The French chicken stew cooked with red wine, mushrooms, and pearl onions is coq au vin. Its name literally means “rooster with wine,” though modern recipes usually use chicken rather than a mature rooster.
The dish is made by braising poultry slowly in wine, traditionally with lardons, mushrooms, onions, and sometimes garlic. Red Burgundy is a classic choice, but regional versions use other wines, including Riesling in Alsace, vin jaune in the Jura, and Champagne in another variation.
Older legends connect coq au vin with ancient Gaul and Julius Caesar, but the recipe was not documented until the early twentieth century. Similar chicken-and-wine preparations appeared in French cookbooks during the nineteenth century, suggesting that the dish developed gradually from rustic cooking.
Julia Child helped popularize coq au vin in the United States through Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television program The French Chef. It is related to beef bourguignon, but the defining meat is poultry rather than beef.