Crock Pot Bourbon Chicken is easy and delicious! Tender juicy chicken is cooked in a rich bourbon ginger sauce for a delicious meal. The whole family will love it. Serve it over rice, with a side of steamed broccoli, or inside some dinner rolls for a delicious bourbon chicken sandwich!
This Crock Pot bourbon chicken recipe takes all the work out of making dinner, making it perfect for busy weeknights. We love coming home to fall-apart, flavorful and tender chicken. It’s great just about any way you serve it!
Bourbon Chicken
Bourbon chicken received its name because it was created by a Chinese cook who worked in a restaurant on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Regardless of the name or how it came to be, this dish is absolutely delicious! This recipe creates a sweet and tender chicken that is perfect served over rice and it’s easy to make at home in the slow cooker!
The bourbon chicken sauce takes just a few minutes of prep the marinade and then it simmers in the slow cooker all day! The result is insanely tender chicken with a sweet Asian inspired sauce and lots of flavor.
How To Make Bourbon Chicken
To make this Crock Pot bourbon chicken:
- Combine sauce ingredients together and pour over chicken thighs.
- Turn the Slow Cooker to HIGH for 3 hours or LOW for 6-7 hours.
- Shred the chicken and create a cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce.
A few notes about this recipe… this dish is sweet as Bourbon chicken is a sweet dish (similar to sweet and sour). Do not use light soy sauce, the results and flavor are not the same. Chicken thighs are best in this recipe as they won’t dry out like slow cooked chicken breasts sometimes do!
5+ Slow Cooker Chicken Recipes You NEED in Your Life
- Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings – a classic!
- Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken – sweet and savory
- Crockpot Chicken Tacos – uber flavorful
- Slow Cooker Whole Chicken & Gravy – great for entertaining!
- Slow Cooker Chicken Chili – so easy
- Crock Pot BBQ Chicken – juicy shredded chicken!
Did you enjoy this Crock Pot Bourbon Chicken? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- ¼ cup sliced green onions or more to taste
Sauce
- ½ teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ⅓ cup apple juice
- 1 ½ tablespoons honey
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup ketchup
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup Bourbon
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Mix all sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
- Place chicken in slow cooker, pour sauce over top. Cover and cook on low 6-7 hours or on high 3 hours.
- Remove chicken and chop into bite sized pieces and cover to keep warm.
- Meanwhile, combine 3 tablespoons water with cornstarch. Turn slow cooker up to high. Whisk cornstarch slurry into the sauce. Cover and allow to thicken, stirring occasionally (about 10 minutes). Stir chicken back into the sauce and add in green onions.
- Serve over rice.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dinner
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
The recipe looks yummy. I see it calls for 4 cloves of garlic in sauce. Are those cloves whole or minced????
Great question, thank you! They are minced. I’ve updated the recipe.
Sounds yummy! Can’t wait to make it. I see the picture shows scallions, but no mention of them in the recipe. Did you feel they weren’t necessary after all?
I just added them for garnish. :)
It tastes alright but not what I expected. Also mine doesn’t look as dark and thick as the picture. But the thing that bothered me the most about this recipe was that I had to take the chicken out, boil the sauce in a separate pot to thicken it with cornstarch and put it back into the crock-pot, which I feel defeat the purpose of the crock-pot (unless I read the steps wrong). I mean overall a good recipe but not for me.
You don’t have to take it out; that is just an option.
For anyone that doesn’t like the extra sweet taste, cut down on the honey, brown sugar, ketchup, or apple juice, just remember to adjust your ratio of liquid to solid. When I cut back on apple juice, I replace the difference with water or chicken/veg broth. Ketchup is also high in sugar (I make my own without sugar), but for those that don’t, you could replace with some tomato paste and a dash more of rice vinegar or ACV. For those who have complained about adding the cornstarch at end; there is no need to remove chicken from crockpot. Instead, heat about 1/3 cup water, chicken or veg stock in a small sauce pan (medium to medium high heat) and once you see some small bubbles, , whisk in cornstarch, flour, or arrowroot until dissolved (don’t let it come to a full boil). Once dissolved and slightly thickened, stir into the crock pot about 15-30 minutes before cook time is up. Much easier this way. I have also substituted cranberry, pomegranate, or cherry juice for apple juice in recipes when I want to cut back on the “sweet” factor.
Fabulous! Thanks for the tip!
First time making this and it smells amazing!! I didn’t have bourbon so I substituted Brandy and for the Apple juice, I just used Apple sauce. Can’t wait to try this.
i made this recipe and thought it was very good. I didn’t have any Apple juice so I just used chicken broth for that and the water.
So glad you enjoyed it Valerie!
I made this Saturday and it came out delicious! I wanted to know what ingredient would I increase/decrease to make the bourbon flavor more intense?
. . . the bourbon, perhaps?
^ Ha!
Just made this ! Great easy recipe . The whole family loved it ! Thank you I will be making this again
I did this with a mixture of organic breasts and chicken thighs, doubled the sauce (cuz I like it saucey) and added some baby carrots and it was perfect! The white meat didn’t dry out at all!
I tried this last Sunday as per instuctions. Only thing I changed was extra garlic at end with the sauce, next time I would add the garlic. My mistake. Other than that everyone seemed to enjoy it so it is a keeper. Thank you for recipe Holly.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for stopping by Susan!
How is this recipe reheated?
I would reheat it in the microwave or the stove top.
On the stove or in the microwave??
have a clue, she meant “or”.
Is there anything I can do so that I don’t have to use the bourbon???? I don’t ever buy any kind of alcohol. I would hate to buy it just for this recipe.
While I haven’t tried it, you can try replacing it with apple juice.
Thanks for responding to this Holly. I also have the same question in mind. Will definitely try that. :)
You’re welcome! Please let me know how it works out for you!
I know you said you didn’t want to buy alcohol, but in case you change your mind (or for anyone else), most liquor stores sell shooters of burbon, oftentimes for about a dollar. One shooter is just a bit over a 1/4 of a cup. No big investment in a big bottle of something you won’t use/drink and you don’t have to sacrifice the burbon flavor of the dish!! Win-win!!!
also, remember the alcohol burns off during cooking. No worries for those who don’t consume alcohol as a rule.
They sell 1/2 pints at most ABC stores. Just keep it around for baking and grilling and the cost is minimal that way.
Just thought I’d throw in my 2 cents here….. I’ve replaced Bourbon with Rum flavoring in recipes and find it works well — have even made Bourbon Pecan Pie with Rum Flavoring and couldn’t tell the difference. One bottle of Rum Flavoring equals 1/4 cup, but I would probably start with a half bottle and add more if desired after cooking a while and tasting.
If you buy the bourbon for this recipe just search for other bourbon recipes. There are a ton of different things you can use it up in,even desserts. I just bought the smallest bottle at $8
. I have made bourbon pork chops and now this. Next is dessert.
You can just buy one of the tiny “shot” bottles of bourbon and that would give you the amount you would need for the recipe.
Chicken broth could be another option.
Why don’t you just buy a bourbon nip. It’s about 50ml and just a couple of dollars so that you don’t have to “waste.” Plus, even if you buy a bigger bottle of bourbon, you can cook with it again so that you you have a use for the rest of it. I don’t normally buy fresh ginger but that doesn’t mean I will substitute it…
We don’t do alcohol either, but, I found that diet coke works great, as does Dr. Pepper.
You could also just buy a “mini” bottle like they serve on airplanes. Most small liquor stores or even BevMo have them. It is what I do when I need a little amount of something I don’t drink
I went to bevmo and bought one of those tiny bottles like they serve in an airplane. It cost less than 3$ and one bottle was exactly 1/4 c. Hope that helps.
We made this yesterday. Everyone liked it but wr want to love it. The chicken juices seemed to really water down the sauce and it was REALLY sweet. Looking for any suggestions to tweak the recipe to suit our tastes better.
This recipe has been recently updated to reduce the sweetness.
Made the crock pot Bourbon chicken. The family loved it.
Thank you for sharing.
So glad your family enjoyed it Natalie!
I just made this and it was delicious. The chicken was so tender I almost didn’t need to cut it up, it just fell apart. Oh, and it was super easy.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe Christina!!
Everything looks gorgeous! But what if I have no crock pot but there’s a multi cooker with slow cooking program (mine is Redmond)? Cam I use it for cooking bourbon chicken?
Thanks
I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure. As long as your chicken is cooked for the right amount of time, I think this would work.
Do you think this would work with chicken breasts, also, instead of thighs?
I have only made this recipe as written. I’m sure it would work with chicken breasts however the cooking time may need to be adjusted to avoid overcooking the chicken.
So, this came out extremely too sweet. If I make it again, I will be using more red pepper and less honey.
You know the ketchup makes it sweet too.
I know this is an old comment. But, I thought I should point out that bourbon chicken is almost always very sweet. In most takeout places, bourbon chicken is only second in sweetness to honey chicken (which, depending on the recipe, can even be less sweet). If you don’t like sweet chicken, this isn’t the recipe for you!
If you like the overall taste about 90% and just want something to take off the edge, you can add a little bit (A LITTLE BIT) of sesame oil to give it a more rounded profile. I like mixing my rice with some rice vinegar, toasted sesame seeds, and soy sauce to make a savory complement to the sweetness.
why not just start with cooked chicken? It would be a Lot easier?!!! isn’t that what the crockpot is all about?
I would imagine the Crock Pot would allow the meat to soak up the sauce while it’s cooking.
The purpose of slow cooking is not only for the convenience, but, it also tenderizes the meat while cooking and allows the meat to soak up the flavors.
Can you please tell me how many servings this make?
This will make 6 servings.
Looks awesome, but all I have are chicken breasts – how can I modify the recipe to account for that without over/undercooking? Many thanks!
I haven’t made this recipe with chicken breasts, only with chicken thighs. Generally chicken breasts should be cooked about 3-4 hours on high or 6-7 hours on low. Slow cookers can vary so you’ll want to make sure the chicken doesn’t overcook and become dry.
I always use chicken breasts, the key is to put them in the crockpot FROZEN!! Otherwise you end up with chicken leather!!!
Can I use white meat instead?thanks for the tip
did you ever make with chicken breast ??