These are the best wines to pair with your Sunday roast chicken
There are few things that signal the start of cosy season, quite like the aroma of a perfectly cooked roast chicken. With its crispy skin and salty juices, spending a Sunday cooking a high-welfare (preferably) organic chicken, is the ultimate act of love, and one best shared with friends or family.
There are countless different methods to achieve the perfect combination of succulent, tender meat and golden skin. You might favour the slow-start roast (whereby you pop your bird in a cold oven and turn frequently), the high heat technique to ensure a crispy skin, or perhaps you let your air fryer or slow cooker do all the hard work. Whichever your chosen approach, we firmly believe the experience will be elevated with the perfect glass of wine served alongside.
Of course, our recommended pairing will differ depending on what you’re serving your chicken with. A classic roast chicken, served simply in its own juices or a light gravy, alongside seasonable root veg, can happily take on white or red.
Best white wine to pair with roast chicken
One of the most obvious pairings (for good reason), is a beautifully oaked chardonnay. It’s worth spending a little more here and opting for quality – you want the oak to be balanced in taste and body, and not overpowering to the meal.
A buttery chardonnay from California such as Majestic’s Bread & Butter 'Winemaker's Selection' (£15.99) or a white burgundy would be ideal. Something like this Petit Chablis (£12.99) from Waitrose provides enough richness to work with the dark meat, and a freshness to cut through the fatty juices and crispy skin.
Another option would be Journey’s End Honeycomb Chardonnay (£10.50). This South African steal is just lightly oaked, with gentle peach and honey which will complement the roast itself, and the honeyed roast veg you might serve alongside. It’s not too acidic so won’t fight the soft flavour of the chicken, and would be particularly delicious with a light, lemony roast, such as this one-pot recipe with pancetta and orzo.
Or, if it's a special occasion, keep things closer to home, with the likes of Kent’s Chapel Down’s Kit’s Coty (£35), where you can expect notes of roasted hazelnuts, hints of butter and a long, satisfying finish. Or Gusbourne’s elegant Guinevere Twenty Twenty One Chardonnay (£35) with its creamy, toasted nose and well-rounded palate with flecks of sweet spice and baked orchard fruit. Both would be an elegant choice alongside the quintessential British dish.
Of course, bold, creamy oaked chardonnay can be divisive, so alternatively, Pasqua’s 'PassioneSentimento' (£12.99) is a cracking white for the job. It’s an Italian wine made using the “appassimento” method, which is normally reserved to create full-bodied reds. Here, however, a portion of the grapes are dried, resulting in a deliciously rich white with a lush, multi-layered texture. It also has a little time in oak for that all-important creaminess, alongside bold, tropical fruit and fresh citrus.
If you're serving your roast chook with a fruity, apricot-based stuffing, it's worth letting a boundary-pushing viognier such as Abbotts & Delaunay Les Fleurs Sauvages (£11.99) step up to the mark. Any leftovers that find themselves into a creamy curry will also be a treat with this rich white, which is a dream with lightly spiced food.
Best red wine to pair with roast chicken
And while white wine is often our first suggestion for roast chicken, as mentioned above, the right red wine can also work perfectly. If you’ve made a fuller-bodied gravy, we’d suggest leaning towards an elegant pinot noir, beaujolais or côtes-du-rhône. The Ned's 'Southern Valleys' Pinot Noir (£14.99) is an excellent fruit-forward style from New Zealand's Marlborough region. The slow-ripening fruit results in a concentrated, big bouquet of red berries, with a delicious silky soft finish.
Tomato-based dishes such as roast chicken served on blistered cherry tomatoes, would do well alongside a spicy Spanish garnacha. With notes of redcurrants and refreshing minerality, Fortnum & Mason’s Old Vine Garnacha (£19.50) would work well, whether served at room temperature or slightly chilled.
Best wine to pair with left over roast chicken
Personally, we think champagne is best reserved for fried chicken, as opposed to your classic roast. It’s the ultimate high-low pairing, and well worth considering if you have left-overs you’re planning to repurpose in a golden, crispy coating.
On the topic of leftovers, roasting a chicken on a Sunday can form the base for many meals throughout the week. One of our favourite work from home lunches or quick suppers is a spicy noodle soup, with salvaged shredded meat, picked clean from the carcass to avoid food waste. You can even freeze leftover cooked chicken and save it for a rainy day.
Here you could go for something a little more aromatic, like an off-dry riesling. Even if you don’t tend to enjoy sweeter wines, they just work so well with a touch of spice.
Best wine to serve with roast chicken in Summer
So far we’ve largely looked at winter-ready serving suggestions. However, in summer, I’m partial to serving my chicken spatchcocked, with an impossibly garlicky caesar salad.
There are few things I love more than leaves doused with lip-smackingly thick yoghurt dressing, full of salty anchovies, parmesan and mustard, topped with crunchy rosemary-spiked croutons. It never fails to go down well with guests, and if I feel like bulking it out, I might serve some crispy, crushed new potatoes on the side.
Here you’ll need a wine zesty enough to cut through the richness. You could go with a zingy albarino, such as Bowl Grabber’s excellent value vinho verde (£10.99), or a New Zealand sauvignon blanc. Alternatively rosé is also a great option, a classic Côtes de Provence will be heavenly in the sunshine.
Whichever way you choose to enjoy your roast chicken, hopefully these suggestions will serve you well. Cheers!
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