These Bourbon and Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders will blow your mind. They are sweet from the sugar and bourbon and spicy from the chile powder. I am not even talking about the juiciness and tenderness of these little guys!
Yesterday, when I was cleaning up the house, I found an unfinished bottle of bourbon. It was surprising, and at the same time, not surprising at all. Surprising, because I can’t even remember when me or my hubby bought it! It was, most probably, sitting there for over a year or so. Not surprising, because my hubby and I are not too keen on drinking. We have some wine or champagne occasionally, but nothing stronger. That’s why unfinished bottles of alcohol are a frequent occurrence at our house. They are left after various parties and nobody wants to finish them! Well, but not this bourbon bottle. Nobody that I know likes bourbon, so this one was clearly bought for cooking.
You see, I am not a fan of strong alcohol, but I love cooking with it. Especially with bourbon. I even made 3 recipes with this whiskey for the blog: Bourbon Glazed Salmon, Bourbon Chicken, and Bourbon Pecan Crusted Salmon. Needless to say, all of them were perfect. But wait a second. Two recipes with salmon and only one with chicken? I am going to correct this mistake right now!
Let me present you these fantastic Bourbon Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders. Aren’t they sexy? They should be, because I adapted the recipe from this funny cookbook, a parody of one well known movie, called “Fifty Shades of Chicken“. I can’t disclose the name of the movie though, sorry guys. I got this book few weeks ago and I must say that it’s not only super funny, but the recipes there are amazing too!
This bourbon brown sugar chicken is a wonderful combination of sweet and spicy. The chicken pieces are so tender and juicy! Bourbon once again does the job for me. I will have to buy another bottle just to have it at home in case I crave these little guys someday.
And the recipe itself is so easy. That’s why I love chicken tender recipes. Only 10 minutes of prep time, pop them into the oven and that’s it!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lb (700g) boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 teaspoon chile powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons bourbon
- freshly squeezed lemon juice , for drizzling
- chives (optional), for garnish
Instructions
- Cut the chicken breasts into about 1-inch wide strips.
- In a bowl, combine the chile powder, cumin, salt, and black pepper. Add the chicken pieces and mix until coated. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit for 1 hour in a fridge.
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Get a baking pan ready and layer it with parchment paper. In a saucepan, bring brown sugar, honey, and bourbon to boil. Pour half the mixture over the chicken and toss it.
- Add the chicken slices to the baking pan and bake for 10 minutes. Turn over the chicken tenders, drizzle with a little bit of bourbon mixture and bake for 15 minutes more.
- Brush with the remaining glaze, sprinkle with some chives and serve. Enjoy!
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