Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken Thighs is a flavorful, savory chicken recipe that is easy to prepare! Serve the BBQ chicken thighs directly on your plate, or shred it as a filling for chicken enchiladas or tacos. We enjoyed this chicken recipe with a red wine from the Jura region of France; and more recently served it with a Chardonnay.

slow cooker BBQ chicken thights served with baked pasta, Brussels sprouts and red wine. — *BBQ Chicken Thighs, baked pasta with Comte & sprouts served with a Trousseau red wine*

Our meal plan this past Sunday definitely started with the wine in mind.

I was planning to open a Trousseau from the Jura to get ready for today #winophiles event, where I join my fellow French Winophiles in exploring the region that lies between Burgundy and the Swiss border. I’m happy to host today’s event; visit my preview post Exploring Jura Wines, for more background on the region.

Trousseau is red wine from the Jura that tends to be light in body. My limited experience sipping Trousseau has me associating the wine with a nuanced, sometimes funky flavor profile resulting from the cool climate and natural winemaking techniques.

Previously, I’ve enjoyed Trousseau paired with pork dishes. A few years back, a bottle of it went quite nicely with this Pulled Pork with Cabbage and Bacon recipe.

*Pulled Pork with Cabbage and Bacon, paired with a Trousseau*

About today’s recipe

For today’s event, I decided to go for slowly cooked chicken rather than pork.

I’d cooked up this Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken Thighs recipe several weeks ago, and it came out quite well. I was ready to make it again to get the recipe details down and grab some pictures.

slow cooker BBQ chicken thighs served with pasta and Brussels sprouts.

I find chicken thighs are a good option when looking for a chicken dish that can do well with a slower cooking method, be it a braise or the slow cooker.

This recipe uses a blend of condiments and spices that I find impart a nice barbecue flavor without opening up a jar of store bought barbecue sauce. Don’t get me wrong, we do that occasionally, including for our highly popular Boneless Baked Pork Ribs recipe.

Trousseau is definitely a red wine that won’t overpower a chicken dish. I also suspected the wine flavor profile I anticipated would go well with the chicken.

But for planning a pairing, we also need to consider what else is on our plate.

What to serve with this recipe

We first opened the Trousseau we picked up for today’s event with a few pieces of Comte cheese, which hails from the Jura region.

Trousseau red wine with Comte cheese plate. — *Tissot Trousseau paired with Comte cheese.*

As you might expect, this wine and cheese combination worked nicely!

I decided to stick with the Comte cheese when planning the side dishes for the BBQ chicken thighs. I featured some shredded Comte along with a bit of other cheese for a quick baked pasta dish.

The simple baked pasta and cheese was a nice accompaniment to the flavorful chicken, with the BBQ sauce seeping over to the pasta to give it some extra flavor.

We also had a big bunch of Brussels sprouts on hand, so made something along the lines of this Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts recipe from Crunchy Creamy Sweet. Another tasty on the plate bringing more complex flavors to the meal!

So how did our wine pairing work with all this happening on our plate?

Jura Wine Pairing

You have your easy sipping wines. Then there are those that you need to sip slow and think about to appreciate. Wines in slow sipping category often are best enjoyed with a good food pairing. The Trousseau we are talking about today falls into this camp.

We tried several local shops without luck finding a Jura Trousseau. Then we got in touch with Gordon’s Fine Wine in Waltham, MA, and they actually had several from which to choose!

BBQ Chicken Thighs with a red wine from France. — *Tissot Trousseau served with BBQ Chicken Thighs, baked pasta and Brussels sprouts*

I went with the shop’s suggestion, and opened the 2017 Tissot Arbois Trousseau Singuleir ($45, 13.5% ABV) to pair with our BBQ Chicken Thighs and sides. The wine is from Bénédicte & Stéphane Tissot.

This Tissot Trousseau is very light red in the glass — almost a translucent dark pink when holding up to the light.

On the nose, berries and rustic barnyard notes.

Cranberry fruit on the palate along with a notable funky element. Red licorice on the finish. Light body, medium acidity. I will circle back to do a bit more research, but the French terms on the label that I can translate indicates this is an unfiltered wine, made without any additives.

The Trousseau is definitely a food wine. The light body and fruit complements the chicken, and the various flavors including the funkiness work with with the barbecue flavor, and also pick up the roasted Brussels sprouts.

A very good pairing, and definitely solidifies my impression of Trousseau as a good wine for slowly cooked meat and poultry dishes with layers of flavor that come from that cooking method.

White wine option

Back of a Hook & Ladder Chardonnay bottle along with a glass of the wine.

For a recent remake of the BBQ chicken thighs, we opened a bottle of the 2022 Russian River Valley Spider Web Ranch Chardonnay ($25, 14.5% ABV) from Hook & Ladder. I got this as a deal from Wine Spies – here’s a link to try that program with $20 off your first order.

The Spider Web Ranch is a very well-made Chardonnay with subtle oak and butter notes, along with lemon fruit. Enjoyed sipping this on its own, and with the BBQ Chicken Thighs. We also had a side of Pasta with Red Lentils and Ginger on the plate, which also goes well with the Chardonnay.

Recipe card