Easy Bourbon Street Chicken Recipe

This Easy Bourbon Street Chicken Recipe makes flavorful chicken in a sweet sticky sauce. Better than takeout and perfect for busy weeknights when you need a quick dinner!

Back in the day, I used to love grabbing a quick bite to eat from the Bourbon Street Grill in the mall. Since it’s hard to find good bourbon chicken near me, these days, I’d much rather make my own Bourbon chicken at home!

This quick and easy recipe for Bourbon chicken is super simple and comes together in no time. So, no need to make a trip to the mall food court or your local Chinese restaurant if you’re craving this popular chicken recipe!

By the way, the title refers to Bourbon Street in New Orleans, where this easy recipe originally comes from. If you’re looking for Bourbon Street chicken recipes without bourbon, scroll down to recipe variations section.

Ingredients

You only need a few ingredients to make your own homemade Bourbon chicken. What’s not already in your pantry should be easy to find online or at local grocery stores.

• Skinless chicken breasts — or dark chicken meat
• Olive oil or Vegetable oil
• Sea salt
• Ground black pepper
• Garlic powder or minced garlic
• Ground ginger
• Dried minced onions or onion powder
• Bourbon whisky
• Apple juice
• Low-sodium soy sauce or regular soy sauce
• Brown sugar — or light brown sugar
• Ketchup
• Cornstarch — to thicken the sauce
• Water or chicken broth

How to Make Bourbon Street Chicken

First, cut up your chicken into bite sized pieces. Then, heat up a little oil in a large skillet or wok, and add the chicken and spices.

You just need to cook the chicken on medium heat until it’s no longer pink. It will continue to cook after you add the sauce.

While the chicken is cooking, you can make the ingredients for the Bourbon sauce in a medium bowl. Or, you can just add them all to the frying pan.

If you want see how the sauce tastes, I recommend mixing it up in a mixing bowl first.

That way, you can adjust the ingredients. The next time you make it, you can add the sauce ingredients directly to the pan if you prefer.

Next, stir everything together, and bring to a simmer. The sauce will seem thin at first, but it thickens up as it cooks. By the way, the alcohol burns off as the sauce cooks, leaving you with just the delicious flavors of the sauce.

You can thicken the sauce even more by adding a cornstarch slurry. Just mix up some cornstarch and cold water or chicken broth, bring sauce to a hard boil, and stir the mixture into the sauce.

After about 10 minutes or so, the sauce will be rich, thick and just perfect! If you find that the sauce is too thick, you can thin it out with extra apple juice or water or broth.

Cook Time

The total cooking time for easy chicken dinner is 15 to 20 minutes. Keep in mind the chicken cooks faster if the chicken pieces are smaller.

And that, my friends, is it! You’re ready to enjoy this delicious restaurant quality Bourbon chicken!

What to Serve with Bourbon Chicken

I usually serve Bourbon Chicken over Instant Pot Jasmine Rice or Instant Pot Brown Rice. Either white rice or brown rice work for this copycat recipe!

Add some Air Fryer Broccoli, or steamed broccoli. You can steam broccoli in the microwave, and you’re good to go. Check out my side dishes archives for more side dishes that pair well with this recipe.

Variations

There are a couple ways to customize this easy bourbon chicken recipe to your tastes.

If you want to make bourbon chicken without alcohol, just use more apple juice instead of bourbon. This will make the chicken slightly sweeter, but no less delicious!

If you feel that the bourbon chicken sauce is too sweet, add a splash of apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar to cut the sweetness.

Add a little bit of pineapple juice or lemon juice for a more tangy flavor. Or, add sriracha, red pepper flakes, or your favorite hot sauce for extra heat.

Feel free to add different elements to your bourbon chicken as well. Green onions, sesame seeds, fresh garlic, and fresh ginger are a few great options.

Instead of using boneless chicken breasts, you can use boneless skinless chicken thighs.

How to Store

Store leftover bourbon chicken in an airtight container in the refrigerator, where it’ll last 3 to 4 days. You can freeze the chicken for longer storage.

Reheat in the microwave or on the stove.

Our best bourbon chicken recipe is the perfect combination of juicy chicken and tangy, thick sauce. I hope you enjoy this flavorful chicken dish as much as my family does!

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Recipe published first in 2021 and updated in 2022.