French Coq au Riesling or tender chicken legs smothered in a creamy white wine sauce with mushrooms and grapes.

COQ AU RIESLING RECIPE

What is Coq au Riesling?

Coq au riesling is the Alsatian version of the traditional and very famous French Coq au Vin. Alsace is a region in eastern France, next to Germany and Switzerland.

While the traditional Coq au Vin is made with red wine, Coq au Riesling is chicken in a white wine sauce, made with the local Riesling d’Alsace.

FRENCH WHITE WINE CHICKEN

How I came to cook this Coq au Riesling? Well, there is a story behind it.

Actually, I cooked this French chicken in white wine for the first time a long time ago, more than 10 years ago. We loved it, so I kept cooking it for a while, but as is the case with many recipes, sometimes you forget them.

A couple of months ago we went to a restaurant, which had Coq au Riesling – Chicken Legs in Riesling Sauce on the menu. I was very pleasantly surprised to see that, as this is definitely not something I have ever seen served in a German restaurant. So, I ordered it without even reading the rest of the menu.

And then came the chicken! What a disappointment!!! Instead of the chicken legs, I got a super dry and chewy chicken breast and instead of the Riesling (white wine!!) sauce, I got tomato sauce. I don’t even think there was any wine in the sauce at all, it tasted like pure tomato puree that was just heated through. Not even salted…

The meal made it on the top 3 of the worst restaurant meals I have ever had.

Three days later I cooked Coq au Riesling at home again and, let me tell you, that was a delight!

INGREDIENTS FOR WHITE WINE CHICKEN

Chicken:

Traditional recipes would call for cooking a whole chicken, which you cut into pieces. You can do that if you wish.
I tend to use whole chicken legs or a mixture of thighs and drumsticks (depending on how I get them), because we all prefer to eat the chicken legs when I make a chicken stew.
Making any kind of chicken stew using a whole chicken means that the chicken breasts would be cooked for too long compared to the chicken legs, so that they will be rather dry at the end of the cooking process.
You could, of course, add them to the stew later than you add the chicken legs, but most of the times I prefer not to go through all that trouble and just use chicken legs.
There are other good recipes which allow the chicken breasts to shine, have a look at these cast iron chicken breasts or this baked bbq chicken breasts.

Riesling:

Riesling is a white wine with German heritage, aromatic and with a high acidity.
It is rather on the sweet side, which tries to balance the higher acidity of the wine, but drier sorts are available.
To make today’s Coq au Riesling I used an off-dry Riesling, which means a white wine which is only very slightly sweet, a rather dry white with a sweet element in it.

Mushrooms:

I used cremini mushrooms, but white button mushrooms would be fine as well.

Grapes:

Using grapes is a slight twist on the original Coq au Riesling, some recipes call for grapes, some not.
I have always used grapes when making this chicken in white wine sauce, they are just wonderful. They are slightly roasted and add sweetness and freshness to the whole dish.
I really recommend the grapes, I would not leave them out.

HOW TO MAKE COQ OF RIESLING?

Brown the chicken legs in 1 ½ tablespoons of the butter. This will take about 4 minutes per side, the chicken should get a nice color.
Place the chopped onions around the chicken legs and cook them shortly, about 2 minutes.
Add the sliced mushrooms and stir for about 2 minutes.
Add the Riesling.
Sprinkle the chicken with some salt and pepper, bring to a boil, turn the heat down and cook with the lid on for about 25-30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken legs from the sauce and keep warm.

Sauce:

Reduce the sauce in the pan by half, this should take about 8 minutes, but check, it depends on the heat and on the size of the pan.
Add the heavy cream, stir well and simmer on lower heat for about 2 minutes or until the sauce is slightly thickened. Adjust the taste with salt and pepper.

Grapes:

While the sauce cooks, halve the grapes if too large.
Heat the remaining butter in a pan and roast the grapes for about 2 minutes, stirring often.
Add the grapes to the sauce, return the chicken legs to the pan and serve.

HOW TO SERVE COQ AU RIESLING?

The dish can be served immediately but, like most stewed dishes, the Coq au Riesling is even better served the next day, the flavors will have time to meld and develop in the refrigerator.

This fact makes the white wine chicken a great dish to cook for guests. It can be made in advance and be reheated when you are ready to sit down at the table, it looks great and it tastes fantastic. It can be made in larger batches and it is not very expensive either.

close up chicken legs with riesling sauce

What to serve with Coq au Riesling?

Most of the times I serve the French chicken with spätzle. As mentioned above, this is a dish originally created in Alsace, which is close to Germany and which was part of Germany sometimes during the course of the history. I supposed this is a reason why spätzle are so popular there as well.

If you don’t have access to spätzle and don’t want to make your own, noodles are a very good alternative. I would choose tagliatelle or ribbon noodles.

Otherwise, you can consider buttered potatoes with parsley, French crusty bread or even rice.