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!
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- 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
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I meant to give this recipe 5 Stars, but my big fingers took control!!! This recipe was easy to make and was a crowd pleaser. I will make this many times.
This looks amazing but what kind of bourbon sauce should i get or use?
Hi Emily, for this recipe we make a homemade bourbon sauce! If you have a favorite store-bought version you can definitely try it with that.
This is a great recipe. I made it exactly to your recipe except cut down on red chilies a bit. Had it over rice with broccoli as suggested. Sauce was perfect both in thickness and taste. No over powering taste of any one ingredient. Chicken thighs were done to a turn and actually Had the taste of the sauce as a hint in the chicken. Hats off to you keep doing what you do creating recipes and associated sides to go with to complement the dish, Thank you
Can anything be substituted for the burbon?
Hi Joan, you could use ¼ cup orange juice, ½teaspoon of vanilla extract diluted in ¼ cup water, or ⅛ cup apple cider vinegar mixed with ⅛ cup apple juice. Enjoy!
I made this but substituted tenderized steak and made it in a large frying pan. Took about 30 minutes to make. Was delicious!
Delicious! Can I freeze leftovers? (I did look at comments to see if someone else asked this, but there are SO MANY, I finally decided to ask you myself.)
I haven’t tried freezing this but many readers have said they’ve successfully frozen it. The sauce may thin out once thawed but it could be thickened with cornstarch if needed.
Recipes look great and can’t wait to try them!
I’m trying this today! The ingredients look perfect! I am also going to use the sauce recipe for baby back rib marinade for a neighborhood rib cook off in March!!!
Can you use shredded chicken instead?
Hi Lynn, for this recipe the chicken is shredded after cooking and stirred back into the bourbon sauce. If using pre-cooked shredded chicken you will want to prepare the sauce and stir the shredded chicken in making sure it is heated through before serving.
Is a serving size really only 6 g?
There are 6 servings in the recipe.
Good morning!
I am used to searing before slow cooking.
I am thinking about cutting the chicken into cubes, and searing first .
Thoughts…?
Hi James, we have only made this recipe as listed but that should turn out fine. Let us know how it turns out :)
I’m in the same situation, James. I just used this recipe yesterday and modified it by lightly coating the chicken in paprika and searing it (and yeah, I used breasts not thighs). I’ll need to compare it to the unmodified recipe to be certain, but I can say that it came out DELICIOUS!!! Plus it got direct approval from my wife, and trust me when I say she is a chicken snob! :)
*Be mindful, as is stated in the recipe, chicken breasts can come out a bit dry and searing them helps lock in some of the juice (it will still invariably come out, just a bit slower).
this is my first time using this website.
So happy to have you Brittany!
Great flavor but mine was not as dark as the one on the video. I used light brown sugar. Could that have been why?
It could be partly the ingredients or even just different lighting in my video. Glad you enjoyed it!
Signing up
Happy to have you Jacki! :)
I love ALL your recipes and this one is especially wonderful!! Thank you!! It IS better than (or at least equal to) restaurant Bourbon Chicken!!
I have a question…do you have a good recipe for Almond Boneless Chicken? We loved it when the Mark Pi’s China Gate Restaurants were open in the Columbus, Ohio area. It had a wonderful brown sauce that I do not know how to make nor what it was called.
Thank you for all your recipes!! I love making them!!
Hi Joyce,
I don’t have a recipe for almond chicken just yet, but keep checking back. I am so glad you enjoyed the chicken!
I will like to try your recipes, if there printable.
Hi Jeannette, you can find the recipe by scrolling almost to the bottom of the post or hitting the jump to recipe button at the top. From there you should be able to print it. Thanks!
Delicious…we love it! Would like to make a bigger batch but not sure if I doubled all ingredients it would cook well in the crockpot. There’s plenty of room in there for twice as much chicken and sauce, but do you know if it would cook through? I do it on low for six hours. If I doubled recipe should I add more time on low? I read many posts and didn’t see that question asked. Please let me know if you get a chance. Thanks!!!
I think it would work Cindy. Just make sure your chicken is cooked all the way through to an internal temperature 165°F.
My wife cannot tolerate hot food. I know the chili flakes are used to counter the sweetness of the dish but is this spicy at all ? I wanna fix this for the family.
The chili flakes and ginger can give it a spicier flavor Jack. As a lover of spice I do not find it too spicy but definitely adjust to suit your preferences! It will change the flavor but should still be delicious :)
What kind of bourbon?
Any kind will do Betty, I usually opt for the least expensive kind since I’m cooking with it.
I absolutely love this recipe. This is one recipe I don’t mind having leftovers for the next day.
Mmmm…Leftovers! We love this recipe the second day too Tonja!
The nutrition information does not show when I print the recipe. Is there any way it could be included with the printed recipe. I use the nutrition information when I plan meals. Thank you in advance for your help.
P.S. I truly love your site.
Thanks for the suggestion Suzanne!