Why are Fridays becoming my ‘should have known better’ days? I got up this morning with all intentions of having this dish cooked, photographed and posted by 10am with the extra going straight into the freezer. Instead, this day has fallen hilariously apart. If it could malfunction, it has. If it could fall, break, hit the ground at exactly the wrong moment, it did. Spectacularly. And I’ve managed to laugh through the whole thing. Better late than never, right?
This is ‘Bourbon’ Chicken. It doesn’t really have any bourbon on it, just a rich sauce. If you frequented Chinese restaurants at the mall in your pre-traditional foods days, you’ll likely know this dish and love it. This is my go-to, can’t fail, makes-’em-all-happy dish. I serve it to company, I make it when the family needs comfort food or a morale boost. Try it and it will become one of your family favorites, too. I love it served over rice with sauteed kale or broccoli on the side.
‘Bourbon’ Chicken
2 Tbs coconut oil
1 lb boneless chicken, any type, cut into bite size pieces
½ cup chicken stock or concentrated chicken stock
1/3 cup rapadura or sucanat
¼ cup apple juice or freshly pressed apple cider
¼ cup tamari, coconut aminos or soy sauce
2 Tbs ketchup
1 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1 garlic clove, pressed
¾ tsp red pepper flakes, optional
¼ tsp fresh ginger, grated
In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and cook the chicken until browned. Remove the chicken and add remaining ingredients. Stir until rapadura is dissolved. Return chicken to the pan and bring to a hard boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
If desired, you may thicken the sauce at the end of the cooking time with ½ – 1 tsp arrowroot powder or 2-3 tsp cornstarch mixed into a little water. Whisk into sauce and stir thoroughly. Return to a simmer and serve.
To prepare this dish for the freezer: Double or triple this dish and follow the directions through simmering for 20 minutes. Cool the dish and freeze it. When you wish to serve it, bring it back up to temperature, add the arrowroot or cornstarch slurry, return to a boil and serve.
This post is also part of the following carnivals:
Make Your Own Monday, Monday Mania, Mangia Monday, Homemaker Monday, Hunk of Meat Monday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Made From Scratch Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, Gluten Free Wednesdays, What’s Cooking Wednesday, These Chicks Cooked, We Did It Wednesday, Pennywise Platter, Full Plate Thursday, Creative Juice, Things I Love Thursday, Fight Back Friday, Allergy Friendly Friday.
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ONGosh, I can’t wait to make this!!! We all love Chinese and even though my family still frequents our local Chinese place, I can’t since going gluten free 🙁 I’m totally making this next week as I come off my metabolic detox 🙂 thank you!!
Yum! Making this maybe tomorrow! Yippee! Thanks KerryAnn!
Adrienne @ Whole New Mom recently posted..Real Help for Messy Moms (and non-Moms too)
Any substitute for apple juice? Never have it in the house. For that matter – maybe we won’t try this one – I have never had ginger. I am not very adventurous :). Any way to explain what ginger tastes likes?
Patsy, you can use more chicken stock in place of the juice. You can leave out the ginger, too. Ginger is warm and spicy. Buy a fresh knob and just grate off what you need then store the rest in the freezer. When you need more, you can grate it from frozen without having to thaw it. I always keep extra in the freezer, ti’s quick and easy to use.
This sounds like another winner to me and I know my family will eat it too a PLUS. Thanks again for a great recipe KerryAnn. (love your name by the way)
You’re welcome!
KerryAnn Foster recently posted..Freezer Cooking: ‘Bourbon’ Chicken
Hi there
I stumbled upon this great site while doing a search, A family member loves Bourbon chicken, so I made this today. It was delish
I cut up chicken thighs and used a little honey for the sweetner and oj instead of apple juice. I used some of the sauce on my steamed cauliflower. Yum
We liked this suace better than the mall sauce. Theirs is too sweet. This had a bit more kick. Thanks
Thanks for linking your great post to FAT TUESDAY. This was very interesting! Hope to see you next week!
http://realfoodforager.com/fat-tuesday-february-21-2012/
Hi Kerry Ann,
I can’t wait to make this awesome reicpe, it is just packed with flavor.
Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday. Hope you have a great week end and come back soon!
Miz Helen
We made this tonight for dinner and it was fantastic! YUM!
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Wow! I cannot tell you just how good this tasted! Everyone gobbled this up! It’s hard to get my 5 yo and 2 yo to consume meat that isn’t in the form of a chicken nugget but they devoured these!
Thanks, This looks really good. Ilike that you use coconut oil in this. I have quit eating Chinese food from the restaurant, I make my own versions at home for much less.
I can see your recipe being served over rice ( I prefer brown rice) and/or with mixed vegetables. Or one could serve a salad as well.
This looks really good. We are on the Feingold diet here, so I’m having to figure out how to adjust…. Mostly it’s easy, I can sub more stock for the apple juice (like you said above), white vinegar for apple cider, and leave out the red pepper. But no tomatoes either. Any thoughts on the ketchup? Can I leave it out? Or… maybe sub a little mashed cooked carrot instead? Thoughts?
Susan, I think the carrot would be worth a try. I think the ketchup is used more for its spices than the tomato, per se, so you’ll want to add a dash of cinnamon and maybe clove.
I made this for supper tonight & could’ve had at least 1/2 more of the recipe!
We had it over quinoa and it was Delish!!
Thanks for the tip about keeping fresh ginger in the freezer, I will definitely buy
some this weekend when I go into town for grocery shopping!
Yay!! That’s awesome!