Coq au Vin

I thought my mom was coming to my apt, so I wanted to make something tasty. I hadn't yet, in all my cooking adventures, tried to tackle a classic French dish. I picked Coq au Vin (inspired by a co-worker) and I was so happy I did. This dish is excellent! Perfect on a cool night. I would recommend serving it with the wine you use, so you want to use a decent wine for the cooking. You really have to try this... it's divine and sounds fancy as shit!

30 pearl onions
3 lbs chicken thighs and legs
3 oz bacon
1 TBSP flour
4 oz button mushrooms + 1 tsp butter
1 bottle pinot noir
1 TBSP tomato paste
1/2 onion, quartered
1 stalk celery
1 carrot
3 cloves garlic
4 thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
1 C chicken stock

Season and flour the chicken. Set aside on a cooling rack until ready to brown.

Add the chopped bacon, into a pot large enough to hold the chicken, with 1 TBSP water. Boil the water until it evaporates and continue browning the bacon. Remove bacon, add 1 TBSP olive oil, add the onions and cook, over medium heat, until browned. Remove the onions and put aside with the bacon. Add the sliced button mushroom with the butter and brown. Remove the mushroom and put with the onions and bacon. Set aside.

Brown the chicken on all sides. Continue working in batches, taking the browned pieces out, until finished.

Deglaze the pot with 1 bottle of wine. Add the quartered onion, carrots, celery, tomato paste, stock, thyme, bay leaf and the chicken. Kill the heat and let this mixture sit in the fridge over night.

The next day:
Preheat oven t0 325 and put the pot in the oven for 1 hour 45 minutes. Take out of oven, add in the pearl onions, mushrooms and bacon and let cool for 30 minutes.

I served this simple with some risotto that had sliced button mushrooms and a lot of thyme (maybe 5 sprigs).