Bourbon Chicken

Happy New Year everyone. We made it to 2026. I hope your year is off to a good start. If it isn’t, then consider this post one bright spot. It certainly was one of mine.

When I was growing up, there was a restaurant in our mall’s foodcourt that sold a dish called Bourbon Chicken. I remember it tasting different/better than most of the other main dishes they sold on their menu, primarily because of the unique and really delicious flavor of the sauce. If you’re from the United States and you’re even a little bit familiar with mall foodcourt fare, you probably know exactly what I’m talking about.

The sauce is well balanced with salty sweetness, along with an added ‘something’ that when you’re a kid, you can’t really place that once you’re an adult, you’re able to appreciate comes from cooked/reduced bourbon. Even when we weren’t eating lunch or dinner in the food court, the employees of the restaurant would pass out free samples of the bourbon chicken on toothpicks to us as we passed by, and I can remember always looked forward to that as a kid.

Now look, don’t get me wrong: I am absolutely not above going back to amall food court and bringing home a takeout box of bourbon chicken and rice, and throughly enjoying it. But since I do like to cook myself, I do like to see if I can mimic a lot of my favorite takeout or restaurant dishes at home–if for no other reason than sheer curiosity and fun.

And, as it turns out, making bourbon chicken at home really isn’t that complicated, and I did enjoy making it.

Stir-fry style chicken has a very unique outer texture and that’s almost always because of the corn starch that it’s either tossed in before frying, or the cornstarch that is placed in its sauce. For this recipe, it’s both. After cubing up my chicken breast, I tossed it in some cornstarch that I flavored with five spice, ginger and black pepper. I then seared it on top of the stove, just to give it some color AND, to develop that distinctive outer coating and texture that is pretty familiar among most takeout dishes.

After the chicken is done browning, you move on to making the sauce–all in the very same skillet/pot. I made mine with chicken broth, soy sauce brown sugar, basic seasonings and, of course, bourbon. Now I’m not a drinker, which means that I do not have a preference for my booze at all, let own brown liquor. I managed just fine with a bottle of Jim Bean, but if brown liquor is your Thing, feel free to choose something that you enjoy to drink.

Once you get the sauce cooked to your preferred flavor and consistency, this whole thing gets REALLY easy. You dump all of the browned chicken back into the skillet and allow it to finish cooking through in the sauce, which then becomes even more flavored (tasty) by the meaty flavor of the chicken. Plus, because the chicken was tossed in cornstarch beforehand, it acts as a thickener to the sauce, which then clings to the chicken just so; exactly how you’re used to it from your favorite takeout spot.

In case your eyes aren’t letting you know it already, this was delicious. It came together very easily, very quickly, and because I made it all in one skillet, it also made for a very easy cleanup, which would make it a perfect weeknight dinner.

Enjoy and let you me know what you think 😉

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Bourbon Chicken

Recipe Adapted from Simply Recipes

Ingredients

5-6 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed into 1-1.5 inch pieces
1/2 cup cornstarch, divided
1 teaspoon chinese five spice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
3 cups low sodium chicken broth
3/4 cup bourbon
1 cup soy sauce
2 cups brown sugar (light or dark, doesn’t matter)
Onion powder, salt and pepper to taste
Cooked white pr brown rice, for serving

Directions

Divide the chicken between two resealable plastic bags.

In a medium bowl, combine 1/4 cup of the cornstarch with the five spice, the ground ginger, and the black pepper with a fork. Divide the spice mixture between the two bags of chicken. Seal the bags and toss to coat evenly.

Heat a few tablespoons of oil in the bottom of a large skillet or wok over high heat.

Once the oil is hot, sear the chicken in batches, flipping it once until it has a golden brown crust on both sides. (It’s probably going to pop, so if you have a lid for the skillet/wok, use it. Don’t worry about cooking the chicken all the way through, this is just to get some color and flavor on it, it’ll finish cooking in the sauce.)

Once the chicken is all browned, remove it to a sheet pan that you keep covered.

Deglaze the pan with about 1/2 cup of water. Pour this over the browned chicken.

Combine the garlic, fresh ginger, chicken broth, soy sauce, anbd brown sugar in the skillet.

Dissolve the remaining 1/4 cup of cornstarch in about 1 cup of water. Add to teh skillet.

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, tasting and adding onion powder, salt and pepper to taste.

Once the sauce has reached your preferred taste and has slightly thickened, add the browned chicken back to the skillet.

Allow the chicken to finish cooking through in the sauce, about 15-20 more minutes, until it is fork tender. Whiel chicken is finishing prepare your white or brown rice.

Serve bourbon chicken immediately over white or brown rice.