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Sweet, sweet southern food.

Oven-Fried Southern Chicken With Sweet Honey Bourbon Sauce | halfbakedharvest.com

M’m, M’m, good.

(No idea why the Campbell’s slogan just came out of my head – sorry, it’s been a long three days.)

Oven-Fried Southern Chicken With Sweet Honey Bourbon Sauce | halfbakedharvest.com

Let’s talk about how I decide on a recipe, because for me it’s a hard task.

See, it all depends on my mood, that and if there happens to be someone I am feeding that day that I am trying to please.

More often than not, I go by my mood because I live in a family of picky, try nothing new, eaters. Except for little Asher, they are also all boys. So basically, beef and chicken are what’s frequently on their radar. They even had a little hissy fit over the pork from Monday.

Most of the time, I just make what I want and forget about the complainers. Well, I don’t forget about them, I will normally make sure they have something to eat. Pizza, chicken, steak or tacos typically do the trick.

But for some reason I was feeling like a simple classic dinner was in need.

That, and I really just wanted to stop my thoughts and decide on a recipe already!

Oven-Fried Southern Chicken With Sweet Honey Bourbon Sauce | halfbakedharvest.com

I obviously make a ton of food and I try to make most of my dishes a little different, and hopefully something you haven’t seen too much of. You know just give it a little twist or something, but let me tell you a little secret.

My family? Sometimes they just want the normal stuff. Meaning cheese pizza, pasta with butter + salt (and nothing else), grilled cheese (you know with butter, bread and cheese). Basically nothing fancy, and I can’t blame them, sometimes the simplest foods are the very best.

Oven-Fried Southern Chicken With Sweet Honey Bourbon Sauce | halfbakedharvest.com

I know this chicken has a fancy bourbon sauce, but aside from the sauce it’s your just basic, delicious, oven fried chicken. Oven fried because I have been frying too much this week, so I went with oven. It’s the bomb.

Oven-Fried Southern Chicken With Sweet Honey Bourbon Sauce | halfbakedharvest.com

Oh and another thing, I really love making foods from different parts of the country, and the world (like my major exploitation of Mexico). It’s super fun to dive into different flavors. The flavors of the South are ones I do not touch on all that often.

I tend to sway towards Thai, Asian and (quite frequently) Mexican, flavors. But this southern food? Yea, it’s safe to say I am so on board with it. I have caught the southern food bug. I actually had another southern meal that I wanted make for today, but it’s heavy on the summer flavors, so I decided to hold off for a few weeks. I kind of can’t stop thinking of summer recipes. I am so ready (as it’s snowing outside my window right now – heck, I’ll even take spring!).

Oven-Fried Southern Chicken With Sweet Honey Bourbon Sauce | halfbakedharvest.com

The sauce is honestly the best part. It’s this chicken’s better half. The two just need each other.

Oven-Fried Southern Chicken With Sweet Honey Bourbon Sauce | halfbakedharvest.com

Kind of like bread and butter, fries and ketchup and milk and cookies. The honey sweet bourbon sauce with this chicken is one of those, “goes great together” kind of meals. They just work, and to me it screams southern comfort food.

Oven-Fried Southern Chicken With Sweet Honey Bourbon Sauce | halfbakedharvest.com

Oven-Fried Southern Chicken With Sweet Honey Bourbon Sauce.

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Resting time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 55 minutes
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 827 kcal

Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.

Ingredients

Chicken

Sweet Honey Bourbon Sauce

Instructions

Sweet Honey Bourbon Sauce

  • In a bowl, mix the cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water until smooth. Add the cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper. In a medium sauce pan over low heat, combine the bourbon, 3/4 cup water, soy sauce, honey, BBQ Sauce, Tabasco and dijon. Bring up the heat to a simmer and slowly add the corn starch mixture, whisking vigorously as you go. When the mixture is well combined, cook about 1 more minute. Turn off the heat and add the butter. Set aside until ready to use. The sauce can be made ahead and refrigerated until ready to serve.

Chicken

  • Add the chicken to a large bowl and pour the buttermilk over the chicken. Toss well, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
  • After 2 hours or the next day preheat the oven to 475 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silpat, foil or parchment paper and spray or brush it with some olive oil.
  • Add the corn flakes crumbs, Panko, flour, smoked paprika, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
  • Remove each piece of chicken from the buttermilk, and dredge through the crumbs, pressing gently to adhere. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all the chicken has been used. Make sure not to crowd your pan, if necessary use two baking sheets. Lightly spray the chicken with cooking spray or a mist of olive oil. Drizzle the melted butter over the chicken.
  • Bake for 10-12 minutes, then reduce the heat to 400 degrees F. Bake for 10-12 minutes more, then flip the chicken over and gently spray with olive oil. Place back in oven for another 15-20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the juices run clean. Serve with a lemon wedge if desired and the bourbon sauce.
View Recipe Comments

Oven-Fried Southern Chicken With Sweet Honey Bourbon Sauce | halfbakedharvest.com

Which is good just about any time.

PS. Not my hands. Just another dirty brother (no seriously they had just come in from dirt biking in the snow/mud) dying for some food. Oven-fried chicken was a good lunch. They all approved. AND they loved the sauce!

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Comments

    1. HI! Just simmer the sauce longer on the stove until it is thickened until your liking. Please let me know if you have any other questions. So glad you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan

  1. The last ingredient in the list for the Bourbon Sauce is butter, but I don’t see that that is used anywhere in the recipe. Does butter actually belong in the sauce?

    Also, I followed your link for BBQ sauce and saw that it is for a sauce similar to Sweet Baby Ray’s. BBQ sauce is SO much better than ketchup for practically everything. And Sweet Baby Ray’s is one that we frequently use.

    1. Hey Ken! The butter is added at the end. Recipe is fixed. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe. Thanks so much and happy Holidays!! xTieghan ?

  2. 5 stars
    made this tonight with an assortment of thighs and breast. my oven runs a little hot so I kept the temp just shy of 475 at first. crisped up perfectly. the spiciness was subtle but very tasty! also the bourbon sauce was amazing. this recipe actually made wayyyy more than I needed for this meal. but I’m not complaining. I’m going to make bacon burgers in a couple days and use the rest of the sauce on those. can’t wait!! thanks again!!

  3. By corn flakes do you mean corn flake cereal? Also, is it safe to divide everything by 4 if I’m making this for 2 adults and keeping the protein at 8ounces total? Thanks!

    1. Hi! Yes, corn flake cereal. And Yes, I think dividing everything by 4 will work great. Please let me know if you have any other questions. Hope you love the chicken!

  4. Hi just wondering how many people this recipe feeds. I am planning on making with biscuits and sides for a derby party!

  5. Hi, I have had this pinned for quite some time but the oven temp throws me. I’ve never cooked anything at 475. Is that correct? Also when you turn down the oven heat to 400 do you remove the chicken out of the oven until the temperature is reduced to 400? Or do you leave the chicken in the oven but just turn the temp down to 400? I’d love to try this recipe but I’m always so short on time and I just want to clarify this before I invest the time in trying this recipe. Thanks :))

    1. Hi Holly, yes, cook the chicken at 475, leave it in the oven and turn it down to 400. Let me know if you have any other questions. Happy New Year!

  6. Experienced cook, followed the recipe to the letter. Like most oven fried chicken recipes I’ve made the coating falls off when the chicken is turned. It doesn’t stick, it just falls off. A shame, I was very hopeful with this one. JIMMY J.

    1. Hey Jimmy,
      I am really sorry the coating dod not stick for you. It’s my go to recipe. Did you use all the exact ingredients?

  7. I made this last night. Oh. My. GAWD. It was AMAZING. Crispy, flavorful and SO tender and juicy. WOW!!!! I used chicken breasts and cannot WAIT to try this with drumsticks – as I’m a bone-in kind of woman 😀

    The only thing I couldn’t make was the honey bourbon sauce 🙁 Instead I made a chipotle mayo (for dipping) and added some red cabbage slaw on the side. Lawwwwwwwd. There were some happy mouths in my kitchen last night!

    I’m sharing this with EVERYONE I know that cooks, and even those that don’t. Lol. Cause. I mean. Did I SAY it was amazing already??? Yeah?? Ok. Just checkin.

    Thank you soooooooo much for this recipe!!!

  8. Hi! I just discovered your blog a few weeks ago and this was the first recipe I’ve made. It was SO GOOD! I forgot to soak the chicken overnight, so I just dipped the breast pieces in egg and then pressed into the crumb mixture – even with that huge mistake it turned out so well! I also didn’t get around to making the bourbon sauce, but I’ll be making this again in the very near future and I’ll do it 100% right this time!
    Can’t wait to try more of your recipes – if they’re anything like this one I know I’ll love them!

  9. Tieghan I want to make this tonight but do not have any bourbon, can you recommend a good substitute? Or should I just leave it out?

    1. Hey Kathy,

      I would use soy sauce or just leave it out. If you use soy sauce only use 3/4 cup and do not add the extra 2 tablespoons listed in the recipe and also reduce the cornstarch to 1 1/4 tablespoons. If you leave the bourbon out, I would use a total of 1 cup water and only use 2 teaspoons cornstarch. Hope that helps and let me know if you have anymore questions.

      Oh and I hope you love this!
      Thanks!