What would adding wine (red or white?) do when cooking Vindaloo

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This is my first post, so please be gentle.

I am cooking chicken Vindaloo and I'm trying to get a bit creative. I have never heard of adding wine to vindaloo, however, I know that I like it in soups and stews. What would be the effect of adding 1/2-1 cup of red wine, and would the effect change if I added white wine instead?

Thanks for your input!

Recipe edit: The recipe was about 2 cups vindaloo paste simmered in coconut cream. I sauteed the chicken once I started seeing some red streaks of separating oil in the vindaloo/coconut cream mixture. Once the chicken (3 breasts cubed) was cooked on the surface, I added the mix to a slow cooker set to high. I then took the same pan and seared some small russet potatoes (silver dollar sized at most) cut longways in canola oil. Once the cut ends were a touch brown and crispy, I added them to the mix, as well as with whole mushrooms. I then thinned the mixture with the rest of the can of Coconut milk, as well as about 1 1/2 cups homemade chicken stock. After about 2-3 hours of slow cooking, I did end up adding a 1/4 cup Marsala wine. It came out very tasty.

Best Answer

Ah, wine. "I love cooking with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food."

Anywho, your experiment shows that the short answer is "it'll probably come out quite nice". Most of these things have been said in the comments, but here's a recap:

  • Alcohol is a solvent, and so wine will presumably help eke out flavours from the spice solids to the liquid. (Much like you can make e.g. vanilla extract with vodka.)
  • Wine is also acidic, and acid is a general flavour enhancer (a bit like salt).
  • Wines contain varying amounts of residual sugar (ranging all the way from "almost nothing" to "syrup") which also is a flavour enhancer.
  • Vindaloo is based on a Portuguese dish prominently featuring white wine and garlic, so why shouldn't it work?

As for red wine, drinking a highly tannic wine with chili-hot food increases the perceived heat, but on the other hand, I can't say I ever really feel the tannins in cooked red wine and my experiences with using red wine in spicy food have been rather positive.

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