Coq Au Vin

This will always be one of my most favorite chicken dishes. We served this dish at our wedding and it was perfect! Coq Au Vin is French for 'chicken with wine'. This recipe calls for white wine, but you can use red also. I like to use Chablis when cooking with white wine, and a Cabernet Savignon or Merlot when using red wine.
*For those who are new to cooking with wine, remember: When the wine is cooked, the alcohol is cooked out with it. No need to worry. And for those who are too chicken to go to the liquor store to purchase wine(which I recommend, it's much cheaper there), you can find it as cooking wine with the vinegars in your local grocery store. Just remember: Cooking wine is much more salty than regular wine, so don't add as much salt to the dish!

Ingredients:

• 1 c. Flour
• 1 t. Pepper
• 1 t. Salt
• 2 T. Olive Oil
  
• 8 bone-in Chicken Thighs, skinned
• 2 c. Mushrooms, quartered
• 2 c. Baby carrots
• 1 large Onion, sliced along the grain
• 1 1/2 T. Fresh Thyme, chopped
• 2 T. Tomato Paste
• 2 t. Minced Garlic
• 1 c. White or Red Wine
• 3 c. Chicken Broth
• 2 T. Butter
  

Combine the flour, pepper, and salt in a large bowl. Add the skinless chicken thighs and coat each one in the flour mixture. Set aside.
In a large, deep sided frying pan, heat the olive oil to medium-high.
Add the dredged chicken thighs to the hot oil.
Brown the chicken thighs evenly on both sides.
Remove the chicken from the pan(but leave the pan on the heat) and place on a plate. Set aside.
Add the mushrooms, carrots, and onion to the hot pan and saute for 2 minutes.
* Try to use fresh thyme with this dish, if it is available. Fresh herbs make such a difference!
Add the chopped thyme to the vegetables and saute for 30 seconds.
Add the tomato paste and the minced garlic to the vegetables.
Toss the vegetables until they are all well coated with the tomato paste.
Add the wine and the chicken broth to the pan.
Place the browned chicken thighs back in the pan, under the liquid. Try and spoon the vegetables over the chicken, so that the chicken is completely submerged in liquid.
Cover the pan with a lid and let simmer for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally so that the chicken does not stick to the bottom of the pan. Add salt and pepper to taste.
The chicken is done when the sauce is reduced so that it thickly coats the back of a spoon and the chicken is tender. Add the butter to the sauce and stir until blended. Serve with mashed potatoes to use up all the yummy sauce.