White Wine Chicken Stew Recipe (VIDEO) - The Cookie Rookie® (2024)

FAQs

What flavor does white wine add to cooking? ›

Typically, white wines are meant to add a touch of acidity to recipes containing poultry, fish, seafood, dairy products, and they are perfect for deglazing a pan after cooking meat or onions, garlic, mushrooms, and other vegetables.

Its acidity balances out these often rich, creamy dishes and helps clear the palate between bites. You can deglaze a pan with white wine to scrape up the delicious caramelized bits left behind. White wine can also be used when cooking sauces, steaming meats and vegetables, and crafting desserts.

Moscato might not be your first thought when you think of the best wine to cook with, but it's a hidden gem. Its sweetness can balance savoury and spicy flavours beautifully. Imagine a glaze over your chicken or a reduction for your seafood – Moscato can be your secret ingredient!

Have a go-to. Both sauvignon blanc and chardonnay are good bets when reaching for a cooking wine. Sauvignon blanc is crisper, while chardonnay more full-bodied, but when using them as ingredients, their subtleties aren't as pronounced.

Pinot Gris/ Pinot Grigio

The crispness and acidity of a Pinot Gris/ Grigio are nearly unmatched, and for centuries it has astounded people with tantalizing notes of lime, green apple, lemon, peach, and pear. For one of the best white wines on the market, this one will pack a zesty, acidic punch!

A cooking wine also contains salt, some preservatives and in some cases, a sweetener. This extends the shelf life of an open bottle of wine from hours to months.

When it comes to cooking with wine, avoid bottles labeled "cooking wine." Cooking wine isn't anything you'd want to cook with — it's loaded with preservatives, sweeteners and salt, which can make your final dish taste overly sweet, salty or even metallic.

Cooking wine has salt and other preservatives that extend the shelf life of the product and keep it from spoiling. These small additions allow it to legally be sold at grocery stores, but you wouldn't want to drink it. This also means that when you open a bottle, it can be used for a long long time.

Super sweet wines like Moscato or sweet rieslings can caramelize too quickly when you're cooking, especially if you use them to deglaze a pan. It's also best to stay away from fuller-bodied wines like oaked Chardonnays—they can lend too strong a flavor to your food.

Does white wine make food taste better? ›

For supertasters, wine can intensify the flavors of all foods, and not in a good way. It can turn an otherwise enjoyable meal into an overpowering taste sensation.

As for what wine does it adds sweetness and acidity and body, while the alcohol in the wine can bring out certain flavors and compounds in foods that are soluable in alcohol and not water.

While marinades can be made with any acidic liquid, wine is a particularly good one; in addition to adding acidity, wine adds complex flavor to the finished dish. Bringing the wine to a boil helps cook off some of its alcohol and concentrate its fruitiness and acidity.

Wine adds acidity to foods. You can get acidity from other sources, like citrus juices but those are more astringent than wine and not good choices for deglazing and reducing when making sauces. There are all sorts of pasta dishes that pair well with white wine.