Bourbon chicken is a favorite for many. For all of you sauce lovers out there, including my daughter Sarah, this saucy bourbon chicken dish will have you swooning over every bite of chicken and sauce-soaked rice.
What is Bourbon Chicken?
Bourbon chicken is a kind of Cajun and Asian hybrid dish that’s evolved over the years in Chinese take-out restaurants and local mall food courts. Recipes vary, but it is most loved for its sweet and sticky sauce and pure comfort food feel.
In fact, bourbon chicken is neither particularly Cajun nor Asian. It seems like a distinctly American creation, fusing multiple cultures in a particular time and place.
Cooking Tips
Although this bourbon chicken recipe is super-easy to make, there are a few factors that will make your home cooked version especially delicious:
- Don’t ignore the quick marinating process––it’s essential for a juicy and flavorful bourbon chicken.
- Make sure you’re using high enough heat to really sear the chicken, which will give it a nice fried flavor without deep frying.
- Be sure to allow enough time to cook off the alcohol after adding the bourbon.
- Use the sauce to deglaze and “clean” the sides of the wok, where a lot of the flavor is.
- Make enough rice to soak up all that sweet and savory bourbon chicken sauce!
Trust me on this, everyone will gobble up this bourbon chicken, so let’s get into how to make it!
Bourbon Chicken Recipe: Instructions
Start by marinating the chicken. Mix 3 tablespoons water and 1 teaspoon soy sauce with the chicken chunks, working it with your hands until the chicken has absorbed all of the liquid. Adding water and soy sauce to the chicken (especially true if using chicken breast) results in a moist and tender chicken experience!
Once the chicken has absorbed the liquid, mix 2 teaspoons of cornstarch into the chicken until well combined and set aside. For more information and preparing chicken for stir fries, see Bill’s post on Chicken velveting 101.
Mix the sauce ingredients by combining the soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice vinegar, dark brown sugar, chicken stock or water, sesame oil and white pepper and set aside.
Heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a wok or large frying pan on high heat until just smoking, and spread the chicken evenly. Let the chicken sear on one side for 1 minute.
Use a metal wok spatula (you can also use a rubber spatula if you can’t use metal utensils on your pan) to turn the chicken and sear another minute. Turn off the heat and move the seared chicken to a plate. Set aside.
Return the wok to medium heat and immediately add the ginger (if using), garlic, and minced onion.
Stir-fry for 20 seconds or until the onion is translucent, taking care not to burn the mixture.
Stir in the bourbon to deglaze the wok, most all of the alcohol will cook off leaving the flavor behind. After 30 seconds or so, pour in the sauce mixture and stir to further deglaze the sides of the wok.
Once the sauce comes to a simmer, add the chicken back to the wok.
Stir until the sauce comes back to a simmer and gradually stir in the cornstarch and water mixture (stir it up first, as the cornstarch may have settled).
Continue to stir and cook until the sauce has thickened enough to coat a spoon.
At this point, you can remove the smashed piece of ginger or warn your guests so there are no surprises! Stir in the scallions.
And serve with steamed white rice!
Bourbon Chicken
Ingredients
For the chicken:
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs or chicken breast (cut into 1-inch chunks)
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
For the sauce:
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- ½ cup warm chicken stock or water
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 slice ginger (1/4 inch thick and smashed with knife or cleaver)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- ¼ cup onion (minced)
- 2 tablespoons bourbon
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch (mixed with 2 tablespoons water)
- 1 scallion (chopped)
Instructions
- Start by marinating the chicken. Mix 3 tablespoons water and 1 teaspoon soy sauce with the chicken chunks, working it with your hands until the chicken has absorbed all of the liquid. Adding water and soy sauce to the chicken (especially true if using chicken breast) results in a moist and tender chicken experience!
- Once the chicken has absorbed the liquid, mix 2 teaspoons of cornstarch into the chicken until well combined and set aside.
- Mix the sauce ingredients by combining the soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice vinegar, dark brown sugar, chicken stock or water, sesame oil and white pepper and set aside.
- Heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a wok or large frying pan on high heat until just smoking, and spread the chicken evenly. Let the chicken sear on one side for 1 minute. Use a metal wok spatula (you can also use a rubber spatula if you can’t use metal utensils on your pan) to turn the chicken and sear another minute. Turn off the heat and move the seared chicken to a plate. Set aside.
- Return the wok to medium heat and immediately add the ginger (if using), garlic, and minced onion. Stir-fry for 20 seconds or until the onion is translucent, taking care not to burn the mixture.
- Stir in the bourbon to deglaze the wok, most all of the alcohol will cook off leaving the flavor behind. After 30 seconds or so, pour in the sauce mixture and stir to further deglaze the sides of the wok. Once the sauce comes to a simmer, add the chicken back to the wok. Stir until the sauce comes back to a simmer and gradually stir in the cornstarch and water mixture (stir it up first, as the cornstarch may have settled).
- Continue to stir and cook until the sauce has thickened enough to coat a spoon. At this point, you can remove the smashed piece of ginger or warn your guests so there are no surprises! Stir in the scallions and serve with steamed white rice!
nutrition facts
I needed a recipe that didn’t include Xiao Shing wine because I ran out!! So I made this tonight and it was delicious. I didn’t have bourbon either so I subbed brandy. And this dish is so simple! Will def make it again!
Awesome to hear it Mimi – better to substitute rather than not make a dish if you’re missing something :)
The last recipe that had rice vinegar in it caused the seasoning on my wok to come off and I had to re-season it. What did I do wrong? By the way your families recipes are the best.
Hi Donna, you didn’t do anything wrong but it is always best to wash the wok immediately after cooking something sour and acidic. No need to re-season your wok. Just give it a light scrub (some of your patina will come off), then reheat to dry and apply oil generously with a paper towel and your wok is ready to go! It will just re-season gradually over time.
This was delicious. Your website is the best. Thanks for all the hard work!
Thanks Chris and you are very welcome!
Great recipe! Can you use chicken thighs instead of chicken breast? Will any bourbon work?
Chicken thighs definitely work and yes, any good bourbon will do!
This turned out great ! I will be making a couple of half trays for a party. Easy and quick to make. Can I substitute or mix some chicken thigh meat with the chicken breast ?
Thanks for the great recipe!
HI WL, you can use thigh meat as well, but keep in mind that chicken breast cooks faster than the darker thigh meat.
I don’t have dark soy sauce . Will it work without
Hi Gibi, it should be fine, but you can sub a little dark brown sugar and molasses mixed in to make up for not having dark soy sauce.
This was fantastic! Thank you for providing the additional areas on your website describing the cooking methods in thorough and why they are done. It really helped me to understand the purpose of velveting the chicken and it paid off. The chicken was so tender and the end result was amazing. I will absolutely be making this again.
Hi Kim, thanks so much for taking the time to read through our articles on ingredients and how-tos. We really think it’s important to provide as much information as possible to make everyone successful cooking our recipes at home :)
Any reason this recipe would not work with tofu substituted for chicken?
Hi RS, I think the sauce would work for tofu. Let us know how it turns out of you try it.
It came out well. I cooked the tofu in the air fryer, and stir fried a yellow bell pepper and half a white onion for that char/caramelization the chicken would have added. Also used veggie instead of chicken broth.
Hi RS, sounds like a perfect vegan version fo the dish!
Step 6 has some symbols in it that are not words.
Thanks for bringing that to our attention, Karen! We’ve fixed it!
Can this be adapted to a slow cooker? Any adjustments?
Hi TS, I have never tried it with a slow cooker so not sure what adjustments would have to be made.