My favorite memory of fried chicken is eating it on a summer day on a picnic table behind a gas station somewhere in Kentucky. On the table were a pitcher each of sweet tea and lemonade, natch. Great fried chicken is a perfect food: the crisp coating wakes up your palate, the steaming meat makes good on the promise and the fat acts almost like a sauce. Lemonade and sweet tea make sense as accompaniments—but we aren’t eating behind a gas station anymore.
Among wine lovers, one match is universally held to be self-evident: sparkling wine and fried chicken are just beautiful together. The scene-y new restaurant Coqodaq, a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence winner, has built its entire menu around premium Korean–style fried chicken and Champagne. Its growing wine list debuted with around 400 selections of the premier sparkling wine on offer to complement the salty, spicy chicken. Needless to say, the place is packed nightly.
Just about every time Wine Spectator has published a fried chicken recipe, we have matched it with bubbles. Aldo Sohm, beverage director at Wine Spectator Grand Award winner Le Bernardin and his Aldo Sohm Wine Bar next door, picked the pairing for the tasting-party menu he created for us in 2020.
Why Are Fried Chicken and Bubbly Such a Great Match?
Champagne is so food-friendly that it seems almost like cheating to recommend it as a match here. But fried chicken has specific needs. It is fatty, crispy and salty and can be either white and dark meat. Other whites can be perfectly good pairings, but few handle all three of those characteristics as well as sparkling wine. Sohm points out that “sparkling wine has sugar. The bubbles cut through the fat. The sugar kind of coats the fat, a little bit like foie gras. You take something that is typically a little heavy and you give it shine and brighten it up.” The full effect is that, together, they are appetizing, substantial and then refreshing.
For variety, you can use different breading, emphasize dark or white meat, add varying degrees of spice, soak the chicken in buttermilk before frying or smother it in gravy or sauce before serving. But whether you’re making it Southern style or Korean style, in the end, the effect is not very different. (Sohm’s chef does brine the pieces, which can lend a slightly herbaceous flavor, but no one will complain if you skip that step.)
Sohm is a big advocate for quality and character across the sparkling-wine category. He excitedly serves Prosecco, cava, another Spanish wine made from Hondarrabi Zuri (the key grape in Txakolina) and, of course, Champagne, among others. Each has what it takes to work with the chicken, but each also has its own distinctive character so may accentuate different elements of the chicken and please different palates. Open a couple of bottles and taste back and forth to see what you enjoy most. (Anyway, as any event planner will tell you, people drink about twice as much sparkling wine than table wine at parties.)
Our Editors’ Recommended Sparkling Wines
You don’t need to shell out the big bucks for bubbly to enjoy with fried chicken. Skip the prestige cuvées and opt for a non-vintage wine, a category in which you can find excellent quality for prices below $60.
• From California’s Mendocino County, the Roederer Estate Brut Anderson Valley NV (released in 2024) (93 points, $32), made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, is vibrant yet sleekly elegant, with rich strawberry and apple flavors accented by spice and yeasty notes.
• From Italy’s Lombardy region of Franciacorta, where sparkling wine is made using the traditional method, just like in Champagne, Bellavista Extra Brut Franciacorta Alma Assemblage 1 NV (2025) (93, $40) is refined, with well-honed acidity and subtle salinity framing flavors of white cherry, yellow plum, lemon peel, pickled ginger and toasted brioche. Minerals and spices play on the lingering finish of this blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Nero (Pinot Noir) and Pinot Bianco (Pinot Blanc).
• The vivacious Gaston Chiquet Brut Champagne Tradition NV (2024) (92, $53)—a Pinot Meunier–forward blend with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir—balances well-cut acidity with notes of ripe black cherry and blackberry paste, lemon peel, biscuit and white blossoms, with a mineral-driven finish.
Find more recommended sparkling wines in our Wine Ratings Search.
Recipe: How to Make Aldo Sohm Wine Bar’s Fried Chicken
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup fine sea salt
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup champagne vinegar
- 6 garlic cloves
- 8 thyme sprigs
- 8 oregano sprigs
- One 3- to 4-pound chicken, cut into 8 to 10 pieces
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Fine sea salt and freshly ground white pepper, to taste
- Canola oil
Preparation
1. Combine sea salt, sugar, vinegar, garlic, thyme and oregano with 8 quarts water in a large pot. Stir well to dissolve the salt and sugar, then add the chicken pieces. Cover pot with a tight-fitting lid and transfer to the refrigerator to chill overnight.
2. Remove the pot from the refrigerator. Transfer the chicken pieces to paper towels and pat dry.
3. In a large bowl, add the flour, cornstarch, cayenne and a large pinch each of salt and white pepper. Stir to combine. Add the chicken pieces and coat well. Shake off excess flour and transfer chicken pieces to a baking sheet or wire rack.
4. Place a large, high-sided skillet or Dutch oven on the stove and add 3 to 4 inches of canola oil. Heat over medium until a candy thermometer registers 350° F.
5. Using kitchen tongs, carefully add as many chicken pieces as will fit with room between them, skin side down, to the pan. The oil should cool to 325° F. Adjust the heat as needed to maintain the temperature. Cook the chicken until golden-brown, turning every 5 minutes, for about 25 minutes total. (Smaller pieces will cook more quickly.) Remove chicken from the pot and transfer to a wire rack set over paper towels. Sprinkle with fine sea salt and freshly ground white pepper. Repeat with remaining pieces. Serves 4.
Other Recipe Variations on Fried Chicken
Thomas Keller’s Buttermilk Fried Chicken
The famed chef behind The French Laundry and Per Se makes his buttermilk fried chicken deeply flavorful through a multifaceted brine and careful seasoning at each step. This recipe, featured in and adapted from Fried & True: More Than 50 Recipes for America’s Best Fried Chicken and Sides by Lee Brian Schrager and Adeena Sussman (Clarkson Potter, 2014), produces chicken that is great served warm or chilled and, of course, paired with a sparkling wine.
Southern Fried Chicken with Creamy Gravy
No discussion of fried chicken would be complete without mentioning this classic version from the U.S. South, which starts with a whole fresh chicken so you can have all the best pieces of the bird. For anyone who wants an alternative to bubbly, a lively rosé wine would also be a great option as a match.
Northern Fried Chicken with Wasabi Honey
With the South’s strong hold on fried chicken, someone was bound to come up with a Northern counterpart, and this spicy version comes courtesy of chefs Bruce and Eric Bromberg of New York City–based Blue Ribbon Restaurants, which includes a fried-chicken spot in the East Village. If you must have a red wine with your meal, the chefs recommended a big, jammy wine, such as a Syrah or Rhône-style blend; enjoyed together, both the food and wine open up, expressing more sweet spice.
