir last night ….

But we always drink beer out of glass! We got these wonderful, funky spiral-ish IPA glasses from Spiegelau and they definitely do impact the hoppy flavors of the beer.

Very excited to try this chicken dish this week!

Reply

Cameron February 25, 2016 um 5:17 pm

When you bake it, do you cover it with a lid while it’s in the oven?

Reply

Jackie February 26, 2016 um 7:48 am

Yes, cover it with the lid and bake

Reply

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