Coq au Vin Jaune with wild mushrooms and lardons
A comforting taste of the Jura mountains
There are some dishes that seem to bottle up the spirit of a region and this Coq au Vin Jaune does just that. It’s rustic, rich, and full of the earthy flavours of the Jura mountains. Traditionally made with morel mushrooms, but this version I’ve created uses a mix of fresh wild mushrooms and I added smoked bacon lardons as a nod to the classic Coq au Vin recipe, which actually uses red wine.
The real star here is the Vin Jaune, a golden wine from the Jura, often compared to a fine sherry but truly in a class of its own. It’s made from the local Savagnin grape and aged for over six years under a thin layer of yeast called voile, which gives it that nutty, complex flavour. I picked up my bottle of Vin Jaune while exploring Besançon and the surrounding Jura wine region. You can read more about that in my Besançon post and to be honest, we’ve kept this bottle of wine for a while now, so I looked for some ideas to use it and this ended up being a really delicious one!
This is a dish to make slowly, savour the aroma as it simmers and to enjoy on a cool autumn evening with a glass of Chardonnay from the Jura region.
Coq au Vin Jaune with wild mushrooms and lardons
Ingredients
- 1 large free-range chicken or rooster, cut into pieces about 1.2 - 1.4kg
- 200 g bacon lardons
- 250 - 300 g mixed wild mushrooms such as chanterelles, girolles
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic de-germed and finely chopped
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 30 g butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil plus a little extra for the mushrooms
- 500 ml Vin Jaune
- 300 ml hot chicken stock
- 200 ml double cream
- 1 bouquet garni thyme, bay leaf, parsley
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Brown the chicken
- In a large casserole or Dutch oven, heat the butter and olive oil. Add the chicken pieces and brown them well on all sides. Remove and set aside.
Cook the lardons and onion
- In the same pan, add the bacon lardons and cook until lightly golden and the fat has rendered. Add the chopped onion and cook gently until soft and just beginning to colour.
Coat with flour and combine
- Sprinkle over the flour, stirring to coat the lardons and onion. Return the chicken pieces to the pan and stir everything together.
Add the liquids
- Pour in the Vin Jaune and hot chicken stock, stirring well to deglaze the bottom of the pan. Add the bouquet garni, garlic, salt and pepper.
Slow cook
- Cover and simmer very gently for about 2 hours, until the chicken is tender and the sauce has developed a deep, nutty aroma.
Prepare the wild mushrooms
- Towards the end of the cooking time, heat a little butter and olive oil in a frying pan. Sauté the wild mushrooms over medium-high heat until golden and any liquid has evaporated. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Finish the sauce
- Add the mushrooms to the casserole, then stir in the cream. Let it all simmer together for about 10 minutes, allowing the flavours to combine. Adjust the seasoning to taste.
Serve
- Arrange the chicken pieces on a warm serving platter and spoon over the rich, creamy sauce.
Notes
The distinctive French wine that is Vin Jaune
If you’ve never tried Vin Jaune, it’s one of France’s most distinctive wines. Produced only in the Jura, it owes its golden colour and complex flavour to long ageing in oak barrels under a film of yeast, a bit like fino sherry, though it’s never fortified. The result is dry, nutty and aromatic, with notes of walnut, curry spice, and almond.
It pairs beautifully with creamy sauces, poultry, Comté cheese, and mushrooms; all the comforting flavours of the Jura. It’s a wine worth seeking out, and if you find yourself in Arbois or Château-Chalon, the heart of Jura wine country, you’ll see why it’s so loved.
A selection of Comte cheeses from the Jura region of France
A Taste of the Jura at Home
This Coq au Vin Jaune with Wild Mushrooms and Lardons brings together everything I love about cooking in France, seasonal ingredients, regional wines, and the simple pleasure of slow food. If you’d like to discover more about where I found my bottle of Vin Jaune, have a look at my Besançon weekend post for some inspiration to explore this beautiful corner of eastern France.
À bientôt et bon appétit
Caro x
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