In his highly anticipated follow-up to the James Beard Award-winning Buttermilk Graffiti, Edward Lee examines his favourite libation—bourbon—with recipes, essays, history, profiles, distillery tours, and more.

* Named a Best New Cookbook of Spring 2024 by Eater, Epicurious, and Food & Wine

Knowledgeable, entertaining, and more than a little infatuated with his subject, award-winning food writer and chef Edward Lee gives us his insight into bourbon, telling us everything we should know about the mellow honey-brown treasure that’s put Kentucky on the global map: How bourbon is made. Its history. How to read a label. A look inside the famous distilleries. The influence of oak. Tours of Kentucky’s bourbon regions. How to taste bourbon like a professional. And, in the most delicious surprise, how to cook with bourbon, with 50 recipes from Bourbon-Glazed Chicken Wings and Blackened Salmon with Bourbon-Soy Marinade to a Bourbon and Butterscotch Pudding. Plus the best Old-Fashioned you’ll ever mix.

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Grilled chicken thighs in a honey, miso, and mustard marinade

Bourbon and grilling are a match whose foundation is rooted in the charred flavor essential to both. High heat and smoke seem to intensify the bourbon flavor in the marinade, and chicken is the perfect base for this dish. Serve the chicken simply on a bed of broccoli rabe that soaks up the sauce. Try this with a well-aged bourbon on ice with a splash of water, and see for yourself how the pairing brings out the flavours in the browned chicken.

FOR THE MARINADE

¼ cup dark miso paste

¾ cup bourbon

2 tablespoons brown mustard

2 tablespoons honey

I tablespoon rice vinegar

I teaspoon soy sauce

FOR THE CHICKEN

2 boneless chicken thighs

I pound broccoli rabe

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

To make the marinade, in a large bowl, combine the miso, bourbon, mustard, honey, vinegar, and soy sauce. Save a little marinade in a separate small bowl to use as a finishing sauce later.

To prepare the chicken, place it in the bowl with the marinade and cover with plastic wrap. Marinate the chicken in the fridge for 1 hour.

Heat a grill to high or heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat.

In a medium bowl, combine the broccoli rabe, garlic and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Remove the chicken from the marinade and pat dry (you can discard the chicken marinade). Grill the chicken skin-side down for about 3 minutes, until the skin is caramelized and browned, then flip the chicken and grill until the flesh is cooked through, about 8 minutes, then remove from the grill.

Place the broccoli rabe on the grill and cook for 4 minutes, until charred and cooked through. Remove from the grill.

Arrange the broccoli rabe on a platter and top with the chicken thighs. Drizzle a little of the reserved marinade over the chicken and broccoli rabe. Serve right away.

Recipe reprinted from Bourbon Land by Edward Lee (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2024. Photographs by Jessica Ebelhar.