Copycat Whiskey Glaze

Admittedly, it’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a meal at TGI Fridays. But I still crave two things from that restaurant. The sesame jack chicken strips, and Jack Daniels sauce!

I did notice they’ve changed the name of the sauce and chicken strips, dropping the Jack Daniels name and calling it whiskey glaze. But I’m guessing the sauce itself still tastes the same. Fingers crossed!

But if you were a fan of their signature whiskey glaze back in the day, I’m here to make your food dreams come true. This glaze tastes just like their sauce, is easy to make at home, freezer-friendly, and goes with just about anything!

If you’ve never had Fridays whiskey glaze, you are in for a massive treat. It’s perfectly sweet and savory with a little spice. Perfectly baste-able and dip-able, it’s about the consistency of maple syrup.

So let’s see how to make it shall we?

How to make copycat TGI Friday’s whiskey glaze?

This is just an overview; the full ingredients and directions are in the recipe card toward the bottom of this post.

1. Roast garlic. This step can be done ahead to save time, or skipped altogether, but I think the roasted garlic really makes the glaze taste amazing.
2. Bring the start of the sauce to a boil. Heating the pineapple juice, water, teriyaki sauce, soy sauce and brown sugar to a boil, then reducing the heat to simmer helps all the sugar fully dissolve.
3. Add garlic. I don’t like big clumps of garlic in my sauce, so I like to mash the cloves in a bowl first.
4. Add remaining ingredients.
5. Simmer. Letting the sauce simmer for about 45 minutes is going to concentrate the flavor and reduce the sauce, which thickens it to a glaze consistency.

Variations of this recipe

• Non-roasted garlic – personally, I find roasted garlic gives this sauce the best flavor, but if you really don’t have time, or can’t get good quality fresh garlic, the jars of pre-minced garlic will work. I would use between 1 and 1 1/2 Tbsp.
• Alcohol-free – even though the vast majority (if not all) of the alcohol is cooked off during the reduction process, I understand some of you may not be able to use alcohol. The good news is, you can simply omit it and replace it with an equal amount of water.
• Light brown sugar – if you don’t have dark brown sugar, light brown sugar will work just fine. The sauce may be a little bit lighter in color, but should still taste great. You could also add a drizzle of molasses to the sauce, which would mimic the molasses-y flavor of the dark brown sugar.
• Solution for sauce not thickening – even though the sauce should reduce by about half during the simmering process, if you find it’s still too thin for your tastes, you can mix together 1 tsp of cornstarch with 1 1/2 tsp cold water, then stir that into the sauce as it simmers. Be aware though, like most sauces, as it cools, it will thicken a bit more.

Making whiskey glaze ahead of time

As with most sauce or glaze recipes, you can absolutely make this recipe ahead of time. It will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator (in an airtight container of course).

You can also prep it ahead by roasting the garlic, chopping the onion, measuring out the brown sugar, etc.

The biggest time saver when prepping ahead, is roasting the garlic. This can be done several days in advance, and saves about 40 to 50 minutes of time.

Storage

Leftover glaze should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator and used within 1 week.

Before storing, make sure the glaze is cooled to room temperature.

Freezing

For longer storage, whiskey glaze can be frozen!

Make sure the glaze has cooled to room temperature, then transfer to freezer-safe container, label it with the date, and freeze for up to 3 months.

Recipe based on Allrecipes