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Our Crock Pot Bourbon Chicken recipe is just like the Chinese bourbon chicken from your favorite take out restaurant! There’s no bourbon in this recipe – it’s named after Bourbon Street in NOLA and it’s so flavorful and tasty!
Bust out the slow cooker, we’re making saucy shredded chicken for dinner!
Bourbon Chicken without the bourbon? Hear me out.
Every time I serve this recipe to friends and family they rave about it and ask for the recipe themselves. And without fail, they are confused about the lack of bourbon in the recipe.
This crockpot bourbon chicken is not named after the liquor! It’s said to have been created by a chef on Bourbon Street in NOLA! So, no, I didn’t forget to list the bourbon in the recipe. 😉
This one cooks up tender, saucy, drippy, and flavorful – perfect over a bed of white rice to soak up the juices!
We have this shown with our Asian cucumber salad and we also love to serve this with some air fryer egg rolls or our sausage egg rolls.
We serve this piled on white rice, but it’d be good on our bacon fried rice too!
♥ What We Love About This Recipe:
- Saucy Goodness: The star of this recipe is the sweet and savory sauce. It has an Asian flair, tasting similar to the bourbon chicken you get from the Asian restaurants in the food court at the mall.
- Easy Peasy: Whisk together the sauce and toss it in the slow cooker with some chicken. Dinner doesn’t get a lot easier than that!
- Meal Prep: This bourbon crock pot chicken reheats beautifully so feel free to make a double batch to have extra for lunches all week.
Ingredient Notes:
Chicken – We’re using boneless, skinless chicken breasts but you could also use boneless chicken thighs here if that’s what you prefer.
Bourbon Sauce – This simple homemade bourbon sauce is a mixture of honey, low sodium soy sauce, ketchup, sriracha, and salt. Be sure to use low sodium sauce or this will be overwhelmingly salty.
Corn Starch – We’ll whisk this in at the end to make the sauce a bit thick and glossy.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
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How to Make Crockpot Bourbon Chicken:
Mix together the onion, garlic, honey, soy sauce, ketchup, sriracha, and salt in your slow cooker until it is well combined. Add the chicken to the sauce.
Cover and cook the bourbon chicken on low for 4 hours or on high for 2.5 hours. When ready shred the chicken with a couple of forks in the sauce and stir well.
Dissolve the cornstarch in water and add it ot the slow cooker with the sauce. Put it on high heat for 20 minutes or remove it to a pan on the stove over medium high heat to thicken the sauce up.
When the bourbon chicken sauce has thickened up to your liking serve it hot over some rice with green onion!
Serving Suggestions:
You can serve this crockpot bourbon chicken with all kinds of sides! We enjoy it most over white rice but you can change that up or serve it with other Chinese American dishes. Our bacon fried rice or spam fried rice would likely be tasty here too!
Our bacon lo mein would make a great side dish as well! Some spicy Szechuan green beans would pair well with the sweet and savory bourbon chicken sauce too.
Freezing & Storage Instructions:
If you have leftover crockpot bourbon chicken you can keep it stored in the refrigerator for about 4 days in an airtight container.
We reheat this with a bit of the sauce in the microwave.
This bourbon chicken recipe can also be frozen for up to a few months. Store the chicken and bourbon sauce in a freezer safe container or zip top bag. Let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight before reheating.
Recipe FAQs:
This simple homemade bourbon chicken sauce doesn’t actually contain bourbon! It’s a mixture of garlic, onion, honey, soy sauce, ketchup, sriracha sauce, and salt. Named after Bourbon Street in NOLA, this sauce packs big flavors.
Yes! It’s definitely okay to cook raw chicken or any raw meat in the slow cooker. It’s common to brown meat in a skillet or sear it a bit before slow cooking to add flavor. We mostly do that with beef or pork but you can brown the chicken first too if you prefer.
Low and slow is the best way to prepare this shredded crockpot bourbon chicken! It takes about 4 hours on low, or 2.5 hours on high if you need to save a bit of time.
Bourbon Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 sweet onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 3/4 cup honey
- 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 2 teaspoons sriracha more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken breasts
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
- cooked white rice for serving
- green onions for garnish
Instructions
- Add the onion, garlic, honey, soy sauce, ketchup, sriracha, and salt to a slow cooker. Stir well to combine.
- Add the chicken breasts to the sauce and stir to coat both sides.
- Cover and cook on low for 4 hours or high for 2 1/2 hours.
- Shred the chicken with two forks and stir well.
- Dissolve the corn starch in the water and add to the slow cooker. Return slow cooker to high heat for 20 minutes or remove to a pan on the stove over medium heat and cook until sauce has thickened over medium heat, about 5 minutes.
- Serve over rice with green onions.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Carrie | Carrie's Experimental Kitchen says
I don’t use my slow cooker nearly enough so I was so glad I saw this recipe. It looks fantastic and can’t wait for my family and I to try it!
mira says
Love bourbon chicken and this looks so easy to make and delicious! Pinning to try it asap!
Karly says
Hope you love it!
Deb says
I was wondering could I use it on sandwich buns like a sloppy Joe, or would it be too runny?
Karly says
It works great for sandwiches! Just use a slotted spoon or tongs to scoop the chicken out, so you don’t get a ton of sauce.
Bon@TastyKitchenn says
Waow! This dish looks absolutely amazing! My husband really loves Bourbon Chicken. Can’t wait to give this recipe a try.
Maureen says
I just made this. A lot of times the slow cooker makes the meat taste bland but not this recipe!!!
The sauce is full of flavor!!!! Great use of leftover Chinese take out white rice. I defiantly WILL make this again!!
Karly says
So glad to hear that! 🙂
trish says
Totally my kind of food – sweet, salty, with a little bit of spice… and of course, rice! Recipe pinned! 🙂
Kate says
Yum!! My husband LOVES bourbon chicken (and I love how easy this recipe is!). This is going on my to-make list.
Alia @ Everyday Easy Eats says
This looks and sounds delicious! It reminds me that I need to start using my slow cooker again! 🙂
Michelle Contini says
I am getting ready to try this right now– any idea what I should do if I have frozen chicken breasts? Maybe 6 hours? Or thaw them?
Karly says
Sorry for the delay!! I’m assuming you already went ahead with the recipe, but I think 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low would be fine. You just want the meat cooked through and easily shreddable. 🙂
Tricia @ Saving Room for Dessert says
I could eat this any time of the day and be a happy girl! Beautiful recipe Karly 🙂
Karly says
Thanks, Tricia!
Adrienne | Appetites Anonymous says
You had me at bourbon… 🙂
Kelli @ Hungry Hobby says
This looks delicious! Every time I see a slow cooker recipe I now think of the instant pot that I just bougth that I’m scared of….
Karly says
I’m definitely trying this in the Instant Pot. I think it’d work great.
Kimberly @ Berly's Kitchen says
I bet this tastes AWESOME! We love a good slow cooker chicken meal but have never thought to use bourbon. Amazing idea!
Mindy says
They still have it at our local buffet, but I’m positive yours is way better! This is going on my list of things to make when my daughter and son-in-law are over for dinner (they love anything with sriracha in it). I know it will be a hit and I can start it before they arrive so it will be ready when we are. I love seeing your videos on my facebook feed, by the way!
Tanya says
Bourbon is a street? Who knew! I guess some bourbon in my dinner is never a bad idea too :)Looks delicious!
Lexi @ Sempre Dolce says
Oh my goodness, this has all the things I love: easy prep, sriracha, a good amount of sauce… Definitely need to make this – pinning!