We live about 30 minutes from an outlet mall, so we go there more often than we should. Becca absolutely loves the bourbon chicken at the Chinese restaurant in the food court, and I have made special trips to the mall just to get the chicken!
Most of the recipes out there are either attempts to copy the New Orleans original (this is really nothing like that) or some sort of barbecue type sauce.
After much tinkering, trial and error I finally came up with a recipe that is nearly identical (close enough) to what is served at our food court. We love it, I hope you do too.
If your house is like ours, there are probably some General Tso’s fans sitting next to the Bourbon Chicken fans. You can find my General Tso’s copycat recipe here. You might also want to try some of my delicious and easy homemade egg rolls.
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The full recipe card is at the bottom of this post, but I’ll walk you through the process with pictures. If you just want the recipe, scroll down.
Cut the chicken thighs into 1 inch pieces, and remove any excess fat or skin.
In a small bowl combine the ginger, pepper, soy sauce, whisky (or apple juice), water, garlic, vinegar and brown sugar. Set aside.
In a large saute pan or skillet heat the oil on medium high heat.
Add the chicken and cook until the juices have cooked off and the chicken starts to brown, about 8-10 minutes. Stir the chicken every 1-2 minutes so it doesn’t burn and browns evenly.
Add the bourbon mixture and stir well. Allow the liquid to come to a boil and then turn the heat down to medium. Simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes. Don’t rush this as you want the alcohol to cook off from the whiskey.
Add in the cornstarch/water liquid and stir briskly. The sauce will thicken quickly. (If the sauce doesn’t thicken up for you disolve another Tbsp of cornstarch in 2 Tbsp of water and stir that in)
1/4 tsp black pepper (I used 4 turns on the pepper mill)
1/3 Cup soy sauce
1/3 Cup Bourbon (or whatever brown whiskey you have sitting around. Dark rum would probably work too). If you don’t keep alcohol in your house you can substitute apple juice or cranberry juice. If you use juice, use a little less brown sugar. It really is delicious with just apple juice and no Bourbon.
1/2 Cup water
1 Tbsp rice vinegar (white wine vinegar or plain white vinegar would do if you don’t have rice vinegar)
1/2 Cup brown sugar, tightly packed
1 Tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 3 Tbsp cold water
Cut the chicken thighs into 1 inch pieces, and remove any excess fat or skin.
In a small bowl combine the ginger, pepper, soy sauce, whisky, water, garlic, vinegar and brown sugar. Set aside.
In a large saute pan or skillet heat the oil on medium high heat.
Add the chicken and cook until the juices have cooked off and the chicken starts to brown, about 8-10 minutes. Stir the chicken every 1-2 minutes so it doesn’t burn and browns evenly.
Add the bourbon mixture and stir well. Allow the liquid to come to a boil and then turn the heat down to medium. Simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes. Don’t rush this as you want the alcohol to cook off from the whiskey.
Add in the cornstarch liquid and stir briskly. The sauce will thicken quickly.
Serve over rice.
If you don’t have or don’t want to use whiskey in this recipe simply substitute apple juice. The taste is nearly identical. You may use chicken breast in place of chicken thighs, but the food court in my area definitely uses thighs.
The sauce is a combination of garlic, ginger, chicken stock, bourbon, soy sauce, and brown sugar. Three tablespoons of apple cider vinegar also goes in for added extra tang. At first It will look like A LOT of sauce, but it cooks down and reduces nicely.
Is bourbon chicken the same as teriyaki chicken? The two chicken dishes have a lot of similarities, both sauces use soy sauce as a key ingredient. But, at the end of the day, they are distinctly different. Bourbon chicken is an umami bomb that features sweet, nutty, toasty, and spiced notes.
Why Is It Called Bourbon Chicken? Bourbon chicken is named after Bourbon Street in New Orleans (that's also why the “Bourbon” in Bourbon chicken” is capitalized). As the story goes, the dish was popularized in a Chinese restaurant that was located on Bourbon Street.
Vanilla extract and apple cider vinegar have often been used to mimic the taste of bourbon in recipes, but you can clearly tell when they are used as substitutes.
Panda's new Blazing Bourbon Chicken combines Southern American tradition with Taiwanese-style popcorn chicken, all amped up by the inclusion of "Hot Ones" spiciest sauce, Last Dab Apollo.
It can if you want it to, but bourbon chicken is actually named after Bourbon Street in New Orleans, so no need to buy any bourbon at all. If you want to add bourbon, just swap it for half of the apple cider.
Cattlemen's® Kentucky Bourbon® BBQ Sauce blends the smooth flavors of oaky bourbon, sweet molasses and warm, signature spices with a thick and rich tomato paste for a bold and smoky sauce that delivers regional character and consistent performance to your recipes.
For zero-proof bourbon chicken that'll have even the most diehard fans fooled, skip the bourbon and simply add an extra ¼ cup of chicken stock or apple juice (which might have been included in your pan sauce recipe anyway).
Bring it to a simmer and continue cooking until the sauce thickens. The heat will cook off any alcohol content from the bourbon making it safe to eat for children.
Bourbon chicken is a dish named after Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, and for the bourbon whiskey ingredient. The dish is commonly found at North American restaurants serving Cajun-themed or American Chinese cuisine.
Rule #1 –To be called bourbon, it must be made in the United States. (Crown Royal is Canadian, and doesn't , so that's definitely not bourbon.) Rule #2 – Bourbon must be made from a fermented mash of at least 51% corn. (Anyone else thinking of the old TV Show “Moonshiners” right about now?)
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), baked or simmered dishes that contain alcohol will retain 40% of the original amount after 15 minutes of cooking, 35% after 30 minutes and 25% after an hour. But there's no point at which all of the alcohol disappears.
The name of the dish is thought to reference the bourbon in the sauce, but food historians believe Bourbon Chicken originated in a Chinese restaurant on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. It has become a popular restaurant take-out dish that is commonly found in shopping mall food courts across the nation.
All barbecue cooks have their own "secret sauce," but for the most part, each relies on some sort of sugar, something acidic like vinegar, fat – typically butter – and something else to make it special. This sauce uses molasses, lemon juice, bourbon and Worcestershire sauce as its main flavors.
Roughly speaking: Beer cheese sauce, bourbon caramel and other sauces brought to a boil and then removed from the heat typically retain about 85 percent of the alcohol. Diane, cherries jubilee and other recipes that flame the alcohol may still have 75 percent of the alcohol.
Savory bourbon sauce for grilled and smoked meats are made with bourbon, brown sugar, worcestershire sauce, and spices. And has notes of caramelized sugar and smoky flavors. Does bourbon sauce have alcohol? Yes, bourbon sauce has alcohol, but the alcohol cooks out as the sauce cooks.
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