Easy Bourbon Chicken Mall Recipe (20 minutes)
Delicious! Put this on your blog!” said my enthusiastic husband after the first bite. So here it is – an easy bourbon chicken mall recipe just like you get at the food court. A quick simple dinner.
This sticky bourbon chicken recipe is not an exact replica of the food court bourbon chicken will find at a mall, but it’s close.
Bourbon chicken is commonly found at Cajun-themed and Chinese restaurants. And at mall food courts. Surprisingly, most bourbon chicken recipes do not contain bourbon. The name comes from a restaurant on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana.
I used a five star Bourbon Chicken copycat recipe with almost 3000 comments as my starting point. No, I didn’t read all 3000 comments, but I read enough to tweak the recipe to my liking – and hopefully yours.
I made a few tweaks to the sauce, but mostly took some liberties to simplify the cooking process and keep the chicken more tender and juicy by not boiling it in the sauce at the end.
The result: It’s sweet, but not too sweet. It has some heat which you can adjust to your liking. It’s a flavorful chicken dish and makes lots of sticky sauce to drizzle on rice.
The key to this easy recipe is the bourbon chicken sauce. The chicken can be cooked by almost any method.
Don’t let the list of ingredients intimidate you. They’re all pretty common and the whole dish can be made in about 20 minutes if you choose to grill the chicken and 30 minutes if you don’t.
Tailor To Your Taste
- Chicken – what kind to use and cooking methods:
- Use boneless skinless chicken thighs (my preference – juicier and more flavorful) or skinless boneless chicken breasts.
- 4 options to cook chicken: You can cook the chicken on the grill, in the oven, sauteed in a pan or even sous vide. For me, the quickest and easiest is the grill if you have one available. I cook the boneless pieces whole, then cut them into bite size pieces before adding them to the sauce. You’ll find instructions for cooking options in the recipe.
- Sweetness: many people found the original copycat bourbon chicken recipe too sweet, so I cut down the sugar. Taste and add more if you want.
- Spiciness: I added some red pepper flakes for heat – adjust this to your liking. Or leave them out. Sriracha or chili paste would work too.
- Substitute:
- I replaced the apple juice (which I rarely have on hand) with apple sauce and it worked perfectly. Orange juice would be fine too.
- Feel free to leave out the bourbon.
- Thickness of the sauce: I like a sauce with more body so I added cornstarch to thicken it. Use less or none if you prefer. If you find the sauce too thick, just add a bit of water.
How to make bourbon chicken
What to serve with bourbon chicken
As a main dish I serve the bourbon chicken over white rice or, if I’m looking for lower carbs, over lemon herb cauliflower ‘rice’ stir fry.
Other good sides for this dish are roasted bok choy and broccoli, mango salad or easy creamed spinach. Or serve your side vegetables in a soup form with our a vegetable wonton soup.
I also serve the chicken as an appetizer with toothpicks.
Shortcut
- Just make the sauce and add chopped store-bought rotisserie chicken (or leftover chicken) to heat through.
Make Ahead
- You can make the sauce and chicken ahead of time. Ten minutes before you’re ready to serve, heat the sauce and add the chicken to heat through.
- You can also make the full dish ahead of time and warm it on the stove or in the microwave.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Other quick and easy chicken recipes
- chicken lettuce wraps (PF Chang style)
- skillet chicken pot pie (30 minutes)
- sweet and spicy chicken wings (23 minutes)
- spicy honey lime chicken
- Mediterranean marinated grilled chicken
- saucy baked chicken meatballs (23 minutes)
- grilled Vietnamese chicken
Easy Bourbon Chicken Mall Recipe (20 minutes)
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pound (0.68kg) boneless, skinless chicken, Note 1
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch (only needed if stir frying chicken)
Sauce
- 1/3 cup (75 ml) low sodium soy sauce e.g. Kikkoman
- 1/2 cup (120ml) water
- 1/4 cup (60g, 2 ounces) apple sauce, apple juice or orange juice
- 1/4 cup (50g) brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoon ketchup
- 1 tablespoon Bourbon (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (for low-medium spice)
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic (or 1 clove or frozen cube or 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon mince or grated fresh ginger (or 1 frozen cube (or 1/4 tsp ground ginger powder)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Garnish (optional)
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 2 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
Instructions
- HEAT GRILL OR OVEN if using. See cooking options for chicken below.
- PREPARE SAUCE: Combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk to mix well.
- COOK CHICKEN USING ONE OF THESE OPTIONS. In all cases, transfer to a plate after cooking and keep warm. Note that recipe will take longer with some cooking methods. ° Stir fry bite size chicken: Cut up chicken into bite size pieces, place in bag with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 1/2 teaspoon salt, shake until lightly coated. Sauté in oil in a skillet on medium high heat in two batches until lightly browned and cooked through, about 4-5 minutes depending on size of pieces. ° Stir fry full size chicken pieces: Dust chicken with cornstarch and salt. Sauté chicken in a bit of oil in pan on medium high heat, transfer to a board, let sit for 5 minutes, then cut into bite size pieces. Keep warm.° Grill chicken (my preference if you have a grill handy – quick and easy): Toss the larger pieces of chicken with a bit of oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill on medium high for a 3-4 minutes per side. Let rest for 5 minutes, then cut into bite size pieces.° Bake chicken: drizzle breasts or thighs with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Baked in pan lined with parchment (for easy clean up) at 425F/218C for about 18 minutes. Rest for 5 minutes, then cut into bite size pieces. ° Sous vide chicken: at 144F/62C for 1.5 to a maximum of 4 hours. Here is a recipe to follow for sous vide chicken if you need one.
- COOK SAUCE AND TOSS WITH CHICKEN: Heat skillet to medium high. Add sauce and cook, stirring, until it starts to boil and thicken about 3-4 minutes. Add chicken and stir to coat. Lower heat and cook for another 2 minutes just until chicken is well coated with sauce and heated through. If the sauce is too thick, add a tablespoon or two or water or juice. Serve over rice if desired. Garnish with chopped green onions and/or sesame seeds if you like.
Recipe Notes
- What chicken to use: boneless skinless chicken thighs (my preference – juicier and more flavorful) or skinless boneless chicken breasts.
- Make ahead:
- You can make the sauce and chicken ahead of time. Ten minutes before you’re ready to serve, heat the sauce and add the chicken to heat through.
- You can also make the full dish ahead of time and warm it on the stove or in the microwave.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Nutrition
Easy bourbon chicken has been updated from 2016 to include new images, additional cooking methods for the chicken and more information.
Loved the end result! Keeping this recipe in my recipe book! Lightly seasoned Chopped boneless skinless chicken thighs and stir fried in Avocado Oil. Used the apple sauce and red wine (what I had on hand.) instead of bourbon. Tasted fantastic!
Woohoo! So glad you liked it Roxanne 🙂
Very good taste used one orange juiced sous vide the chicken at 150 for 2hours thanks so much.
I did the same a while back when I had guests over. Used sous vide for the chicken. Thanks for leaving a comment Jim.