What to do when you are craving a slowly wine braised meat or coq au vin in this cold weather but simply don’t have the time or energy? This red wine braised meatballs and cheesy polenta recipe still takes an hour to make, but it has the flavor of something that has been slowly cooking away on the stovetop for hours. You know I am a huge meatball fan, because more often than not it is a way to shorten the cooking time, because ground meat already means that it is going to get juicy. This time we are making chicken meatballs, because I was inspired by Julia Child’s Coq au vin recipe, but I believe that you can use any other meat as well.
I was having doubts, as to whether to serve these red wine braised chicken meatballs with mashed potatoes or polenta or maybe spaghetti. I decided against traditional pasta, because I wanted to make something extra special. Sometimes a Monday night is all the reasoning you need to make a fancy meal. So I went ahead and decided to chose polenta. What makes polenta even better, is when you add cheese to it. This is a rich and hearty meal, a definite dinner material. What makes it even better is extra grated parmesan and parsley on top. While there are countless slow-cooker versions for this that would take you away from the labor of slowly simmering the sauce on the stove. I decided that a quicker weeknight version would work better. Also, you don’t have to make super large meatballs like I did, you can make mini versions too.
To make a flavorful sauce you need good meat, garlic, pepper, onions all browned to perfection in some good olive oil and butter. While for a coq au vin you would usually ad mushrooms, I just stuck to good old carrot, celery, onion and tomato paste sauce base. To make it even richer you could swap the water for chicken broth. But I like to really use a lot of wine when cooking with it. Not just a couple of tablespoons, but half a bottle at least. The meatballs themselves are freezer friendly and could be made with any marinara sauce or tomato sauce for a pasta dinner later on. Nothing beats a good simmered sauce with chopped veggies over medium heat. I am often too impatient to make such things. But trust me, it is so worth it. Now go make these red wine braised meatballs and cheesy polenta!
If you are looking for another good meatball recipe, try these two soups too!