The glassy, refreshing Rhode Island ocean and cloud-free lapis lazuli skies are to blame for the brevity of today’s post. Really, I had intended so much more commentary; commentary about my obvious, and quite wholesome love of peaches, my far less wholesome love of bourbon, the joy of grilling chicken thighs over a charcoal fire, and the magical pairing of peach, bourbon, and said chicken thighs.
However, with not nearly as much time as I had intended to wax poetic about these things, I’ll just get on with it (and realize that more than one of you are thanking the universe that I have once – just this once – embraced brevity).
Fortunately for all of us, this sauce also embraces brevity. Or would, were it human. Which is to say that it is a quick-to-complete sauce. In just about 15 minutes, you have a fancy fruit sauce suitable for company, but just as easily busted out on a Wednesday night to dress up the mid-week chicken and help dodge a boredom bullet. Or avoid chicken fatigue. However you’d like to look at that.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium shallot, finely chopped
- 3 medium peaches (approximately 1 to 1 1/4 pounds), peeled, pitted, and chopped into 1/2-inch chunks1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional if you happen to not like a little heat with your fruit sauce)
- the leaves from two sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon bourbon (such as Jim Beam)
- kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, then add the shallot and cook until it's translucent, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the peaches, crushed red pepper flakes, and thyme, and cook until the peaches are starting to soften, approximately 5 minutes.
- Pour in the honey, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, then add the bourbon, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes more.
- Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve the sauce forth with grilled chicken or pork (my two preferred vehicles for the sauce, though I'm totally open to other vehicles - please feel free to offer other options up).
Estimated cost for one batch of peach-bourbon sauce: $5.20. The olive oil costs 36-cents. The peaches are $2.79 per pound at my favorite farm stand, so that’s $3.49. The crushed red pepper flakes cost around 3-cents, the thyme (if you aren’t growing thyme in a pot or in the garden) would be in the range of 50-cents from a store-bought package of thyme that costs $1.99. The honey costs 50-cents, the bourbon 32-cents.
And with that, I’m out – to continue with the late-summer post-beach bliss. I hope that you’re enjoying your very own late-summer bliss, post-beach or otherwise.
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