Drink This With Your McDonald's Filet-O-Fish For The Best Flavor Combo Money Can Buy

The Filet-O-Fish is an iconic fast food menu item that, despite being quite polarizing, will be a staple of the McDonald's menu for years to come. For this reason, knowing what complements the fish sandwich best could be the key to turning a mild admiration for the Filet-O-Fish into a menu item that you can't pass up. Tasting Table recently asked chefs what they thought about the Filet-O-Fish, and one major point of discussion was the fact that wine pairs quite well with the sandwich. More specifically, drinking a glass of chardonnay alongside the sandwich is a true match made in heaven that you desperately need to try.

Chef Bryce Palmer of Sequoia Grove Winery revealed this remarkable pairing to Tasting Table, noting that it's a much more obvious combination than some may think. "Fried fish and chardonnay have always worked well together, whether it's from a drive-thru or a seafood restaurant," Palmer says. "It sounds a little unexpected, but it really works." While you obviously won't be able to buy the wine from McDonald's (even in countries where the chain sells alcohol, it's exclusively beer), the combination is a tremendous choice for those who picked up a Filet-O-Fish to eat at home after a long day.

So, in the same way that tinned tuna pairs remarkably well with white wines like Marsanne-Roussanne, the Filet-O-Fish is the perfect dish to enjoy whenever you get your hands on a bottle of chardonnay. However, because not all chardonnays are the same, you can go even deeper and find the perfect style of the wine for the job. For starters, the aforementioned Tasting Table article noted that oaked chardonnays would be ideal because they taste good with the creamy tartar sauce that goes on top of the sandwich. Because oaky chardonnays go better with buttery, creamy foods — lobster tail and pan-seared scallops are two dishes the style of wine is often associated with — the Filet-O-Fish's rich qualities make it a prime candidate for the oak-aged drink.

However, some argue that it's actually lighter, unoaked chardonnays that are the best to drink alongside the McDonald's sandwich. One of the most noteworthy things to know about the Filet-O-Fish is that it's made of fresh Alaskan pollock, a fish that oaky chardonnays are generally seen as too rich for. As a result, unoaked wines — such as the ones made in the Chablis region of France — are seen by some as the best option. These styles of chardonnays have a crisp taste and enough acidity to counteract the greasiness the Filet-O-Fish is known for.

Static Media owns and operates Tasting Table and The Takeout.