Somewhere between the General Tso’s and the sesame chicken, most Chinese-American menus carry a dish that has nothing to do with China at all. Bourbon chicken is named after a street in New Orleans, and it has quietly become one of the most ordered things on the board.
The short answer
Bourbon chicken is an American dish named after Bourbon Street in New Orleans. It is chicken in a dark, sweet and savoury glaze built on soy sauce, brown sugar and ginger. It sits on Chinese menus because it is cooked the same way as the glazed chicken dishes that were already there.
Where the name comes from
Not from a bottle on the shelf, at least not only. The dish takes its name from Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
The French Quarter, or Vieux Carré, is the oldest part of New Orleans, laid out in the 1720s and rebuilt in Spanish style after an eighteenth-century fire. The National Park Service history of the neighbourhood sets out how many cultures passed through it. A dish from that corner of the country carrying influences from several directions at once is very much in keeping with the place.
So why is it on a Chinese menu?
Because of how it is cooked. Strip away the name and bourbon chicken is bite-sized chicken finished in a thick, glossy, sweet-savoury sauce — the exact template of half the house specials section on any Chinese-American menu.
A kitchen that already makes sesame chicken and orange chicken needs no new equipment, no new technique and barely any new ingredients to make bourbon chicken. It fit, so it spread — and it now turns up at both Cajun-themed and American Chinese restaurants across North America.
It is worth being clear about what that makes it. Bourbon chicken is not a Chinese dish adapted for American tastes, the way chop suey or General Tso’s chicken were. It is an American dish that Chinese-American kitchens adopted. The background on the dish places its origin firmly in the United States.
What it actually tastes like
Sweet first, then savoury, with a glaze thick enough to coat every piece. The sweetness comes from brown sugar and the savoury depth from soy sauce, so it lands somewhere between sesame chicken and a barbecue glaze without being quite either.
The pieces are usually smaller and more irregular than the neat battered chunks of General Tso’s, and the coating is thinner. It is a glazed dish rather than a crisp-fried one, which also means it holds up better in a container than anything battered does.
What goes into the glaze
The standard recipe is short, and the ingredients are ones you already know from the menu.
- Soy sauce — the savoury backbone, as it is in most brown sauces.
- Brown sugar — where the sweetness and much of the colour come from.
- Ginger — the aromatic note that keeps it from tasting flat.
- Bourbon whiskey — in the standard recipe, though see the section below.
The chicken is marinated in that mixture before it is cooked, which is part of why the flavour goes further into the meat than it does in a battered dish, where the sauce only ever meets the surface.
Does it contain alcohol?
This is the question worth asking rather than assuming, and the honest answer is that it depends on the kitchen. Bourbon whiskey appears in the standard recipe, and the name points at both the street and the spirit. But recipes vary enormously between restaurants, and plenty of versions are made without it.
How it compares to the other glazed chicken dishes
Most Chinese-American menus carry several dishes in the same family, and the differences between them are smaller than the names suggest. Here is how they line up on this menu.
| Dish | Character | Marked spicy here? |
|---|---|---|
| Bourbon Chicken | Sweet and savoury glaze, soy and brown sugar | No |
| Sesame Chicken | Sweet, crisp-fried, sesame finish | No |
| Honey Garlic Chicken | Sweet with a garlic note | No |
| General Tso’s Chicken | Sweet, crisp-fried, with chilli | Yes |
| Orange Chicken | Sweet and citrus, crisp-fried | Yes |
That last column catches people out regularly. Orange chicken has a reputation as the mild one, but on this menu it is marked spicy, exactly as General Tso’s is — the comparison of those two goes into it. If you want a sweet glazed chicken with no chilli at all, bourbon, sesame and honey garlic are the three to look at.
Who should order it
- Anyone who finds General Tso’s too hot. Same sweet register, no chilli marking.
- Anyone bored of sweet and sour. It is sweet, but savoury underneath rather than sharp. The guide to sweet and sour explains the difference.
- Anyone ordering for a mixed table. It is familiar enough that it rarely comes back uneaten.
- Anyone who wants their food to survive the drive home. A glaze travels better than a batter does.
Where to find it on the menu
Bourbon Chicken sits in the house specials section in small and large sizes, alongside the sesame, honey garlic, General Tso’s and orange chicken it is most often compared with. It also appears in the dinner specials, which are listed as served with pork fried rice and an egg roll or soup.
If you want to see how it sits among the rest of the chicken on the menu, the guide to Chinese chicken dishes covers the whole section, and what house special means explains why that part of the menu exists at all.
A dish with a very American story
It is easy to treat this as a curiosity, but it illustrates how the menu in front of you came together. Chinese-American cooking has always absorbed what was around it, and bourbon chicken is the clearest example because it kept the name of the street it came from. The guide to the sauces on a Chinese menu covers the ones with longer histories, and the menu glossary covers the rest of the vocabulary.
Frequently asked questions
What is bourbon chicken?
Chicken cooked in a dark, sweet and savoury glaze. The standard recipe is built on soy sauce, brown sugar and ginger, and the chicken is marinated in that sauce before cooking.
Why is bourbon chicken on a Chinese menu?
It is named after Bourbon Street in New Orleans, and it is an American dish rather than a Chinese one. It cooks the same way as the glazed chicken dishes already on Chinese-American menus, so it slotted in alongside them.
Does bourbon chicken contain alcohol?
It depends entirely on the kitchen. The name refers to Bourbon Street, though bourbon whiskey appears in the standard recipe. Whether any particular version contains it is a question worth asking when you order, especially if you are avoiding alcohol.
Is bourbon chicken spicy?
It is not a chilli dish. On the Panda Li’s Kitchen menu it is not marked spicy, unlike General Tso’s Chicken and Orange Chicken, which both are.
The bottom line
Named after a New Orleans street, not a Chinese province. Sweet and savoury rather than spicy, glazed rather than battered, and on this menu it is one of the three glazed chicken dishes with no chilli marking. If the whiskey question matters to you, ask when you order.
Bourbon chicken sits in the house specials, in small and large sizes.
See the house specials