Break the Rules
“I should always have white wine with chicken.” In short, no. This was one of my earliest lessons. One of my favorite recipes is “Mediterranean Chicken,” sometimes known as “Chicken Marbella.” The recipe I most often riff on comes from the good ‘ol Silver Palate Cookbook. There are many variations, but the grounding for the dish lies in basic but various Mediterranean ingredients: oregano, olive oil, bay leaves, capers, wine, prunes, and olives.
Look up recipes yourself and create your own variations (for example, instead of prunes use dried currants or dried red cherries).
My advice is twofold: first, whatever you do, let the chicken marinate for two days at least (disclaimer here: folks, keep it refrigerated please). Second, don’t crack open a white to have with this dish: it screams for Pinot Noir, most notably of the French variety (look for Burgundy first), but certainly Oregon Pinot and California’s Anderson Valley (check out Husch, Lazy Creek, and Navarro as examples) standouts will more than suffice.
But truly, when serving this you can bust out inexpensive, earthy, funky French Bourgogne. The only apologies to be made will come from the guests who grunt and slurp instead of talking in a civilized manner. Leave politics aside for a while; it’s good for us.
