This Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie takes a classic dessert – pecan pie – then kicks it up a few notches with the addition of chocolate chips and Bourbon to the filling!
This grownups-only dessert is rich, delicious and very decadent, and it is sure to become a favorite on any holiday dessert table.
What I also love about this Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie is how easy it is to prepare! The filling comes together in just minutes. Then pour it in a pie shell (we took a short cut and used store-bought pie crust found in the refrigerated section of the supermarket), bake it, cool it – and you are done making a very memorable dessert that your holiday guests will love!
This Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie can be made ahead of time – in fact, it’s recommended that you make this the day before you serve it so the pie has time to full set after baking. Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from The Chew.
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This pie is best when it is made a day ahead so that it has time to cool and fully set. Once cooled, wrap with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature until served and refrigerate remaining pieces.
Ingredients
- 1 9-inch pie crust (store-bought or homemade)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light corn syrup
- ½ cup butter (1 stick)
- 4 large eggs, beaten
- ¼ cup bourbon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (approximately 1 cup)
- 1 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a deep dish pie plate with the pie crust, set aside.
- Combine sugar, corn syrup and butter in a saucepan. Stirring constantly, cook over medium heat until butter melts and sugar completely dissolves. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
- In a large bowl, combine egg, bourbon, vanilla and salt. Mix thoroughly. Very slowly pour cooled sugar mixture into egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the heat from the sugar mixture doesn’t cook the egg mixture. Add the chocolate chips and pecans and stir to mix well.
- Pour mixture into pie shell. Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes or until set and golden on top.
- Serve warm or chilled.
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In the South, particularly Kentucky, this is known as “Derby Pie”. Love it!
Thanks Lana! (I love it too!)
Do you have to use the bourbon? What are substitutes?
Hi Riley – You can swap in vanilla extract if you prefer.
You neglect to mention a very important item in your recipe ingredients list: deep dish pie crust. Kind od a big deal. Its only mentioned half way thru the recipe. So much for thansgiving pie.
Hi Mary – I’m sorry you were disappointed with the recipe. We used a standard 9-inch, store-bought pie crust in a deep dish pie plate when we made the pie you see in the photographs. That should have been sufficient for your pie. Either way – we always recommend that you read a recipe completely through before making it (especially if it’s a new recipe) so there are no surprises. Happy Thanksgiving!
Martha, I can’t wait to make this for Christmas! I know it will be a hit. I have tried many of your recipes and ALL of them have been a hit! Thank you lady! Happy Holidays! 🙂
You’re very welcome Jenna! So glad you are enjoying the recipes and we hope you love this pie! Happy Holidays to you too! 🙂
What kind of bourbon did you use?
Hi Tara – We used Jim Beam Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey in our recipe.
IS This okay to freeze
Hi Allison – We’ve only refrigerated this pie but I think it would probably be OK frozen and then thawed.
Made this last night, and this is my first pie I’ve ever made. Couple questions maybe you can help me with. The top of my pie kind of cracked in a circle in the middle of the pie. When I tried it this afternoon the middle was still pretty gooey and taste strongly of bourbon. Any tips? I cooked it for an hour and 5 minutes because When I checked the temperature of the middle of the pie at 55minutes it wasn’t quite to the temperature it needs to be at.
Hi Tara – It’s difficult to tell exactly what the issue was without being in the kitchen with you! The pie does have a fairly distinctive bourbon flavor (you definitely know it is there!). In terms of the cracking – you can see in our photos that ours also cracked a little on top although not really a circle around the middle as you described. The egg in this recipe are the binder that holds everything together – did you use large eggs (if you used extra large, that may have impacted the consistency and caused it to be softer.) Hope that helps!
Thank you!
Do you cook the pie crust first? I like to use a Pillsbury raw roll out dough when making pies.
Hi Rachel – We did not pre-bake the pie crust first. The Pillsbury dough should work fine – in fact, I think we used it ourselves when making this recipe. 🙂
Use deep dish pie pan or the ingredients will not fit.
ok I bought a already made pie crust will that work in this recipe to but it is not deep dish and I have Kentucky burbon sour mash by ezra brooks will that make a diffentents in the taste of the pie
Hi Pamela – I’m not sure about the Kentucky Bourbon sour mash – we’ve never made the pie with that substitution. For the pie crust – use what you have but don’t overfill the crust. You might also want to reduce the cooking time if you don’t use all of the filling.
It makes it double good if you make your own vanilla extract in a good bottle of bourbon.
Great idea Clay!
How long should you cook the butter, sugar, and corn syrup on the stove? It kept looking like the sugar wasn’t dissolved so I kept cooking it. I then had to put it back on the stove because it hardened too much while I was getting the rest of the ingredients ready. Now it’s in the oven and I’m nervous the inside will be hard like candy and inedible. Any thoughts?
Hi Lynn – Not long at all..only about 5 minutes or so. Hope the pie turned out for you!
I made this on Friday for a family dinner on Saturday. It was a huge hit! One thing; I had to add 35 minutes to the baking time, otherwise it would have been pecan pie soup. I’m wondering if this could be because I used a frozen deep dish pie crust that’s in a thin aluminum pie pan? It maybe didn’t retain heat as well and therefore had to bake longer? I’ll be making this again for a work potluck, and will just make sure I bake it longer than the 55 minutes.
I’m glad you were able to get the recipe to firm up Kristin! If the pie crust was still frozen when you filled it, it’s possible that was the cause.
Hi there! Do you use salted or unsalted butter? Can’t wait to make this!
Hi Kelly – We used unsalted butter
Have you ever soaked your pecans in bourbon before using them in the pie?
No – we haven’t tried doing that.
Hi! If you’re subbing bourbon with vanilla how much would you use?
Hi Calli – I’d probably start with 2 teaspoons of vanilla – you can always taste the filling and add more if you want a stronger flavor.
Hi. I noticed it calls for chopped nuts. Would it be okay with this recipe to add some whole nuts, just because I like how whole nuts look when they flat to the surface. Thanks for the help!
Of course Michelle – you can definitely do that. Enjoy!
Hello! I’d like to make this pie for our Christmas Eve and Christmas day gatherings. I am interested in making one with chocolate chips and one without. Can you tell me what I would need to alter if I leave out the chocolate chips? Thank you
Hi Denise – I don’t think that should be a problem – without the chocolate chips added, it will just be like a regular pecan pie (plus bourbon). Without testing the recipe out ourselves without chocolate chips added, I’m guessing you won’t need to add anything else, just leave out the chocolate chips. Hope that helps!
This is a great pie! Have been making it for years. One thing I have learned is a premium bourbon is lost on this pie, save that for your sipping pleasure. When BAKING with bourbon (if you want the taste of bourbon to come through) it is best to use a cheaper brand. Not THE cheapest, then it’ll only taste like turpentine. I’ve tried the vanilla ones, the honey ones & the cinnamon ones. I love drinking them but, they are not for baking.
Thanks so much for the advice Jana! So glad you enjoyed the pie.
Do you have a recipe for egg whites and sugar mixture use to coat and bake pecan halves? I had one that I used several time but can’t find it. Thanks
Hi Margie – I’m afraid we don’t have a recipe for that. Let us know if you find a good one!
Hello, could I use maple syrup instead of corn syrup? And I wanted to add raisins, what do you suggest?
A cup of raisins or less?
Thank you
Hi L – Corn syrup is a totally different consistency, sweetness and flavor than maple syrup so I don’t think you’ll see the same results as a swap in this recipe. Also – I’m not sure about adding raisins to this pie…as written, it’s very rich and sweet as is. As an alternative, you might be interested in our Cranberry Raisin Pie: https://www.afamilyfeast.com/cranberry-raisin-pie/ – hope that helps!
Can you substitute vanilla pasta instead of vanilla extract?
Hi Sara – Yes you can. We don’t bake with vanilla paste very often, but I’ve read that you’d substitute the same amount of paste as extract. Hope that helps!
My husband and I were going to visit family out of town (Kentucky) this Thanksgiving and this pie looked like it would travel well and I thought the bourbon would be well appreciated. It turned out great! Absolutely delicious! I used a deep dish pie plate as the recipe calls for but wasn’t sure why it was needed.I thought the filling would have fit in a regular pie pan. I give this recipe 5 stars and would highly recommend.
Thanks Lori – Glad you enjoyed the pie!
I just made this pie and after cooking 60 minutes, it was like soup. I followed the recipe EXACTLY, cooking the sugar mixture until sugar dissolved prior to adding other ingredients as instructed. Not sure what happened. Any ideas about what I could have done? Thanks in advance.
Hi Lisa – I’m sorry to hear you had issues – it’s always difficult to troubleshoot without being in the kitchen with you. The major thickener in this pie is the eggs – is it possible you used smaller eggs? Otherwise, try chilling the pie to see if it firms up a bit. I hope you can still enjoy it!
I just made this using the leftover frozen pie crust, regular sized instead of a deep dish. To everyone struggling with the pie crust size, I did a bit of math and you just need to scale the recipe down to 3/4 (so using 3 eggs instead of 4, etc). It fits perfectly. I did find that I had to bake it for 50-55 minutes, I’m not sure if this was due to the frozen pie crust? Just make sure the center isn’t jiggling when you take it out of the oven, and you should be good to go. It tastes delicious!
★★★★★
Thanks Heidi!