DFH Pangaea + Thai-Style Grilled Chicken

Perhaps my favorite dish that I make is Thai-Style Grilled Chicken.  (Note: if you really want the recipe, you can get a free trial from Cook’s Illustrated on their website).  If you’re into grilling, I highly recommend getting a copy of The Cook’s Illustrated Guide to Grilling and Barbeque, which has this and many other excellent grilling recipes, grilling techniques, and food science.  A while back I paired this delectable dish with a bottle of Dogfish Head Pangaea.

My Thai Chicken didn't look quite this good.

Fortunately, I wrote my thoughts down so I can now share them here, prompted, of course, by Danner’s review of his recent Pangaea pairing.

I poured the libation from its “dinner-sized” bottle into oversized goblets.  It was brassy copper with a thin white head. For those who don’t know, Pangaea is so named because it uses ingredients from all of the major continents.  The conglomerated beverage smelled of sweet candied ginger, coriander, pepper, and lemon zest. It tasted equally ginger-y, coriander-y, and peppery, although the ginger came through less sweet and more spicy.  Each continent made its bold representation.  I think I could even taste the clean Antarctic water in there too…(right).  As I got toward the end of the glass the ginger and pepper came through even more, almost to the point of being too spicy! I found Pangaea to be very drinkable with the thai-styled chicken which had cilantro, lime, red pepper, coriander, fish sauce, ginger, garlic, and pepper on it. The sesame soy mushrooms and sugar snap peas that we had on the side were neither a good nor a bad pairing with the Belgian-style ale. However, the lemon in the coconut tofu soup matched the little bit of lemon in the aroma nicely.

Tags: Chicken, Dogfish Head, Ginger, Grilling, Pangea