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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This may be a silly question but can I just use regular Mott’s apple juice? I know the sauce is sweet but I don’t want it to be TOO sweat. Thanks!
Yes, that would be perfect.
My whole family loves this recipe. Since I found it 2 months ago, we have made it 5 times! Very flavourful!
Is it OK to substitute Tamari for soy sauce? I look forward to making this, it looks delicious!
This should work just fine Matt!
Would be nice to know what size crockpot you used
I have made this successfully in a 4qt or 6qt slow cooker, most often in my 6qt.
I made this for dinner tonight. The only change I made was I used chicken breast, apple cider because I didn’t have juice and added some onion. The taste was very off putting and way too sweet. What did I do wrong?
I can’t say for sure what went wrong as I haven’t tried this with apple cider, you can on the apple cider container and see if there is added sugar in the brand you have.
Thank you, tons of sugar added. I will try again soon.
I did similar, I did half and half ACV/apple juice because I was afraid everything would be too sweet—it still was.
Tastes nothing like bourbon chicken, definitely no Asian flavor and very tomato-y. The green onions don’t fit with the tomato flavors, maybe too much ketchup?
It’s not horrible & the chicken cooked down well so it’s edible but this recipe needs some serious tweaking.
Hi Holly I want to make this next week it says to use cider vinegar I’ve just looked for this ingredient and the was two types in my supermarket one was cider vinegar and the other was apple cider vinegar could you tell me which one I use please I’m in the uk.
Thanks Bev
I would suggest apple cider vinegar.
Hello,
Can I make the sauce the night before and add it in the crockpot in the morning?
Yes, the sauce can be made ahead of time for this recipe.
Can’t wait to try your homemade Chinese Food recipes.
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I’ve already pinned some of your dishes.
Made it for the office lunch and we all loved it!!! Will definitely make it again and again!
Can the sauce be made ahead of time and poured over the chicken when it is time to cook it?
That would work perfectly! Enjoy!
This is SO GOOD! I put in extra minced garlic (I get the pre-minced in the jar so it’s not as flavorful) and extra chili flakes. I also make sure to trim the fat off the chicken. My husband LOVES bourbon chicken and since we moved to Fargo, we haven’t found any decent Chinese places and he gives this recipe two thumbs up!
We really enjoyed this! The only change I made was to use pineapple juice (Trader Joe’s) instead of apple juice because that’s what I had on hand.
Martha Stewart has nothing on you! Absolutely love your website and all your recipes.
Thank you so much Asia! I’m so glad you’ve loved the recipes. :)
Wanna try this recipe but there is only two of us. If I cut it in half will it be as good? I worry about losing flavor
You can half the recipe, Lisa, or you can save half in the freezer for a quick future dinner.
This is a really good base recipe. People’s comments on adaptations were also great.
I rinsed and patted dry the chicken and rolled it in a little corn starch and browned it in a couple of squirts of olive oil. This helped to seal in the juices, as well as to boost flavor.
After dumping the meat in the crock pot I put the ginger and garlic and red pepper for a few seconds in the pan to bring out the aromatics. I used Penzy’s dehydrated garlic and ginger. then off heat threw in the bourbon to quickly deglaze the nice stuff in the pan. then added the rest of the sauce ingredients. The slight heat of the pan helped the sugar mix in. Then threw that in.
I did make a few adjustments to family taste: more than halved the sugar and honey (we like less sweetness) and decreased the ketchup a lot and added a spoon of gochujang. That gave a slight heat to balance the sweet. Also used oj rather than apple juice.
I found cooking it a bit more meant it did not need to be cut… it fell apart like pulled pork.
Very nice dinner. Thanks for sharing it.
Thank you for sharing all of your great tips Ari!
Hi Holly,
Will this work with beef, do you think?
I haven’t tried this with beef so I can’t say for sure. You’ll want to ensure you cook it long enough so the beef becomes tender. Let us know how it goes if you try it!
I just love all of your recipes just want to ask what I use instead of the bourbon
Hi Megan, we have only tried this recipe as written but you could change the bourbon for apple juice (although this will change the flavor).
Can u use white and dark chicken? I have one person in my family that will not eat dark meat
I have only made this recipe as written. Many readers have made this with chicken breasts successfully. The cooking time may need to be adjusted to avoid overcooking the chicken. Enjoy Vicki!
Absolutely loved this. My wife loved it as well. I added mushrooms to the recipe, pan fried them with some butter before putting them in the crockpot. So So good.
Can’t wait to try it!
Can I use whole chicken instead of boneless? Will it work that way?
We have not tried this recipe with a whole chicken, but be careful to remove all of the bones to ensure none end up in your sauce or chicken mixture while chopping it.
Good meal
Hi, I realized I forgot to take my chicken breasts out (we usually have breasts over thighs) of the freezer so they are still frozen. Can I put frozen breasts in the crockpot and up heat/time? Or should I wait to use this recipe until they are fully thawed ? It sounds so yummy!! Thanks
Many readers have successfully used frozen chicken breasts in the slow cooker. I personally that them first in cold water in the sink. Let us know how it works out for you!