Bourbon Chicken..Yes, Like at the Mall

By : DishinandDishes | 34 Comments | On : January 14, 2010 | Category : Meats and Main Dishes

This is my meal of choice when my kids make me go to the mall with them. Have I mentioned my aversion to the mall? I mean, I am just appalled that to go to a movie nowadays, you have to park 1000 miles away in a parking lot of a million cars, and then walk through the mall, past all that temptation, just to get to a movie! What’s up with that?

Dangerous things happen in the mall…like expensive things.

Anyway, when presented with a food court at the mall, I typically order Bourbon Chicken.

And I love it.

Here is my experiment with making it at home. It’s pretty close, I must say….

Take 1/2 cup of soy sauce. Dump it into a small saucepan. I always use the Light Soy Sauce. If I don’t, my fingers swell up like sausages.

Add 1/2 cup of brown sugar to this and 3 chopped cloves of garlic. Also grate up 1 tablespoon of ginger and toss it in as well. You could use powdered if you want, it’ll work, but dry spices are more powerful so use maybe 2 teaspoons.

Chop up one-half cup of shallots.

If you don’t have shallots, just use onions. I found these at my local Asian market dirt cheap this week! Usually, I have to buy them 2 or 3 at a time in a little mesh bag for an unreasonable amount of money at my grocery store.

Enter the Bourbon.

I sauntered, and by sauntered, I mean I looked both ways while slinking deeply into my seat for anyone I knew around, into my local liquor store. I mean, I thought about taping a sign onto the back of my car saying “I’m buying hard liquor for cooking, I swear it!” I squeakily asked for a small bottle of bourbon. Seeing as we aren’t big drinkers, when the man handed me this little bottle of Jim Beam Whiskey, I blankly looked at him and said, “isn’t this whiskey?” and he politely explained to me that they are basically one and the same.

Silly me. **Mental note to self….bourbon =whiskey.

Anyway, dump in 1/2 cup of bourbon into your saucepan mix.

If you don’t drink, don’t worry! The alcohol cooks right out of it and you won’t be in danger. You just need it for the correct flavor – Bourbon Chicken.

Get it?

Also stir in 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes and 1 tablespoon of vinegar. I used rice wine vinegar. (sorry, no picture!).

Mix this all up in the saucepan, cooking over medium heat – just enough to allow the sugar to dissolve.

While that’s heating up, cut up 7or 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I get a huge pack at Sams) into bite-size pieces. You can use chicken breasts if you don’t like dark meat, but the real stuff is dark at the mall! Toss it into a 9 x 13 pan.

By now the sugar in your sauce should be dissolved and your sauce should be nice and warm. Pour it right over all your chicken and mix it up with a large spoon so all your chicken is coated.