One of our favorite dinners is bourbon chicken. It’s this lovely, amber-colored, tender, sticky chicken that is so delicious served over jasmine rice or as I prefer mine, over brown rice or couscous. The recipe is so simple as it uses ingredients you have in your kitchen pantry. What really adds the flavor to this dish is Kentucky bourbon. My daughter lives in Lexington KY, so this New Yorker has become well versed in Kentucky bourbon. Drink it, cook with it, bake with it, bourbon is so versatile. Just remember to use good quality bourbon…if you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it!As I said this recipe is quite easy. There are only two problems with this recipe. The first being, you have to plan ahead so your chicken has time to marinate overnight, you can get away with a few hours, but I highly recommend overnight. The second problem, parting with your KY bourbon, don’t worry they’ll make more.

                    Bourbon Chicken

1 1/2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs

1/2 cup soy sauce – I use low sodium

1/4 cup vinegar – apple cider, rice, red wine any will do

1/8 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup bourbon

4 cloves minced garlic

1 tbsp. crushed ginger

4 green onions sliced

The night before: Place the chicken in a Ziploc bag. Whisk all of the other ingredients together and pour over the chicken and marinate.

The day of cooking: place the chicken single layer in a baking pan with deep sides – I use my cast iron skillet – pour the sauce over the chicken and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. I turn the chicken periodically so that sauce coats both sides well. At the end of the cooking time place the chicken under the broiler for 5 minutes or so to get a nice brown color on your chicken. 

At this point you have two options:

option 1 – serve over rice and garnish with scallions – the sauce will be a bit thin

option 2 – this is my preference – remove the chicken from the pan and thicken the sauce slightly on the stovetop with a cornstarch slurry – then serve over rice and garnish with scallions

I always make a double batch of the chicken and sauce and freeze it for a quick week night meal. 

When my husband finished dinner last evening he proclaimed it was better than a restaurant!