We're not used to NFL games on Saturday, but this weekend and next we get a football marathon, two games each day.

NFL Playoffs Wild-Card Round

Saturday
4:30 p.m. NBC
N.Y. Jets
Cincinnati

8:00 p.m. NBC
Philadelphia
Dallas

Sunday
1:00 p.m. CBS
Baltimore
New England

4:40 p.m. FOX
Green Bay
Arizona

The family gathers at my house for every Patriots game, and this week we'll do coq au vin.

This was the first recipe I learned to cook "for company" or dates I wanted to impress. It's extremely tasty, goes well over rice and is ridiculously easy.

I started, as did many of us, with The Joy of Cooking's recipe, but a recipe is hardly necessary -- once you get the basic idea it always works: Brown the chicken and vegetables, add wine and stock, simmer till tender. Always use onions and mushrooms, but add whatever other vegetables you like. Serve with rice or mashed potatoes that will appreciate the sauce.

I'm going to make this one: Coq au Zin, which uses red Zinfandel (not sweet like the white, not as dry as a Pinot Noir) and chicken stock, for a less intense sauce than the Joy's, which is all wine.

Never use a whole bottle of wine, though. It's not only a waste of good alcohol, the sauce will taste like reduced wine. You want wine-flavored chicken gravy. A cup or two of wine is fine, depending on how much chicken stock you have. You can always add more (Simmer afterwards at least till you no longer smell alcohol, indicating that it has evaporated.) Make lots of sauce for the rice.

Similarly, don't use a lot of bacon. Four strips is plenty, and if you blanch it in boiling water first, it won't oversalt your sauce. You can skip it altogether and still have a tasty fricassee, but its smoky underflavor is essential to coq au vin.

Update: We made the recipe without the last step of thickening the sauce with flour. We were serving it over rice, and the flour would simply have made it starchier. The thin sauce was perfect with brown rice. It was delicious.

Related: Classic coq au vin is a major production -- especially the part about finding a rooster -- but it's not necessarily a better meal. This simple Coq au Vin recipe serves two people.