French and Mediterranean plates with a coq au vin, poached salmon and a cherry panzanella
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Chef's Notes
The honey mustard chicken breast is really a question of the top. Mustard and honey go on first, the crisp onion goes on halfway through, because anything that fine would be black by the time the meat was done, and the tray finishes in a moderate oven until the crust sets golden. Underneath, the breast cooks gently in its own sauce instead of roasting out dry. It is the only method I have found that keeps a breast tender under a crust that stays crisp.
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Coq au vin is a classic built for old birds and long cooking, which is why the modern version made with breast meat never tastes of anything. This stew is all chicken thighs, browned first, with the bacon, mushroom and carrot cooked in that same fat before the wine goes anywhere near it. It simmers until the sauce coats a spoon and the meat gives at the bone. Nothing about it is fast, and everything good about it comes from that.
Cherry season is short and this is the middle of it, which is the entire reason that panzanella looks the way it does. Halved cherries go in with heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, mint and basil, and mozzarella torn over the top by hand. The sourdough croutons stay in their own tub until the bowl is dressed, or they are sponge by the morning.
Reheating: the french chicken stew wants 12 minutes covered at 350°F, and it is better on day two regardless. The honey mustard and onion crisp chicken breast needs 10 minutes uncovered at 375°F so the onion crisps back up rather than going soft. The mediterranean poached salmon and cod get 5 minutes at 300°F or nothing at all.
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