Coq au vin with phyllo pastry

Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.  Heat some olive oil in a cast iron pot and  fry the bacon until brown and caramelized.

Brown the little onions in the same pot, remove and keep aside. Remove the bacon from the pot. Add some more olive oil if necessary and brown the chicken pieces on both sides. Remove the chicken from the pot.

Preserve about two tablespoons of the oil from the pot. You should now have a thickish brown layer of “flavour” in the bottom of the pot, this is crucial to the flavour of the final dish.

Deglaze your pot with the brandy and when the alcohol has evaporated, add the red wine, chopped onion, celery, leeks, garlic, tomato paste and stock to the pot.

Now add the chicken and bacon and make sure each piece of chicken is submerged in the liquid. Turn the heat down and simmer for about 40-45 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the liquid and keep warm. Add the mushrooms and baby onions to the pot and cook for about 10 minutes until the onions are soft and the sauce has reduced.

Mix the preserved fat from the pot with the flour and stir this roux into the sauce, but do it in spoonfuls as you do not want the sauce to be too thick and gluey.

Return the chicken to the pot and allow to just cook through. For the phyllo, simply use three layers of pastry, butter them lavishly with melted butter and lay on top of the coq au vin.

Bake for 10 minutes in a pre-heated oven until pastry is golden in colour.