This weekend I made Coq au Vin that turned out really well. The recipe called for bacon, but I found that I didn't have any, so on a whim I substituted 4 oz of smoked sausage. It also called for cooking in a crockpot for 6 to 7 hours but since it was already 6:00 P.M. when I started that wasn't happening either.

Coq Au Vin
serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
4 oz smoked sausage (chopped)
1 medium sweet onion (chopped)
2 carrots (chopped)
2 Tbsp flour
10 medium white mushrooms (sliced radially)
1 1/2 cups red wine
2 tsp crushed garlic
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp thyme
1 cup water
2 tsp better-than-bullion chicken base
black pepper

Method
Season chicken with pepper and lightly coat chicken with flour.

Cook smoked sausage in dutch oven over medium heat, until lightly browned, remove it from the pan.

Add 1 tbsp oil, raise heat to medium high, place chicken in pan and turn it periodically to brown is well on all sides. Remove chicken from pan and deglaze the pan with 1/2 cup of wine, scraping up all the browned bits, removing and reserving the wine.

Add another tbsp of oil, and add the onion, the carrots, the mushrooms, the garlic and the thyme to pan. Raise heat to high and stir continuously until the onion is soft and translucent.

Add wine, water and bullion, and return chicken and sausage to the pan, reduce heat to medium, until the pan just starts to simmer, and reduce heat to low to just barely maintain the simmer. Cover and cook for 90 minutes.

serve with a crusty baguette (or crescent rolls)