I love the bourbon chicken you get at Cajun Grill and similarly-named faux-Cajun restaurants in mall food courts. The dish always consists of bite-size chicken pieces, usually dark meat, grilled and marinated in a sweet brown sauce. It’s absolutely delicious over rice and beans, and I love it. I’ve tried making this at home a few times over the years, always with recipes I’ve found online, and it never comes out like it does from the food court. I’m reasonably sure the Cajun Grill doesn’t use any actual bourbon in the recipe, as I’ve followed more than one recipe calling for bourbon, and it never tastes right. If anyone knows what I’m talking about, please chime in! Mmmm, bourbon chicken…
I;m not sure this is what you are looking for, but this is a recipe for grilled bourbon chicken: this is calibrated to serve five people and takes 3-5 hours (most of it marinating time), depending on your level of skill.
2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons orange zest
1/3 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon wine vinegar (balsamic is better)
1/3 cup bourbon whiskey
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup catsup
1 tablespoon steak sauce
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Tabasco, to taste
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 pinch cloves
Directions:
Mix all ingredients other than chicken well. Marinate chicken 4 hours. Remove from marinade and grill basting with marinade frequently.
Have you ever heard of Todd Wilbur’s line of books entitled “Restaurant Secrets”? He has a line of cookbooks where the entire premise is that he orders popular dishes in restaurants and reverse engineers the preparation so that you can make these dishes at home using ingredients from the supermarket. I’m pretty sure a recipe for bourbon chicken can be found in one of his cookbooks.
This is supposedly a copycat Kelly’s Cajun Grill Bourbon Chicken recipe: