Bourbon Chicken

Home reconstruction

The name is geographic, not alcoholic. Bourbon chicken is named after Bourbon Street in New Orleans, where Chinese-American takeaways sold it, and the standard version contains no whiskey at all.

People add bourbon because of the name, and it does not help. Whiskey brings alcohol harshness and oak tannin, and it thins a sauce whose whole appeal is that it is thick and glossy.

If you want it in there, a tablespoon cooked off properly is the ceiling.

Velveting is the technique that matters

Chinese restaurant chicken is tender in a way home stir-fries usually are not, and the reason is velveting: tossing the raw chicken with cornflour and a little liquid before cooking.

The cornflour forms a thin gel layer on the surface. It slows heat transfer into the meat, so the outside does not seize before the inside is done, and it holds moisture against the surface.

Fifteen minutes is enough. It is the difference between tender and chewy.

The sauce thickens at the end, in the pan

Do not add the cornflour slurry to a cold sauce and hope. Bring the sauce to a simmer, then pour the slurry in while stirring.

Cornflour needs to reach about 90°C to thicken, and it thickens fast — within about thirty seconds. Add it, stir, count to twenty, and stop.

Boiled hard for a few minutes afterwards, cornflour breaks down again and the sauce thins back out. That is why sauces sometimes go thick and then loose.

Thigh meat

Breast in a hot wok is dry before the sauce has reduced. Thigh has enough fat to survive and takes the char better.

What you need

Chicken

• 700 g boneless chicken thighs, in 3 cm pieces
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp water

Sauce

• 120 ml chicken stock
• 60 ml soy sauce
• 60 g light brown sugar
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp ketchup
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1/4 tsp red chilli flakes
• 1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp cold water
• 2 tbsp neutral oil
• 2 spring onions, sliced

Method

1. 1. Toss the chicken with the cornflour, soy and water. Leave 15 minutes.
2. 2. Whisk together the stock, soy, sugar, vinegar, ketchup, garlic, ginger and chilli flakes.
3. 3. Very hot pan, oil in. Chicken in a single layer, undisturbed for 2 minutes, then toss and cook 3 more. Work in batches.
4. 4. Remove the chicken.
5. 5. Pour the sauce into the pan and bring to a simmer, scraping the base.
6. 6. Stir the cornflour slurry and pour it in, stirring. It thickens in about 30 seconds.
7. 7. Return the chicken and toss to coat, 1 minute.
8. 8. Spring onions over the top.

Undisturbed for two minutes

The reflex is to keep the chicken moving. That is right for vegetables and wrong for the first stage of protein — meat that is constantly moving never sits against the pan long enough to brown.

Two minutes still, then toss.

Stir the slurry again before it goes in

Cornflour settles out of water in about a minute. Pour without re-stirring and you add mostly water, then find a lump of paste at the bottom of the bowl.

Storing

Four days in the fridge. The sauce thickens further when cold — loosen with a splash of water when reheating.

Three months frozen. The cornflour-thickened sauce survives freezing better than a roux would.