Whiskey BBQ Chicken
For anyone who is on Pinterest you are well aware that the Food portion of the website is a mouth wateringly dangerous section to search through, whether you have dietary restrictions or not. In one of my searches through the depths of deliciousness, I found one for a Knob Creek BBQ Chicken that looked quite tasty. Since Dylan is quite the whiskey lover, this made for a great stay in dinner date for the two of us.
To The Grocery Store!
As someone who cooks, I like to look at a recipe and then make my own modifications according to my own tastes. So I will be posting the original recipe and discuss the changes I made to it as well.
Shopping List:
6 Chicken Breasts
6 slices of Bacon
16 ounces of BBQ Chipotle BBQ Sauce (I used an organic Hickory BBQ Sauce)
¼ cup Sweet Paprika
1 tablespoon Smoked Paprika (if you’ve never used this you will become obsessed with it)
3 tablespoons Brown Sugar ( I used 5-6 tablespoons because my BBQ Sauce was a little too vinegary and too spicy for my taste)
2 teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Pepper
2 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar ( I did not end up using this because my BBQ Sauce already had a vinegary taste)
Wooden Skewers
¼ cup Whiskey
Check out the recipe on Pinterest
Cooking Instructions:
Cut your Chicken Breasts into 1 inch by 2 inch cubes or desired strip/cube size. Remember that these are going to be skewered so you want to keep them small.
Combine your Whiskey, BBQ Sauce and Vinegar into a bowl and mix together. Once again, if you are using a BBQ sauce that already has a strong vinegar taste you will not need additional vinegar, so make sure to taste your sauce first!
Next, place your bacon in a food processor and blend it until it becomes a paste.
Side Note: I do not have a food processor, so I had to get a little creative with how to make my bacon into a paste, so, I used my NutriBullet Blender to see if that would get the job done. It did, however it short circuited my blender until the next morning.
If you do not have a food processor, I would recommend cooking up your bacon until it is almost done, then chop it up into very fine pieces and sprinkling the bacon over your basted chicken skewers or rolling the chicken in the bacon so that it sticks.
Combine your Salt, Pepper, both Paprika’s and Brown Sugar into a small bowl. (if you have a food processor, add the spices to the processor and set on low or chop until spices are mixed in with your bacon paste.)
Once your spices and bacon are combined, add your mixture to your chicken and mix until the chicken is completely coated.
When your chicken is coated with your bacon paste spice mixture, place strips on a wooden skewer and place on your grill.
Side Note: I do not have a BBQ in my apartment, so I used a cast iron stove-top grilling pan. This gave the chicken a nice flavor and was a good substitute to not having a grill. It would be possible to bake the chicken or sauté the chicken in a large pan with your BBQ sauce.
I cooked the kebabs for 3-4 minutes each side. The recipe calls for 2 minutes, but, I cut my cubes a little thicker than what the recipe called for so I cooked them longer. Once your chicken is flipped, baste it with your bbq sauce so that the flavor can cook down into the meat. When your chicken is fully cooked, flip it once more to get a little browning on your already basted side. Add more BBQ sauce to the unbasted side and cook for 1 additional minute.
I served this cheesy garlic bread, and of course, a little Knob Creek. (For those of you that are gluten free, I suggest using the flakiest gluten free white bread that you can find. For those of you that are dairy free, garlic bread is your best option, I am yet to find a dairy free parmesan that is soy free and actually tastes good- if you have found one please leave a comment below, i’d love to try it!)
This is a meal that will last several days depending on your appetite. The leftovers made for very hardy and tasty sandwiches on Dylan and I’s Crater Lake trip later that week. (Check back in with us for details on that trip) This is a fairly easy dish to make even for those that are not big on cooking. Enjoy this recipe and happy cooking!