How to Pair Wine With Grilled Chicken
Consider the sauce and preparation technique when selecting the best wine to serve with chicken.
Grilled chicken is one of the most accessible and versatile proteins you can toss on your grill. From weeknight-friendly chicken thigh recipes to crowd-pleasing chicken wings, we love treating different cuts of chicken like a blank canvas for tangy, sweet, and smoky flavors.
While pairing big, bold red wines with ribeye or New York strip steak might seem like a fairly straightforward combination, it can be somewhat trickier to determine which wines pair best with grilled chicken, especially because the flavor profile varies so much with sauces, marinades, and dressings.
Whether you're keeping things simple with our fiery, fragrant Jamaican Jerk Chicken or making a low-effort, maximum-reward dinner like Rice Noodle Salad Bowls with Lemongrass Chicken, here's how to chose the right wine to pair with grilled chicken.
How to pair wine with barbecue sauce and grilled chicken
If you haven't tried white barbecue sauce, consider this recipe from Big Bob Gibson's Bar-B-Q your cue to do so. Bright and creamy, this sauce calls for a tart, sharp combination of mayonnaise, vinegar, apple juice, horseradish, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper.
Once you've slathered this sauce all over your grilled chicken, pair it with a full-bodied white wine like Viognier, many of the best expressions of which hail from the Northern Rhone Valley. Napa Valley Chardonnay also pairs nicely with this dish.
For a more traditional, classic sticky and sweet barbecue sauce grilled chicken, try a fruity, low-tannin red wine like Gamay, or Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.
Zippy Chenin Blanc from South Africa also offers a juicy, mouthwatering pairing for these tender grilled chicken thighs that have a honey horseradish butter glaze.
How to pair wine with grilled chicken and a spicy marinade
If your marinade includes chili peppers (our recipe for Grilled Chicken with Coconut Rice and Chili-Lime Sauce calls for Fresnos), you can’t go wrong with serving a slightly off-dry Riesling.
The heat of the marinade will make the wine taste less sweet, while the acidity cuts through the thick, creamy full-fat coconut milk in the sauce. Bonus: Rieslings tend to be low in alcohol, making them easy to drink on a hot summer day. You can also opt for a crisp Pinot Bianco (also known as Pinot Blanc) from Northern Italy, which is especially refreshing to gulp down between sips of spicy chicken.
How to pair wine with grilled chicken and a yogurt marinade
One of our favorite low-lift marinades for flavorful grilled chicken, yogurt contains lactic acid, which tenderizes more slowly and gently than a citrus juice or vinegar-based marinade. This means you can leave your meat to soak overnight without it becoming tough or rubbery.
A citrusy California Sauvignon Blanc matches the signature tangy flavor of this marinade, as well as Vermentino, great expressions of which are produced in Sardinia, which is located off the western coast of Italy.
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