Chicken, lemon, and olives

[Arey]

Last night for dinner I had a recipe from Everyday Food magazine which I really like, and it freezes well. As a single person I like recipes that freeze well. The ingredients were as follows.

4 whole chicken breast halves

1 1/2 tablespoons Olive oil

1 whole lemon -- cut in half lengthwise, then cut into thin

slices crosswise

1 whole onion -- chopped

2 whole garlic cloves -- minced

1/2 cup green olives -- pitted and halved

1 cup chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

For wine I was using up a bottle of Duck Pond Pinot Noir, a marriage as unpleasant as my parent's, but fortunately it only lasted 42 minutes as opposed to 42 years as my parents did. I also had a salad of escarole, grape tomatoes, kalamata olives, red onions, and my basic vinaigrette.

So I was wondering, what wine would have gone well with the chicken? I had bottles of Willamette, Duck Pond and Louis Jadot Pinot Noir, Chateau St. Michelle chardonnay, Principessa Gavi, Trimbach Gewurtztraminer, and 1 bottle of Trimbach Reisling - which I'm saving for when the scale needle gets below 170 at which time I'll be off to the Amish market for wursts, for a wursts and sauerkraut dinner.

I would even consider buying something to go with the chicken recipe as long as it's no more than $15.00 or $16.00 since I have anosmia - an almost non-existant sense of smell-.

[PCL]

Pinot noir doesn't generally work with lemon flavoured food, as you've just discovered it seems.

IMHO, the riesling would have worked, the chardonnay would have worked. Something about fruit and spice I'd say, but there are others better qualified to expand on this.

If red, I'd suggest a zin, or a the Australian tradition of CabSauv/Shiraz... I think Yellowtail have one, and they are by no means expensive.

[little ms foodie]

I would have done the chardonnay since those lemons and olives were in there.

Also I'd throw out the suggestion of a Cote du Rhone or a Beaujoulais (sp)

[Brad Ballinger]

I can think of a few options:

Greco di Tufo wines from southern Italy

Fiano di Avellino wines from southern Italy

Ribolla Gialla wines from northeast Italy

White Rhone wines made from Marsanne and/or Roussanne (or their California equivalents)

Viura (Rioja Blanca)

[bloviatrix]

I make a dish with many of the same ingredients. The wine I choose to accompany is a sauvignon blanc.

Edited November 16, 2005 by bloviatrix (log)

[Bill Miller]

I second the sauvignon blanc--crisp, herbacious.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I'm in the Roussanne encampment... Viscous with a slightly oily feel on the tongue, it will hold up against the cured olives and the sharp citrus notes in the lemon, providing necessary contrast and depth.

[Busboy]

That dish seems so Mediterranean that I'd go with a lighter red from that part of the world. A DOC chianti, a Cote du Ventoux, or maybe just a well-structured Costieres de Nimes pink.

[TongoRad]

A lot of the ingredients in the dish are in my 'default mode' of cooking- olives, fresh herbs, garlic, lemon, etc.- so I tend to always have Vouvray and Dolcetto on hand, and they have never let me down. I would have gone with either one with this dish.

[Arey]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I'm looking forward to trying them instead of making do with whatevers already open. Like the White Queen's jam every other day, my wine and meals only get paired well every other day.

[fifithewinecat]

Okay Arey--

You got me hooked on this recipe, so I went to Everyday Food's website, but can't find the recipe. Can you post the rest of it? Or email me at fifi at cncnet dot com. Thanks!!!