Paired Up: Cabernet Sauvignon and Chunky Chicken Chili

In our Paired Up posts, we review a wine and the food we wisely (or foolishly) paired it with. 

The Wine

2007 Januik Cabernet Sauvignon

We got this bottle of Januik Cabernet Sauvignon back in April during our visit to the winery. It's been laying in our wine rack since then, just waiting for the right moment. We chose it for this meal because, well, why not? We really just wanted to drink a Cab; this Cab was lying there. Yes, sometimes it really is that simple! It decanted for an hour or so before we tasted it.

The Food

Hunter stayed out of the ki... wait, no. This was Hunter's creation. In the chef's words:

As I mentioned in our Pasta with Meat Sauce post, my skills are limited. I also noted that the skills I acquired to make the meat sauce had their origins in chili. This chili is a bit of a departure from the standard, but substituting chicken breast in for ground beef isn't too much of a stretch and we had some chicken to use.

There are a lot of ingredients here, so I'm going to just list them out in standard recipe form. Keep in mind that this inevitably ends up as an on-the-fly kind of recipe, so keep your spice rack handy to throw on whatever else is needed. This recipe makes 6 or so bowls.

• 1 lb chicken breast
• 6 strips bacon
• 1 c onion
• 3/4 c green pepper
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/3 c celery
• 1 1-lb can tomatoes
• 2 1-lb cans red beans
• 1 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tsp chili powder
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 cloves
• 1/3 c catsup
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 tsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp cinnamon 

I also threw in a couple dashes of habanero sauce and Dave's Insanity Sauce, because more spice is always good, and because I forgot to get any peppers other than the green bell pepper when we were shopping. But that's later. The first thing to do is chop up the onion, pepper, garlic and celery. Or have your lovely assistant do it while you cut the chicken into bite-size chunks.

When everything is prepped, throw the strips of bacon in a pan and fry them up. When they're done, make sure to try a little bit to make sure it's ok. You know, maybe just a strip or 3 to sustain you while you cook this meal. Now set the bacon aside, because you're probably going to want at least some of it to end up in the chili.

Throw some spices on the chicken - I used garlic salt, chili powder, pepper and cayenne - then put it in the greasy pan. When the chicken is about done, add in the onions, pepper, garlic, and celery. Sauté everything together until the onions are translucent, then dump it in a Crock-Pot. Tear up the bacon and add it in, then get to opening up those cans. Be sure to drain the beans before adding them to the mix, but the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce can go in as-is.

Finally, add in the salt, chili powder, bay leaves, cloves, catsup, lemon juice, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, ground cloves, and cinnamon. Give that a good mix and let the Crock-Pot do its thing.

Oh, and when you remember that you forgot to buy the spicy peppers, add in the habanero sauce and Insanity sauce. Or maybe just add them in anyway. Your call.

While it's in the Crock-Pot, go ahead and stir it a few times. It's not strictly necessary, but it is definitely fun to check it out and give it a whiff every so often. A few hours later, your home will smell fantastic and you will be hungry. Put the chili in a bowl (try to keep an eye out for cloves and bay leaves and remove any you find), sprinkle some cheese on top, get your favorite chili side (we took the easy way out and bought some cornbread), and enjoy!

Hunter's Gatherings

The wine is a glass-staining purple-ruby. There is a bit of a residual alcohol smell that fades after some time, yielding to anise, black currants, violet and a little barnyard funk. The alcohol gives a little burn on tasting, but the flavors are nice, with fennel prevalent throughout. It is very juicy on the attack and runs a nice course of drying tannins in the mid-palate before a sweetening finish that ultimately gets the mouth watering. 85

When paired with the chili it exploded on contact, separating out the flavors of the food. It had an overall sweetening effect on the chili, making it a much different experience. The best part of it, though, was that it picked up the tasty burn of the chili and carried it into the nose and down the throat.  

Katy's Take

This is a truly deep, dark pour! With moderate aromas of dark, chocolately fruits, a tinge of sweet grass... it was nearly comparable to that scent of a first rain on cement. All in all, a bit elusive but very pleasant. The taste was medium sweet, with a very well structured, smooth attack that crescendoed to a lively sneak-like attack on the sides of the tongue, before calming back down and leaving with a subtle nod. 87 

Way to go us for making chili fancy! The wine did things that really made the meal shine. It added sweetness to balance out the spicy heat, while the cloves of the chili almost caramelized the entire food mix, which served to help all of the various flavors in the chili to shine through and actually be tasted. I would say that the pairing actually made Hunter's award-wining chili a little more tasty, and allowed the wine to achieve much greater heights. 

The Conclusion

This pairing was a very nice surprise, especially after the stand-alone tasting. The bite of the wine, rather than creating an unpleasant burn, gave it the ability to highlight the spices and flavors of the chili. The burn it did give just served to enhance that of the chili, simultaneously imparting some welcome sweetness. In the end, it was another successful pairing, and we didn't even miss those peppers that were left off the shopping list.