Food Court Bourbon Chicken Copycat Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is Chinese bourbon sauce made of? ›

The sauce is a combination of garlic, ginger, chicken stock, bourbon, soy sauce, and brown sugar. Three tablespoons of apple cider vinegar also goes in for added extra tang. At first It will look like A LOT of sauce, but it cooks down and reduces nicely.

The main ingredients are simple: soy sauce, brown sugar, orange juice, ginger, garlic, rice vinegar, and, of course, bourbon. When combined, they create a delicious blend of savory, sweet, and tangy flavors. Bourbon chicken is a family favorite in our house, and I bet it will be in yours too.

But, at the end of the day, they are distinctly different. Bourbon chicken is an umami bomb that features sweet, nutty, toasty, and spiced notes. Teriyaki chicken, on the other hand, leans into sweet, tangy, and salty flavors.

Bourbon chicken is a dish with New Orleans roots that's easy to make with chicken thigh pieces cooked in a sweet brown sugar, bourbon, ginger, garlic, and soy sauce glaze. Serve with rice for a restaurant-worthy meal.

Vanilla extract and apple cider vinegar have often been used to mimic the taste of bourbon in recipes, but you can clearly tell when they are used as substitutes.

The secrets of China's 'secret sauce'

"This is just one small element to the dish, but it is crucial to the overall taste," says Peter. The sauce is called Lu (pronounced "loo"), and virtually every Chinese regional cuisine uses some variation of it.

Bourbon Chicken is an American-Chinese classic and found in strip malls and food courts everywhere! The sweet, savory glaze over the stir fried chicken is absolutely mouth-watering and so easy to make at home!

Most stories claim that the dish originated on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, with some further stating that it was specifically a Chinese restaurant on Bourbon Street that first came up with the recipe, due, perhaps, to its many Chinese elements.

That said, like most alcohol used in food, most of it boils off during the cooking process, leaving behind its sweet smoky flavor without the intoxicating side effects.

Ingredients: Chargrilled chicken breast filets containing up to 18% solution of water, seasoning (sugar, salt, dextrose, garlic powder, onion powder, maltodextrin, autolyzed yeast extract, spice, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, flavor, paprika [color]), seasoning (salt, sugar, spices, and paprika), butter ...

Does bourbon have high sugar? ›

Straight distilled spirits like bourbon, rye, and other whiskeys have a lower sugar content than any other alcoholic drink. True bourbon—that is, bourbon with no flavorings or sweetener—contains virtually no sugar. The USDA nutrition facts for whiskey register 0 grams of sugar in a 1.5 oz serving.

During distillation the alcohol evaporates and separates from the water and grain particles. It's then condensed and becomes a liquid again. If there are any sugars left from the fermentation process, they will not vaporize like the alcohol.

While the technique used to prepare the dish is Chinese, bourbon is not an ingredient you'll find in Chinese homes, where two types of alcohol are used. One, used for drinking, is a white distilled liquor, called Baijiu. The other, used for mostly for cooking, is an amber fermented rice wine called, Shao Xing Hua Diao.

All barbecue cooks have their own "secret sauce," but for the most part, each relies on some sort of sugar, something acidic like vinegar, fat – typically butter – and something else to make it special. This sauce uses molasses, lemon juice, bourbon and Worcestershire sauce as its main flavors.

Roughly speaking: Beer cheese sauce, bourbon caramel and other sauces brought to a boil and then removed from the heat typically retain about 85 percent of the alcohol. Diane, cherries jubilee and other recipes that flame the alcohol may still have 75 percent of the alcohol.