Recommendations

Pollo al ajillo with Tío Pepe Fino

In the pan lies chicken in pieces, dredged in flour and fried hard, with five cloves of garlic confited in their skins and a sauce of lemon, stock and sherry. The fino sets a pale, dry wine against that, which has the same origin as the splash in the pan.

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From the shelf

The bottle

Tío Pepe comes from the bodega of González Byass in Jerez de la Frontera and is a fino of one hundred percent palomino fino. The wine ages biologically under the velo de flor, the yeast layer that seals the wine from the air and consumes alcohol and glycerine during ageing; the house keeps it for at least four years in botas of American oak in the solera y criaderas system, in which younger wine continually refreshes older wine. The Consejo Regulador permits 15 to 18 percent alcohol for fino, and in practice it is usually 15 percent. This bottle is at 15 percent and comes in 75 centilitres.

Tío Pepe Fino

The combination

Why this works together

Pollo al ajillo has three things that call for a dry wine. The chicken has been dusted in flour and fried hard in olive oil, so there is fat and a roasted crust; the acidity and the 15 percent alcohol of the fino carry that fat away and the acetaldehyde from the years under the flor connects with the crust. The garlic is confited in its skin and therefore sweet and soft instead of sharp, and a wine without residual sweetness lets that soft sweetness stand out instead of drowning it. The third is the sauce itself, deglazed with lemon juice and a splash of dry sherry: the wine in the glass and the wine in the pan come from the same region and the same grape, so the bridge is already in the dish. The Consejo expressly mentions white meat with salty and sour accents for fino.

At the table

The dish

  • For 4 people
  • Ready in 40 minutes
  • Type main course

What you need

  • 1.5 kg chicken, chopped into pieces by the butcher
  • 5 garlic cloves with skin, plus 2 cloves peeled and sliced
  • wheat flour for dredging
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • 10 ml lemon juice
  • 500 ml chicken stock
  • 150 ml dry sherry
  • 1 bay leaf
  • salt and pepper

How to make it

  1. Heat olive oil in a wide pan and fry the five unpeeled garlic cloves until lightly roasted. Take them out of the pan and set them aside.
  2. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper, dredge them through the flour and shake off the excess.
  3. Fry the chicken in the same pan over high heat until nicely browned all over. Then spoon some of the oil out of the pan.
  4. Pour in the lemon juice and turn the pieces over, so that they all come into contact with it.
  5. Add the chicken stock, the two peeled cloves in slices and the bay leaf. Let everything boil for about fifteen minutes, until almost all the stock has evaporated.
  6. Add the dry sherry and bring it to the boil once more.
  7. Place the chicken on a dish with the confit cloves alongside. Scrape up the browned bits with a wooden spatula and pour that sauce over the chicken.

In the glass

Serving

Serve this fino at 6 to 8 degrees according to the Consejo Regulador, or slightly colder; in its own guidelines the Consejo uses 5 to 7 degrees. Use a catavinos or white wine glass of about 200 milliliters, filled to a third. Keep the short shelf life in mind: an opened fino keeps well for about a week in the fridge with the bottle closed. If you use a splash from the same bottle for the sauce, that is a good reason to finish the rest in the same week.

Everything about Tío Pepe FinoBack to Recommendations from ’t Bockje

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