Chicken Stew

I had some leftover mushrooms from last night, along with lots of leftover wine from a wine-and-cheese party we had on Friday night. I searched through my Liquor-laced recipes to see what I could do with the wine, and I decided to make Coq au vin. I've made it a couple times (you can search for the recipes using the search box on the right hand side of my blog), and it's one of my favourites. I didn't have exactly the right ingredients, so I thought I'd improvise and turn it into some sort of chicken stew.

CHICKEN STEW

8 slices of bacon, chopped

2 c. mushrooms, sliced

1 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

2 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. flour

2 c. red or white wine

2 c. chicken broth

1 small chicken (remove as much of the skin as possible)

3 carrots, sliced

2 bay leaves

Cook bacon in a frying pan, and then set aside. Reserve the bacon grease and sauté the mushrooms. Set aside, and then sauté the onion, garlic, and bell peppers. (I cooked half the bacon first, then used the grease to brown the mushrooms, then cooked the rest of the bacon so I'd have more bacon grease for the remaining veggies.) The veggies don't need to be thoroughly cooked, just slightly softened and golden. When everything is out of the pan, add a splash of wine and scrape up the bits on the bottom of the pan. Add butter and flour and whisk till smooth, cooking for about 1 minute. Whisk in wine and broth and bring to a simmer. Place chicken in crockpot and dump bacon and veggies on top. Stir in carrots. Pour wine mixture overtop and add bay leaves. Season with salt & pepper if you like. Cook on high for 4 hours. Serve with french bread to soak up the yummy broth!

(Coq au vin is never very photogenic, and apparently this chicken stew is no different. But trust me, it tastes great and everyone loved it!)