It’s no secret that I love bacon. Bacon on pizza, bacon by itself, bacon bacon bacon. To this end, I am starting a weekly wine & bacon pairing feature, which was inspired by two recent events.
First, Wine Blogging Wednesday #53 had us pair wines with breakfast foods. The BBLT paired with The Spaniard was heavenly.
Second, I was put in touch with The Bacon Freak, who declares that bacon is meat candy. Since i happy to agree with this statement, we discussed my featuring his delicious dry cured & season rubbed bacons with some wine selections. Sign me up!
First up, I made an easy weeknight supper of Apple Cider Brown Sugar Chicken, which is wrapped in Cinnamon Apple Bacon.
To prepare this dish, take two boneless skinless chicken breasts. Rinse them off, and pat dry. Add the breasts to a glass baking dish. This is important because you don’t want the next ingredient reacting with the metal.
Pour 1/2 cup Apple Cider vinegar over the chicken. The vinegar keeps the chicken moist, and gives it a lovely apple flavor.
Now, take 4 strips of Baby Bubba’s Butcher Block Bacon – Apple Cinnamon, and lay 2 over each breast. you might need to tuck the ends under, so they stay on the chicken while baking. I chose the Apple Cinnamon bacon because it enhanceds the apple flavor of the chicken dish, and the Cinnamon is a natural companion for the brown sugar in the sauce.
Spread 3 Tablespoons of brown sugar over the chicken and bacon. The brown sugar will melt in to the vinegar, and create an amazing sauce. The bacon and vinegar will keep the chicken moist.
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes, depending on the size of your pieces. Just check after that time to make sure the chicken is done and the bacon is cooked. I serve this dish with a refreshing spinach salad, with a tangy dressing.
Now for the wine pairing! Because the chicken is a sweet dish, I needed to find a wine that would play off the sugar and apple flavors. I chose a Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir, because they tend to be big wines. This area also produces a bold fruit flavor in the Pinot Noirs, which pairs nicely with the apple and Cinnamon flavors in the Chicken. The fruit forwardness can be perceived as sweetness, which works in this case because when you pair a sweet with a sweet, they cancel each other out and you can realy taste the flavors in the food and the wine.
I forgot to take a picture before I ate it so next time, I’ll try to get that to you!
I hope you enjoy this dish and I look forward to hearing your experiments!
Next week: Jalepeno Bacon Cheese Popovers with Zinfandel, in celebration of ZAP! The Zinfandel Festival
