Bourbon Chicken

Annnnnd we're back!  It has been a hectic couple of weeks with our trip to Winston-Salem for Andrea's (Chris' little sister) masters graduation from Wake Forest!  Then my little brother turned 21 this past weekend.  Mitch had a White Trash Backyard Bash themed 21st birthday, which was pretty hilarious!  We have been running around all over the place!  So now its time to play catch up!  First a few pictures from the recent celebrations.

The graduate and I!

All the kids!

Birthday boy and his beer cake!

White Trashin' it up!

Given that we were in the south two weekends ago and we had lots of alcohol consumption going on this weekend I thought maybe a bourbon recipe would be fitting to share!  When I first saw this recipe on Pinterest I thought "Oh I bet Chris would like this!  He likes bourbon so what a great way to incorporate it into cooking" so I planned to give it a try.  I looked at the ingredients and discovered there was no bourbon in it, only apple juice.  I felt a little betrayed (there's those foodie trust issues rearing their ugly heads, I blame oatmeal raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip for that).  I mean the reason I pinned this recipe was because it was monikered BOURBON chicken not apple juice chicken.  So I decided to set things straight in this culinary trial and share with you ACTUAL BOURBON chicken.

Bourbon Chicken
(This made enough for four servings but can be easily halved)

Ingredients:
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/4 c. bourbon
- 1/3 c. light brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp. ketchup
- 1 Tbsp. cider vinegar
- 1/2 c. water
- 1/3 c. soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp. flour (optional)
- olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
- Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a large pan.
- Add chicken and cook until no longer pink.

- Remove chicken and set aside.
- Add garlic, red pepper flakes, bourbon, sugar, ketchup, vinegar, water, and soy sauce (I mixed these in a bowl previously so I wouldn't have to fuss when it was time to add it to the pan), heat over medium heat, bring to a hard boil.

- Let sauce reduce then add chicken (this can take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes to reduce) if you'd like it to thicken faster use 1 Tbsp. flour mixed with warm water as a thickening agent.
- Stir until chicken is well coated.

- Serve over warm rice.
- Enjoy!

This was well received by all diners, Chris, my dad and my brother.  I got the sauce a little too thick but overall I thought it was good as well.  You can pick up slight hints of the bourbon with very light spice from the red pepper flakes.  If you want it more spicy you can add some Sriracha sauce or hot sauce.

Well its Memorial Tournament week in Columbus so I'll be there for work then its time to get ready for Miami friends' nuptials!  But I hope to share my most recent cocktail treat with you before.  Happy short work week!

Cheers!
Steph