coq au vin blog, episode I

Inspired by the Julia Child DVDs I've been watching of late, and guided by my good buddy Alton Brown, I'm making coq au vin, which is chicken (the older and tougher the chicken the better, as this dish was designed to use the old rooster once he was no longer fit for anything else; for this reason, I'm using chicken thighs) braised in red wine.

Step One was salting and peppering the chicken, then dredging it in flour. Step Two was sauteeing the salt pork -- an ingredient I'd never before dealt with. Having cubed it, gotten it to a nice golden brown hue, and tasted it, I think I'd describe it thusly: all of that healthful salt and fat we expect from bacon, only MORE and more concentrated. It's like crispy little lard croutons.

Not an ingredient to eat every day, to be sure, but I'm betting it will add a lot of flavor to the chicken and sauce.