So I have a recipe that calls for white wine and another that calls for cooking wine. Can any wine be used as a cooking wine, or is there some specific type of wine that's a cooking wine? Also, what would be the best type of white for the first recipe (a garlic-wine-chicken dish)?

I know more about cigars than the average layman (thanks in large part to my fellow inmates!), and I can talk beer til I'm blue in the face, but I know not the first thing about wine.
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The best advice I've had was "If it's not good enough to drink, it's not good enough to cook with" I use what we have to drink at the time. Not much help, but it's always worked for me.
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Don't ever buy anything that refers to itself on the bottle as cooking wine. That stuff is nasty, salty stuff.

Just buy a ~$5 bottle of white wine and you should be good to go, something like a Sauvignon Blanc.
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:-)
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Don't cook with anything you wouldn't drink, just get a white wine and cook with it :-)
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A glass for me, a glass for the pan :-)
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That's the variety I would pick for that recipe. I would open something good, use some for the recipe, then drink the rest with dinner.
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You have gotten all the good advise you need already, brother. I'll just add that so-called "cooking wine" is deliberately salty, in order to dissuade people from drinking it. Here in our store we keep a few bottles of cheap ($5.00) sherry and marsala for cooking, but they can also be drunk . . . as can thereby the cook. :-)

Look at it this way: You can always add salt to a dish, but it's harder to take it out. :-)
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Ended up picking up Sauvignon Blanc as per an earlier recommendation. Thanks for the advice yall! :-)
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if you have a Trader Joe's near you I would pick up a bottle of 2 or 3 buck chuck, its not something that I would necessarily drink but its perfectly suitable for cooking and a heck of a lot better than cooking wine.
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Good wine to cook with out having to spend too much just for cooking wine.
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Two buck chuck is amazing for cooking, and not half bad for drinking
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