Very French

Now the great thing about cooking together is that you can get it done twice as fast and have a blast, but as we have found there is a down side. Trying to tell each other what to do while staying out of each others way in a tiny kitchen AND not burning anything can be a challenge.

The recipes in the Bride and Groom cookbook have three levels of difficulty indicated by a number of spoons ranging from one to three. This evening we chose a three spoon recipe:

Chicken Braised in Red Wine, very French.

As all good evenings of couple cooking start we went to the grocery store together. Our first challenge , 1 bottle of fruity red wine. Now Brian and I are foodies "not Wine Snobs" plus we are partial to the white grape. So after much standing and bottle searching we decide on a "Sweet Red Wine" with fruity notes :)

The recipe itself looked easy enough.
First reduce the red wine, then dredge and brown the chicken in butter, take out the chicken and cook the onions, garlic and bacon in chicken butter plus more butter . At this point I just wanted stop and eat my saute pan. Then we added mushrooms and spices and a bit of brandy. Then we moved the onion and mushrooms to our Dutch oven and add the chicken , the red wine and chicken stock.
Then were supposed to bring it to a boil then simmer for 20 minutes.
This proved to be our most challenging step. It involved Brian holding the giant pot full of all the ingredients over the burner and then placing it back down to get that perfect simmer.
Then take the chicken out... again.
Next, we reduced the sauce even more, which was also interesting, as we stood over our boiling pot discussing how thick thick was supposed to be.
Finally, a garnish of parsley and OH MY

It was the best thing we have ever made. The sauce was so thick and rich, no surprise : butter, onions, bacon, garlic, and red wine. The chicken was so tender because it cooked in this amazing sauce for 30 minutes. Brian and I did not say anything during dinner except "wow" and "awesome". This is a definite re-cook hopefully for company ;)

The night ended with a cleaning the red wine splatters off every inch of the stove and a mound of dishes.
We look forward to our next couple culinary creations.