If you love a good chicken stir fry, you're going to LOVE this easy restaurant quality Bourbon Chicken! This recipe features crispy chicken breast covered in a delightfully sticky-sweet Bourbon sauce and is absolutely addicting! Serve over rice or with steamed or stir-fried veggies.
Make sure to read the recipe and blog post for tips to make this bourbon-free and kid-friendly!
Food court bourbon chicken
- Quick, easy stir fries
- Bourbon chicken from the food court or your favorite Chinese takeout place
- Food fusions that are absolutely delicious (hello tasty Bourbon sauce with hints of Asian stir fry flavors!)
- Flavorful sticky-sweet, just-slightly-spicy Asian bourbon sauce that stick to the chicken and make you go back for seconds
Ingredients for bourbon chicken
This recipe has a long list of ingredients, but don't be scared off! Once you have everything ready it comes together in under 25 minutes. Here's what you need:
- 3 pounds chicken breasts
- 4 tablespoons cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 cup chicken broth (use low-sodium if you prefer less salt)
- ⅔ cup soy sauce (use low-sodium if you prefer less salt)
- ⅓ cup apple juice
- ⅓ cup ketchup
- ¼ cup bourbon (use less if you're not sure you want all that bourbon flavor! Or use more (up to ⅓ cup) if you like 🙂 )
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Whoo boy! It sounds like a lot but it's really not so bad. And it's SO WORTH IT! If you're looking for a simpler boozy chicken recipe, try this honey rum chicken!
How to make bourbon chicken
This bourbon chicken recipe is super easy and has two main steps: browning the chicken and simmering the sauce.
Step 1. Start by chopping your chicken breasts into 1-inch pieces and coating them in 4 tablespoons of cornstarch tossed with salt and pepper. The cornstarch will help make the chicken crispy and will help thicken the bourbon sauce.
Step 2. Brown the cornstarch-covered chicken breast pieces on both sides in a skillet with oil. You might need to do this in two batches if you don't have a large skillet. Make sure your oil is hot to get a nice golden-brown coating instead of simply steaming the chicken!
Step 3. Make the Bourbon Sauce! Add the minced garlic to the skillet and sauté for about 30 seconds. Then add the rest of the ingredients and whisk in the cornstarch to make sure no clumps remain. Bring the mixture to a light boil, carefully add the chicken back in, and let the sauce simmer for about 10 minutes until it reduces in half.
Optional step: If you want to make a thicker sauce, almost like a bourbon chicken glaze, you can whisk an additional ½ - 1 tablespoon cornstarch with water and add it to the pot, to really thicken the sauce. Depending on how long you thicken it, it will turn almost into a BBQ bourbon sauce!
Questions about this recipe? I got answers!
What kind of bourbon to use for the sauce?
I've only used Jim Bean Bourbon for this recipe, I haven't tried it with others. If you try another one, let me know in a comment how it turned out!!
I imagine that any whisky or bourbon would work just fine in this recipe because bourbon is just one of the many flavors in this bourbon sauce and it gets cooked down a lot, so you will end up with a similar tasting sauce at the end whether you use a super high quality bourbon or a cheap bottle of whiskey. Now if you want to take a few sips of bourbon while cooking, that's a whole other story 😉
Want to make this without bourbon?
For a kid-friendly bourbon chicken sauce, just skip the bourbon and use more apple juice and a splash of Worcestershire sauce instead! You might be able to cut down on the sugar in this case because (1) you're adding a little extra apple juice and (2) you don't need as much sugar to balance the bourbon flavor.
Do I need to use that much sugar?
This sauce really comes out AMAZING because of its sticky-sweet flavor and texture, and the brown sugar really helps. Reducing the sugar can work but will result in a less flavorful sauce.
You can try substituting half of the brown sugar with honey if you like!
Is this recipe gluten-free?
Most bourbons are considered gluten-free because of the distillation process, however some can still cause trouble for people who cannot tolerate gluten (or alcohol!). If you're cooking for someone who is gluten-free, definitely check with them whether they are comfortable with bourbon!
And make sure to use gluten-free soy sauce instead of regular soy sauce!
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