A chicken recipe from the Ugly Binder

Bourbon Chicken
The Ugly Binder (printed off the internet, source site unknown)

4 chicken breasts I used thighs, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons soy sauce I used low-sodium
2 tablespoons dried minced onion
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/8 cup (6 tablespoons) bourbon
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Combine oil, ginger, soy sauce, onion, sugar, bourbon, Dijon mustard and garlic powder. Mix together and pour mixture over chicken. Marinate overnight, or at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake basting frequently, for 1 1/2 hours or until chicken is well browned and juices run clear. My chicken was cut into rather small pieces so I didn't cook it nearly this long, maybe about 45 minutes. I think cooking it longer would have carmelized the sauce a bit more but I was worried that the chicken would get too dry.

I was desperate for a recipe for chicken thighs, which I bought when hubby asked for the pork to end. And although I do eat and enjoy chicken thighs on the bone (with skin too), when chicken is boneless, I feel the need to remove every impurity from the meat, which in the case of thighs seemed to be about 25 percent of what I started with. I'm just not sure it's worth cooking with them but this turned out to be a tasty way to use up what I already had on hand.

I had a few close calls. I used my last two tablespoons of soy sauce, the last of my dried minced onion, and then the Bourbon I assumed we had wasn't there. Luckily I found a small, airline sized, bottle of honey flavored Wild Turkey in the back of the liquor cupboard which amazingly held just the right amount of bourbon for this recipe.

This is a knockoff of the pseudo-Cajun dish that can be found in most food courts (or has it's day come and gone?). It was simple, tasty and aside from the trimming of the meat, easy to throw together. I didn't find it to be as heavy and sweet as I vaguely recall the food court variety being. I do think thighs work better here.

When I started this blog, I decided I had to be adamant about sticking with recipes from cookbooks or I would be spending all day at work searching the internet for recipes. But I already had a binder filled with recipes clipped from newspapers and magazines, recipes I've printed off the internet or jotted down from a television screen or those that were passed on to me by a friend or family member. This binder is as much a part of my cookbook collection as anything else, and often as neglected as the rest of my cookbook used to be, so I don't consider it cheating to have made this recipe, out of my ugly binder, and not a cookbook proper.




Lisa at Comfort Food recently asked for advice on the best way to organize recipes. Well, I didn't have any advice to offer, as you can see. My ugly binder is a complete mess, although I'm hesitant to fix it because I sort of know where everything is right now. I'll be lost in there if I try to clean it up.