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Chicken alfredo is a wonderfully rich and delicious dish of Italian origins. From its origins as a popular Italian dish, it has slowly spread over the world with many people in a multitude of countries coming to love this saucy pasta and chicken-based meal. Naturally, though when serving any sort of Italian meal, especially if you’ve made it yourself you’ll want to pair it with the finest and most appropriate wine choice that you can get your hands on. Now for regular wine drinkers, this may seem like a simple task, however, if you don’t know your merlot from your sauvignon blanc then you may be at a loss. If so though don’t worry because we’ll guide you through the best wine to pair with chicken alfredo.
Table of Contents
- What Is Chicken Alfredo?
- What Goes With Chicken Alfredo?
- Wines To Serve With Chicken Alfredo?
- Answered: Best Wine to Pair with Chicken Alfredo
What Is Chicken Alfredo?
Chicken alfredo is as mentioned above a pasta dish of Italian origins. At its most basic it is a sublime combination of fettuccine pasta, chicken and of course alfredo sauce. This sauce being created from béchamel sauce as it’s mother sauce. The result is a dish that is wonderfully layered and packed with an assortment of delicious textures and tastes.
The rich, creamy and cheesy alfredo sauce associated with chicken alfredo deliciously contrasts with the savoury and juicy chicken. Meanwhile, the textural variations of the chicken and al dente pasta noodles make for a wonderfully layered mouthfeel.
The resulting dish is one that is quite simple and elegant to make, even in batches to be reheated later. Additionally, the combination of tastes and textures make for a dish that is rich and layered without being too heavy. As such, it can make for an ideal dish to serve alongside a wide variety of different types of wine.
What Goes With Chicken Alfredo?
When you are deciding on the wine that you should serve alongside your chicken alfredo there are a variety of options and factors that you should consider. The rich, sharp, parmesan cheese taste and thick yet creamy texture of alfredo sauce combine with the wide yet al dente fettuccine noodles and juicy yet savoury chicken to create a chicken alfredo dinner something truly special.
Naturally, the wine pairing that you use will make a great difference in your meal, especially so when comparing white wine to red wine. Often in past afficiandos though, it must be an Italian wine that you serve with your Italian food, especially one with a deliciously rich, cream sauce. However, the nationality of the wine is ultimately less important than if they pair well with the buttery characteristic of the sauce and the additional textures and tastes provided by the rest of your chicken/fettuccine alfredo.
No, instead of exclusively searching out Italian reds or whites, there is a multitude of great wine pairings from around the world that make excellent choices. These should all complement the chicken, pasta and creamy alfredo sauce in some way or another though. Typically though, this means that the wine will contrast with your dish in a multitude of ways. However, it may actually lean into the flavours already present within the meal by picking a wine pairing that reflects the characteristics of the dish.
Wines To Serve With Chicken Alfredo?
With the above information in mind then, you may have some ideas for wines that you can pair with your chicken alfredo. Of course, though, you may also still be at a loss for specific options that will work well with your chicken alfredo, whether white wine or red. Fortunately, just like when you’re serving wine with a charcuterie board, there is a myriad of options that you can pair with your chicken alfredo. As such, when you’re serving chicken alfredo, then you should take a look t the following options:
- Pinot Grigio
- Pinot Noir
- Pinot Bianco
- Chardonnay
- White Zinfandel
- Riesling
- Barbera
Pinot Grigio
Pinot Grigio is always a consistent crowd pleaser in the realm of white wine that is known for being subtle and crisp with a myriad of layered flavours. These flavours include peaches, minerals, smoke, pears, white flowers, citrus and lemon will pair fantastically with your chicken alfredo.
The reason that this paring will work so well though is that, unlike some other white wines, pinot grigio is known for being sharp, acidic and refreshing. As such, it is the perfect contrast and counterbalance to the rich and fatty nature of your main dish.
This is because whilst the flavours of the wine are not synergistic with the chicken alfredo, the refreshing and sharp, acidic nature helps to clean the palette and keep the flavours of the dish incredibly fresh. As such, due to being a popular wine option universally it can be an excellent choice to eat with chicken alfredo, whether at home or when dining out.
Pinot Noir
Another type of pinot that makes for an excellent option for pairing with your chicken alfredo is some pinot noir. Unlike pinot grigio, this is a red wine rather than a white one. That said though, both types share that wonderful acidic quality that will pair perfectly with chicken alfredo by providing a great balance to the rich and fatty aspects of the meal.
As far as red wines go, pinot noir is a wonderfully light and fruity option that provides a wonderful contrast to the flavours found in the main dish. In particular, strawberry and cherry notes are the most prominent fruity flavours found in pinot noir. That said though, it also has a wonderfully earthy undercurrent that provides extra depth and balance along with some elegance to the wine.
In particular, when serving your chicken alfredo that contains mushrooms, this wine option makes for a great choice. This is due to of course how the light and fruity flavours provide a wonderful contrast to the creamy sauce, noodles and chicken. Meanwhile, the earthy aspects of the wine will synergise perfectly with the earthy flavours provided to the alfredo dish by the mushrooms.
Pinot Bianco
Going back to a white pinot now, pinot bianco is an excellent option for a white wine to pair with your chicken alfredo dish. Now, this option can often be hard to find, particularly in America, whether in a store or in a restaurant. That said though whilst pinot grigio and pinot noir are both quite fruity, this option is known for being particularly creamy and nutty along with being very fruity.
Due to this option being much more creamy than the other types of pinot wine, this option provides a wonderful level of synergy with the creamy sauce of your chicken alfredo. Meanwhile, though, the fruity aspects of this wine provide a delicious contrast to those of your main dish.
Additionally, like the other pinot options mentioned above though, pinot bianco also has an excellent acidic quality to it. As such, it can also make for a beautiful option to pair with alfredo due to being a wonderful taste bud and palate cleanser for such a rich and fatty dish.
Chardonnay
Another white wine that will pair perfectly with your chicken alfredo is a wonderfully rich and full-bodied chardonnay. Now like with pinot grigio there are acidic and fruity qualities that chardonnay to it that makes for a wonderful contrast to the creamy, cheesey and savoury flavours provided by the main dish.
However, unlike pinot grigio, chardonnay is known for having flavours of crisp green apple, pear and of course some tropical notes. These unique flavours will be a wonderful option for bringing out the taste of your chicken from the dish.
That’s said though, chardonnay, like with pinot bianco, chardonnay has a wonderful creamy buttery nature to it. This of course being able to provide some wonderful synergy between the wine and sauce. Additionally, though, chardonnay is known for being quite sweet which can add some extra nuance to your chicken alfredo.
Now there are a lot of different types of chardonnay that you can buy. However, these are not all made equal as some cheaper manufacturers will use cheap wood chips in order to attempt to artificially add a more buttery texture. However, these often don’t taste wonderful and can be compared to rancid popcorn. As such, when picking your chardonnay selecting a white burgundy such as puligny montrachet, mendocino chardonnay or mâcon is highly encouraged.
White Zinfandel
For a wonderful pink or blush to serve with your chicken alfredo, a white zinfandel makes for an excellent choice of wine pairing. This is a very popular choice of wine and truly can have a diversity of options with many being sweet but often with less complex flavours than other forms of rosé.
White zinfandel is a particularly perfect option for a lighter form of wine that makes for a perfect contrast to dishes like chicken alfredo with rich white sauces, chicken and pasta. This is of course due to adding a light, refreshing, fruity, sweet and soothing nature to the meal which all act as a perfect counter to this particularly rich dish.
Like with pinot grigio, this is an incredibly popular wine option that can e easily be found in both restaurants and on store shelves. As such, it is the perfect way to add something deliciously simple and sweet to the meal in an easy and relatively cheap manner.
Riesling
Riesling is another excellent option when you’re after a sweet or sparkling wine. This German wine is like many of the prior options a white wine. However, it is also very much an aromatic option that has a high acidity perfect for cutting through the richness and fatty nature of the chicken alfredo.
Along with being sweet though, riesling also known for being slightly dry. However, it is not so bone dry that it and the chicken will leave you feeling parched and the dish robbed of flavour. No instead, this provides a great way to take the edge off the meal, as such it is often paired with heavily seasoned or potentially even spicy chicken, both of which can work with fettuccine alfredo.
Barbera
For another idea for an Italian grape variety of wine barbera d’asti makes for an excellent option for serving with chicken alfredo. This option is an Italian red that is quite low in alcohol but acidic and incredibly fruity. Flavour-wise, it has fruity notes of cherry, plum, raspberries and raisin which along with the acidity is bring a sharp contrast and incredibly refreshing nature to the rich and fatty chicken alfredo dish.
That said though, whilst the barbera d’asti has fruity notes of cherry, plum, raspberries and raisin, there are an assortment of other flavours that are also present. These include black pepper, spice, mushrooms and smoke. All of which come together to create a wonderfully rustic feel that is distinctly herby and earthy.
Naturally, such a rustic feel isn’t necessarily everyone’s cup of tea. However, when drunk alongside a rich chicken alfredo, especially one that includes mushrooms people often find them to be truly delicious. This is because the earthy and rustic notes will synergise whilst being perfectly counterbalanced by the rich fettuccine alfredo.
Answered: Best Wine to Pair with Chicken Alfredo
Truly, when you are pairing wine with chicken alfredo, there is a multitude of options that you can use to make a great dining experience in a variety of different ways. As such, an assortment of reds, whites and even pink wines can be perfect for eating with chicken alfredo.
As such, which direction you go in will ultimately come down to your own personal wine preferences. Naturally, the above options make for a great starting off point. However, if you have some alternative ideas of your own then there is truly nothing to stop you from embracing them for your own chicken alfredo wine pairing. You never know, you idea may even be more perfect than conventional wisdom can possibly imagine.
