14 Delightful White Wine Recipes to Make Now
Bright and buttery white wines are the perfect match for plenty of dishes, but cooking with white wine can be even better. Delicious pastas, dishes with mussels, clams, and oysters, and plenty of chicken recipes are made even better when you add wine. Chicken thighs with white wine sauce, buttery pasta with clams, or brothy mussels make for the perfect dish with Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio. Read on for some of our favorite ways to cook with white wine.
Coq au Riesling
In this creamy take on coq au vin, the chicken is braised in dry Riesling and silky-rich crème fraîche is stirred in at the end, making it extra-decadent.
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Poached Salmon with Corn and White Wine-Butter Sauce
Poaching fish in wine is an easy way to infuse it with subtle flavor. To prevent seasoning from washing off, serve the salmon with a sprinkling of coarse salt.
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Sauvignon Blanc-Steamed Mussels with Garlic Toasts
A crisp, citrusy Sauvignon Blanc, such as Indaba, would be great in these mussels and to drink with them.
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Roasted Peaches with Mascarpone Ice Cream
Chef Daniel Humm infuses roasted peaches with honey-rosemary syrup and displays a strong Italian influence by using mascarpone in this ice cream.
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Zesty Braised Chicken with Lemon and Capers
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Seared Scallops with Pinot Gris Butter Sauce
Chef Hugh Acheson flavors shallots with butter and Pinot Gris to create a sauce for scallops: "Pinot Gris loves shellfish," he says.
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Saffron Risotto
One of the classic ingredients in this risotto is bone marrow ... not generally something most people have in their larder. But Snake River Farms, one of America's great meat purveyors, solves that problem. They package and sell dry-aged beef fat, called Chef's Gold. The flavor is rich and complex, and you can store it in your freezer. And it whips into the risotto just like the butter most recipes call for at the end of cooking. It's an excellent stand-in for marrow in this dish.
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Pork Loin Roast with Caramelized Onions and White Wine–Dijon Sauce
It's important to make sure that the pork roast has enough air circulating around it (especially underneath) as it cooks, so use a roasting pan fitted with a rack to elevate the meat as it cooks.
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Slow-Roasted Lamb Shoulder with Shallots and White Wine
Pre-salting the lamb (the longer the better) will deepen its flavor and increase moisture and tenderness in the meat. Afterward, a simple sear then braise renders fork-tender shreds of meat. A spoonful of garlicky gremolata heightens those long-cooked flavors.
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Baked Clams with Bacon and Garlic
This ultimate version of baked clams has chopped clams in the filling, doubling down on briny clam flavor. Bacon, parsley, lemon and a touch of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese add a savory, herby kick.
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Chicken with Roasted-Garlic Pan Sauce
This dish is inspired by the rotisserie chicken and sauce from El Asador de Nati in Córdoba. The base for the rich, extremely flavorful pan sauce comes from the chicken pan drippings and a whole head of luscious roasted garlic.
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Summer Squash Gratin
Laura Rege puts abundant summer squash and zucchini to good use in this beautiful and very simple gratin, which gets fantastic flavor from white wine, leeks and Gruyère cheese.
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Linguine with Red Clam Sauce
Pasta tossed with plenty of chopped clams, garlic, and tomato sauce is an iconic Italian-American dish. Here, a few simple touches enhance that homestyle taste: A dose of anchovies boost the savory taste of the clams, herby vermouth stands in for dry white wine (although you could use either), and a touch of butter tossed in at the end unites the pasta and sauce in a truly magical way.
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Rustic Garlic Chicken
Yes, three heads of garlic. You don't have to peel the cloves first. They soften during cooking and take on a subtle sweetness. Each person squeezes the garlic out of its skin onto the plate to eat with the chicken.