Chicken in White Wine Sauce (Coq au Vin Blanc)

This classic French chicken in white wine sauce is one of my favorite one-pan recipes to make when I’m craving a comforting, flavorful dish. The meal is so easy to whip up and can be ready in under an hour.

What is Chicken in White Wine Sauce called in French?

The French name for this dish is coq au vin blanc, the sister dish to classic coq au vin. Classic coq au vin is made with a red wine sauce, whereas this one is made with a white wine sauce.

The dish can be made with or without cream, but it’s just dreamier with the cream.

As Julia Child says, “If you’re afraid of butter, use cream.”

How to make a chicken and white wine sauce?

The delicious flavor of this dish is largely derived from the white wine cream sauce that the chicken is essentially bathed in.

The dish is best made in a large skillet, like a classic cast iron pan, or a dutch oven; both work equally well.

The chicken absorbs all the scrumptious flavor from the creamy white wine sauce and the ingredients in that sauce.

What is white wine sauce made of?

White wine sauce is typically made with ingredients like white wine (obviously!), cream, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and many times the French staple: lardons (aka bacon!).

Similar to how beef bourguignon is started, this chicken in white wine sauce recipe begins with browning some bacon.

You’d be surprised at what bacon can do for a dish like this. A couple of slices, chopped up and fried to a crisp will create the perfect starter for this recipe.

While coq au vin is typically made with mushrooms, I tend to make this chicken in white wine sauce with carrots.

It’s not that the mushrooms aren’t delicious, I just find that more often than not, I’ll have carrots stocked in my fridge rather than mushrooms.

You could also add pearl onions too if you enjoy those.

While a white cream sauce has the luxe richness of cream, the crisp bacon helps add a savory punch of flavor.

The chicken is browned in this bacon fat and set aside until it’s added again later for further cooking.

What kind of chicken do you use?

You can use any cut of chicken that you prefer. You’ll just want to use chicken with skin-on.

Whenever you’re making a stew, it’s best to use poultry with the skin-on. That way you can brown the chicken, skin-side down, and get incredible flavor.

You can always peel the skin off later if you’re not a fan of chicken skin.

I tend to use a variety of cuts when I make this dish, including drumsticks, thighs, and chicken breast, but chicken thighs are my favorite!

White Wine for Cooking

After you’ve browned the chicken over and removed it from the pan, you’ll want to sauté a mix of diced onion and garlic.

After the onion and garlic are added to the pan, a splash of white wine is poured in to help deglaze the pan and scrape up all those glorious bacon bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pan.

That’s really as fancy as the base for the white wine sauce gets, but after you taste it, you’d think the ingredient list would have been a whole lot longer.

Some add chicken stock or chicken broth to the recipe, but I think the chicken skin helps impart a lot of that concentrated chicken flavor into the sauce and is not necessary.

What wine is good for cooking chicken?

A crisp, dry white wine is always best for cooking chicken. I enjoy using sauvignon blanc or chardonnay when I make this chicken in white wine sauce.

Contrary to some people’s opinion, you don’t have to use an expensive bottle of wine for dishes like this.

That said, I like to choose something decent that I can happily drink afterwards with the dish as well.

Once the pan has been deglazed, the chicken is added back into the pan, along with the carrots/mushrooms, and a more generous helping of white wine.

This mixture simmers away for about 35 minutes until the heavy cream is added. Mmm, this is where the goodness happens.

Yes, you could make chicken in white wine sauce with no cream, but what’s the fun in that? You’d get none of the the thickness and richness of a cream sauce.

The cream is added in the last 10 minutes of the recipe. Once the cream has been added, the contents of the dish are left to simmer and bubble for the final 10 minutes.

The sauce will reduce and become thick and luscious.

It’s perfect for dipping a crusty French baguette in.

What do you serve with coq au vin blanc?

You have a variety of ways you can serve this delicious dish. You can serve the tender chicken pieces on a bed of mashed potatoes with a sprinkle of fresh chopped parsley on top as a garnish.

You could also serve it in small bowls alongside a plate of roasted potatoes with crusty bread, or next to a bowl of white rice; both are popular serving styles in a French bistro.