Coq au Vin with Homemade Egg Noodles

You saw me cooking with beer.  Now I thought why not try it with wine!  You still get the flavor but none of the alcoholic content.  (No fun...I know...)

Elena and I were channeling our inner Pioneer Woman for this recipe.  Well...we didn't do anything fancy - we just copied everything Pioneer Woman does.  But we just love a good excuse to dress up :)

The inspiration for this meal came with my egg farmer.  She dropped off four dozen eggs and also brought over two freshly butchered hens.  We have been experiencing a chicken shortage in my house because when you buy chickens whole and freeze them, it is a bit more work to thaw and cook.  Grabbing a pound of grass-fed beef and thawing it is so much easier!  These two small hens made me as giddy as a little school girl.

So I hopped on Pioneer Woman and found a recipe I could relate to!  Coq au Vin!  So we ran out and picked up the mushrooms and the wine.  You need a "burgundy wine" for this recipe - whatever that means. After a stupid-long time researching what a burgundy wine was, I just went with a Pinot Noir.  I am ill-educated...

My newest and most exciting cooking ingredient is my real Himalayan Pink Sea Salt!  Isn't it pretty?

After telling Jason that I paid $6.00 for this jar of salt, he was wondering what the big deal was.  So I googled and found an interesting article about salt: Food for Thought: Is there such thing as Healthy Salt?

Table saltThe common white salt you’re use to. Table salt is only sodium and chloride, usually mined from rock salt or seawater.² It then has the other naturally occurring minerals stripped from it, which are often sold to vitamin companies at a premium price.

Interesting, no?  So I bought my real sea salt and I am having so much fun throwing it around my recipes with reckless abandon!!!  After all - it's one of our daily vitamin sources!

This recipe starts off with frying off some bacon.  Then you fry everything else in the bacon grease or butter...YES PLEASE!!  You even cook the wine in the bacon grease for a few minutes!!

Layer the chicken (seared in bacon grease), the carrots, onions and garlic (sauteed in bacon grease), and mushrooms (sauteed in butter), top with some bacon pieces and pour the wine (cooked in the bacon grease pan) all over it!

Here is the link to the recipe again if you need it!  http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/08/coq-au-vin/

The chicken dish cooks for an hour and half so we had lots of time to spare.  The kids and I got busy making egg noodles for our dish!

I haven't made egg noodles in a very long time.  They are super easy but a little time consuming.  The benefit is mostly for Leo.  He is a picky eater so I know if he is at least eating the noodles, he is getting a good source of protein!

Just mix 2 eggs per 1 cup of flour.  

I used 4 eggs and 2 cups of flour.  So I split this big dough ball in half, wrapped them in saran wrap and let them sit in the fridge for 15-30 minutes.  Then you are ready to get to work!

Just cook them for 2-3 minutes in salted boiling water.  

And teach your son to move his hand when operating the pizza cutter...

I don't know the first thing about how to make food look good in pictures so just trust me.  It's goooood!!!

These laying hens I received from my egg farmer are really quite tough - all muscle and just a little fat.  So, I took the other one and roasted it in the oven at 250 degrees with some salt, pepper and 1/2 a sliced onion for 5 hours.  I plan on making this soup with the shredded chicken.  If you have a whole chicken and want the Costco-style rotisserie, try this recipe out.  I continue to be shocked at how well it turns out!!

Also - check out this giveaway

11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven is giving away nearly $40 worth of gourmet bread mix! It will seem like your spent HOURS in the kitchen making treats like this...


...but it only takes minutes! To enter, click HERE!