Magnus Boner’s Cock in Beer (Coq à la Bière)

Ingredients

4# bone in, and skin on chicken thighs (8 thighs 3.29# worked well)

150 g or 6 oz of good bacon

2 or more tablespoon olive oil or Ghee. I use ghee

¼ cup of Cognac or Armagnac (Yeah right, use bourbon whiskey)

Salt and fresh ground black pepper

1 bay leaf

¼ teaspoon dried thyme or 3 sprigs fresh thyme

1.5 g dried rosemary

4 shallots, quartered

250 g or 9 oz of Crimini mushrooms quartered

14 g Gelatin

2 cups beer (Red, Marzen, or a blend of scotch and schwarzbier) (Märzen worked well)

2 cups of a good chicken stock

3 tablespoons Wondra flour (AP is fine)

2-4 cloves of garlic, crushed

About a tablespoon of tomato paste

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 425ºF  (220ºC)..

Season the chicken on all sides with salt and pepper.

Bloom gelatin in the chicken stock (not the beer, it will nucleate, de-gas, and make a mess)

Mix the flour with the whiskey.

Melt the butter in a pan over medium high heat. 

Add the chicken, and brown skin side down, flip and brown the other side. 

Remove from the pan, and hold. (set aside)

To the same pan, add the bacon, and cook until al dente. 

Decant half the fat. Then, add shallots, and mushrooms, cooking until slightly browned. 

Add the garlic, and cook 30 seconds.

Pour in the beer, and  scrape up the fond on the bottom of the pan. 

Simmer until liquid is reduced by half. 

Stir in the broth, thyme, rosemary, flour/whiskey, and, simmer for about five minutes. 

Add the chicken back to the pan.

Place the pan in the oven and roast for 40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Yield: 4 servings