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Cheeky coq au vin

 This isn't really coq au vin, strictly speaking, if you want to be particular. It is, however, similar enough for comparison, but takes a lot less time. Hence "cheeky."

I'm starting to hit the bottom of the barrel on my veggies. The celery is about done sitting around, I used my last 3 cloves of garlic, the last handful of wood ear mushrooms, and half of a carrot I had in a freezer bag, plus a few grape tomatoes because yum. The tomatoes and mushrooms I left whole, everything else I sliced for a nice little mix of random.

I seasoned my two chicken legs with salt and pepper, then dropped them into a small pot with some hot melted butter. The important thing is browning the chicken, not cooking it all the way through (that comes with the braising), so I had the heat up a bit higher than I usually use for cooking chicken since I wouldn't be running that rewardless risk of burning the outside vs undercooking the inside (usually both). 

I flipped the chicken around a couple of times to get all sides browned.

Once everything was nice and crispy, I set the chicken aside for a minute while I added some red wine (maybe around a quarter cup of Malbec tonight) to the pot and scraped all the shit off the bottom. 

Then I added some water, maybe two cups? Sue me. I added the chicken back in, dumped in my veggies, gave it a good stir, added a bit of salt and black pepper (basically, I put in how much I thought should go in, then remembered that there's a lot of liquid and put in the same amount again). 

Mostly covered with a lid, simmering, simmering...the prep takes all of 5 minutes. The simmering takes about half an hour. Still faster than real coq au vin.

About 20 minutes in, gotta flip the chicken. Also, gotta feel that slightly orgasmic shudder up your spine when you smell the pure heaven bubbling away in the pot. By all accounts, it is perfectly acceptable to giggle and say, "Damn it feels good to be a gangsta" when that aroma punches you in the face.

When you just can't stand the culinary edging anymore, drop some of that shit in a bowl and enjoy yourself. You've earned it.

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