13 Ways To Incorporate Bourbon When Grilling, According To Grill Masters

You don't have to go camping to appreciate how well bourbon pairs with smoke, not when there's a grill right there in your backyard begging you to make a fantastic dinner with a bourbon in your hand. But what if — hear us out here — you could also cook with that bourbon? Of course, the next step is to know all the best ways to add the spirit to your meal so that its characteristics can enrich your food. 

To get the best tips on how to incorporate bourbon into your grilled meals, we turned to pro chefs with a strong background in barbecue and bourbon — some of whom work at distillery restaurants, where bourbon isn't just a good idea for an ingredient, it's practically essential. Here are their seasoning suggestions, laid out to guide you through every stage of the cooking process. But that doesn't mean you want to use bourbon in all of them at once. A little bourbon sure goes a long way. The good news is that leaves more bourbon for you to drink while your meal cooks. So what are you waiting for? Grab a great bourbon under $100 and bring its best traits to your next cookout. 

Just as the type of oak stave affects a bourbon's profile, the bourbon you use will bring different traits to your dish. Nobody knows cooking with bourbon quite like Richard Knight, head chef at Maker's Mark Distillery's Star Hill restaurant. He knows what various bourbons can do, and what qualities to seek for a particular dish.

"Oak imparts a flavorful, but not too harsh a flavor to the meat," he explains. As for what from the Maker's Mark lineup to use for cooking, he says, "I would recommend Maker's 46 because it has intense notes of autumn spices and black pepper, with a fantastic toasted wood flavor with a caramel sweetness which inherently goes so well with the smoky sweetness and complexities of BBQ."

Lighter dishes may require an even gentler splash. Carey Bringle owns both Peg Leg Porker BBQ and Peg Leg Porker Spirits in Nashville, and as the only pitmaster with a bourbon brand, is singularly well poised to advise on both. He recommends using a peach whiskey glaze made with his 90-proof Peg Leg Porker Spirits White Label for tender salmon and grilled vegetables.

Cooper Miller, owner and chef at Tupelo, Mississippi's Forklift, loves using whiskey in marinades for its ability to perform a lot of functions. "The alcohol acts like salt, intensifying other flavors such as spices, aromatics, or citrus in your marinade. It also bonds easily to fat and water molecules, bringing out the smoky, spicy notes in the whiskey," he explains.

And don't forget the spirit's woodsy character. "A lot of bourbons have wonderful wood notes from French and American oak, which are commonly the go-to wood of choice in the smoking of BBQ meats," says Richard Knight. "Most bourbons also bring with them flavors of caramel, vanilla, and brown sugar, and of course a slight sweetness coming from the corn, all which are big key elements in BBQ."

As you craft your marinade, remember to counterbalance with fat and extra seasonings to create the absolute best marinade ratio. And if you don't have time or confidence to create your own, or are missing some ingredients, there's absolutely nothing wrong with adding whiskey to one of the best steak marinades already in your fridge.

Richard Knight calls bourbon a great tenderizer and says, "If left to marinate for a few hours, it will break down the meat slightly and also impart a flavor layer to your dish, but be a little careful and don't leave it in the marinade for too long — especially for the smaller cut like chicken or pork chops." A good guiding rule is the smaller the actual animal, the thinner its muscle fibers tend to be, and therefore more susceptible to breaking down quickly.

Live Fire Republic's David Olson recommends ribeye steaks as perfect candidates for a bourbon marinade before grilling. If you're working with primal cuts or whole birds, however, you might want to skip the marinade bath and follow his advice to spot-inject the whiskey marinade directly into thicker muscles, such as his tantalizing suggestion of a "bourbon and maple-injected turkey for holiday cooking." With this method, the flavor will penetrate into hard-to-reach depths before the bourbon makes mush of the outer proteins.

Certain cuts, as noted, may suffer texturally before they benefit tastewise. The solution? Reduce the water and alcohol content, allowing the incredible bourbon notes that can only be acquired from years of aging to intensify. "When cooked, the alcohol burns off and you are left with some great complex flavors," Carey Bringle explains. Now this powerful punch of flavor can marinate intensely and quickly. 

Alternatively, combine it with sugar, seasonings, and/or oils, to make a great glaze or sauce that's perfect for the barbecue. "Bourbon and barbecue tend to pair well together because they both reference incredible flavor notes and compounds from wood," explains Jess Pryles, host of The Outdoor Channel series, "Hardcore Carnivore." "For bourbon it's the oak barrel-aged flavor that makes it so unique. Similar compounds can be found when using oak for meat smoking," she notes. 

Richard Knight adds that when you're amplifying a bourbon's characteristics, its mash bill matters more than ever. "Choose something that has soft wheat and other elements going on in the background with great spice notes and wood. It's always best to cook out the sauce to break the sugar down and to burn off the alcohol, to help the flavors to blend and create a creamier feel to the sauce." Keep it balanced, he says, so that the bourbon contributes rather than overpowers.

Some home cooks know that a bit of bourbon intensifies the flavor of beans, but not everyone knows why, or how the fairly mild earthiness of beans plays such a good host to these characteristics. Luke Shaffer, chef instructor at Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts, has you covered on your next organic chemistry test with the very scientific answer.

"Bourbon partners with BBQ ideally because phenols such as guaiacol and eugenol are the compounds that add spicy and smoky notes," he says. The grilling process infuses foods with the same characteristics as the bourbon. For something like beans which have a long cooking time, it's the perfect touch to give them more body and strengthen the pairing bridge with rich meat. Just remember to wait until they've fully cooked before you add it in, or else the strong alcohol content and general acidity can prohibit the beans from softening.

Sometimes the best way to grill with bourbon is to separate the two to interact with the food on its own terms. For example, while you might think of making marinades and sauces for your meat, a little bourbon can go a long way. Sometimes you want to add flavor without overwhelming the dish. To that end, let your bourbon meet the meat, but not move in with it. Chef David Olson shares advice we heard from more than a couple chefs, warning against using bourbon with light and flaky seafood, because the bourbon can take over. Instead, he suggests using bourbon-soaked wood planks when grilling delicate proteins to impart a lighter touch of the spirit to foods that need a little separation from the grate anyway.

If, on the other hand, you're cooking a food that comes in its own casing, you may struggle to infuse it with bourbon on the grill. Sausage is as sturdy as a cookout food gets, but its casing makes it a challenge to marinate or baste. If you want to add some quick character to your kielbasa, chef Richard Knight suggests you "poach your sausage and add a little bourbon to the poaching liquid to give the dish a real depth." Once the sausage has absorbed the flavor of the cooking liquid, you can finish it on the grill for smokiness and to intensify the bourbon even more.

A glaze is used to adhere flavors to your dish, creating a top layer that welcomes your taste buds to the main event. It exists somewhere between a reduction and a sauce, but most basic meals aren't as delicious as an indulgent bourbon-glazed barbecue dish.

While there are other methods than sugar to thicken the glaze, it's the definitive component in the majority of recipes. Sugar helps that thin coating adhere to the food as it dries, and ensures that tinge of flavor clings to the main vehicle. However that doesn't mean you're bound to table sugar. Other sweeteners, like molasses or reduced soda mixed with whiskey, offer characteristics that will enhance the bourbon. Richard Knight recommends mixing bourbon with honey or sorghum, very close to the end of your cook. "Watch the temp on the grill or oven so the sugar part of this does not burn." It would be a shame if all your hard work came to a bitter, scorching end, and worse — you'll have wasted bourbon!

Sauce is added at the end or after grilling; it's a complete taste, and like the glaze, should add a new quality without overwhelming the main act. Richard Knight comments, "I would suggest putting bourbon in at the last minute to a dish you are making to maximize the flavor hit but not too much, you want it to dance with all the other ingredients and not take over the show!" For example, he says you can replace some of the vinegar in a Carolina-style sauce with bourbon, or bring its sweet and smoky elements to play in a tomato-based BBQ sauce.

Luke Shaffer employs sauces with bourbon in a much fattier, though just as sweet direction, going with a brown-sugar bourbon butter with vanilla notes to elevate the rest. He notes, "Bourbon makes an excellent compound butter for finishing grilled and smoked meats, vegetables, fruits, and desserts — try a smoked pineapple with brown sugar bourbon butter!"

But for jaw-dropping dressings, grill your brassica and bring it home to bourbon. Amanda Salas, executive chef at Journeyman Distillery, shares, "We add our Featherbone bourbon to a tahini dressing that's served over roasted broccolini." The cabbage family roasts brilliantly, so let that smoky, nutty result swim in the complementary taste of charred oak.

It's harder to find fruits and vegetables that don't love the grill than those that do, but some excel at it. Try mushrooms, which act like sponges for everything bourbon delivers while being difficult to overcook on a long barbecue afternoon. When it comes to veggies, though, Cooper Miller recommends taking thick-skinned gourds to the grate. "Fall vegetables tend to pair nicely ... because their flavor profile is similar to whiskey. My favorite is pan-roasted squash deglazed with whiskey and rosemary and finished with a little nutmeg and toasted pepitas."

Carey Bringle loves bourbon-glazed carrots in particular, but for fruits, he recommends bananas, apples, and pineapple, all of which favor both grilling and bourbon, albeit in very different ways. Meanwhile, Luke Shaffer notes, "While I would argue that bourbon goes with everything, there are some foods that are not perfectly suited to pair. Super bitter greens like endive and radicchio can intensify the bitter notes found from the tannins in bourbon." He adds, "Acidic foods do not complement the sweet, smoky tones of bourbon." So maybe grill that grapefruit without bourbon's help.

All the chefs agreed with Luke Shaffer's autumnal assessment that "cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove are a no-brainer to pair with bourbon to bring out its warm baking spice notes." Among green seasonings, woody stems perform better. "Hard herbs like rosemary and thyme will bring out the oak notes that bourbon is also known for," he says, while leafier ones tend to falter.

"Heavy herbal dishes with cilantro and dill clash with bourbon's sweet woodsiness," explains David Olson. He says you can get away with basil, lavender, or lemon verbena, however — all of which brighten the boldness of bourbon. Use caution with anything picante, he says, as it overclocks bourbon's harshness. "Very spicy foods tend to clash with bourbon's warmth, amplifying the alcohol's burn."

Cooper Miller concurs. "It is important to remember to be mindful about the amount of bourbon used as it is a bold flavor. If you are just drinking bourbon, you may want to avoid anything spicy as it tends to only intensify the heat." If you are trying to use bourbon with capsaicin, Jess Pryles says you can get away with ancho chilis which have an earthier flavor profile.

We all know a light lager is the handiest grillmeister sipper in sunlight hours, but you might want to use a little extra space on the grill to smoke and season cocktail ingredients and garnishes. You'd be hard up to find a fruit that doesn't take on savory characteristics on the grill, perfect for skewering as a cocktail garnish. Alternatively, David Olson wants you to try fire-roasting a tomato or deliberately burning some rosemary.

You can even bring the barbecue into the beverage. Native Texan Luke Shaffer says, "It's not uncommon to see a chunk of tender brisket with a piece of cheddar cheese and cornichon on a skewer adorning a Bloody Mary in Texas — a pork rib will do the trick as well." Jess Pryles agrees, adding, "If you've never tried a whole pork rib as a swizzle stick, have you even really lived?" If you can't enjoy a Bloody Mary without smoked bacon, infuse it into the bourbon instead of using it as a garnish. Carey Bringle counsels "Fat-washing bourbon with bacon fat can be delicious." 

But why not smoke the drink itself? If you have a cold smoke chamber, he recommends making an Old Fashioned as a great candidate for "a fun way to tie a cocktail to the BBQ." If you can only hot smoke, Cooper Miller recommends infusing simple syrup by smoking equal parts water and sugar in a metal pot for 45 minutes, before straining and chilling.

Bland is underrated. A nice carb base like rice, potatoes, or bread shouldn't burst with too much flavor, as its role is to support entrees and bold sides. That being the case, mild starch flavors take exceptionally well to a bright acidic splash — think malt vinegar on fries or pickled jalapeños on nachos. In a blank field, a pop of color stands out, and the acidity of whiskey establishes a similar attention-grabbing effect on the landscape of your taste buds.

To that end, Richard Knight recommends you skip the cider vinegar in your potato salad and incorporate whiskey instead. "If you mix a little wheated bourbon into the mayonnaise, you can get a lovely depth to the dish and you will definitely get people guessing what your secret ingredient is!" Start lightly; you can always blend more bourbon into your mayo, but you can't take it out, except by adding more aioli for balance — and then suddenly you're the proud owner of a half-gallon of delicious bourbon mayo. How will you make enough sandwiches to eat it all? Better throw another barbecue.

While you don't want too much smoke in most sweet dishes, who doesn't love that flavor border zone where toasted caramel and smoke meet in a cake or pastry?  "Bourbon's sugars caramelize under heat, adding depth to desserts, sauces, marinades," explains David Olson. He recommends grilling a bourbon apple crisp or galette in a cast-iron pan. Just remember that smoke is a powerful addition, and you might want to pull your dessert off before it's done cooking to finish in the oven. You can also, as with the cocktails, smoke individual ingredients so as not to overwhelm the final product.

The resulting depth of flavor, according to Luke Shaffer, comes from "Ethyls like isoamyl acetate and ethyl hexanoate [which] give bourbon fruity notes that help it pair with fruit-forward sauces or desserts." He explains that the spirit's "sweet creamy notes ... make bourbon a perfect pair for caramelized and charred foods." No wonder Carey Bringle recommends grilling bananas foster, a creamy, vanilla fruit and cake.