Bourbon Glazed Chicken

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Bourbon-Glazed Chicken

There is a restaurant where my mom lives, that serves the best Italian food.   As you can imagine, it is a little challenging to find good Italian food in New Mexico, so we really cherish this restaurant.

While I usually order the pasta pomodoro, which is a heavenly simplistic dish rich with fresh vegetables and herbs, the last time I was eating there with my mom, my eyes gravitated towards their bourbon-glazed pork chops.  They serve them next to a heaping pile of garlic mashed potatoes and Tuscan herb summer vegetables, and the trio makes one decadent dinner.

Since I live a few hundred miles away from this restaurant, I decided to be self-sufficient and recreate this masterpiece at home.  And as with all of my favorite new foodie finds, I love to share them here!

I didn’t have any pork chops on hand, so I decided to create a bourbon-glazed chicken.  My family loved it!! And as I am trying not to eat meat, I decided to put the bourbon glaze on top of steamed broccoli, and it was a little rich, but still tasty.

Bourbon-Glazed Chicken

• 1/2 cup bourbon whiskey
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• Juice from half a lemon
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Combine all ingredients, except chicken, and stir well.  Marinate chicken breasts in half of the marinade for at least an hour.

Grill marinated bourbon-glazed chicken at 375 degrees until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees, discarding the bourbon glaze the chicken marinated in.  Use remaining marinade to baste the chicken every 5 minutes, during cook time.

This is a great dish to serve as an alternative to barbecue chicken, if you’re burned out during grilling season.  You can also marinate this and bake it in the oven, if you’re not the grilling type.

*Note, while raw, the marinade is *ahem* very potent… the alcohol cooks off, and transforms the sauce into a complex, sweet and savory marinade.