Famous Dave’s Drunken Apples Recipe
Famous Dave’s Drunken Apples are a warm, spiced apple side dish simmered in a rich, boozy sauce with cinnamon and brown sugar, adding a sweet and tangy kick to their barbecue offerings.
Make our Famous Dave’s Drunken Apples Recipe at home. With our Secret Restaurant Recipe your Drunken Apples will taste just like Famous Dave’s.

Photo by John
Famous Dave’s Drunken Apples
A Famous Dave’s Copycat Recipe
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Famous Dave’s
Famous Dave’s, founded by pitmaster Dave Anderson in Hayward, Wisconsin, in 1994, has become a renowned American barbecue chain celebrated for its commitment to authentic, slow-cooked Southern-style barbecue. Born out of Anderson’s passion for barbecue, the restaurant quickly gained popularity, expanding across the United States.
Famous Dave’s menu showcases a diverse range of smoked meats, including St. Louis-style ribs, Texas beef brisket, and Georgia chopped pork, each seasoned with a signature blend of spices and coated in the restaurant’s distinctive barbecue sauces. The commitment to wood-smoking techniques and rich, smoky flavors has become a hallmark of the Famous Dave’s experience.
The restaurant’s warm and welcoming ambiance, coupled with its dedication to preserving the genuine spirit of American barbecue, has made it a favorite among barbecue enthusiasts and casual diners alike. Famous Dave’s success lies not only in its mouthwatering array of meats but also in its array of classic Southern sides, creating a well-rounded and satisfying dining experience for patrons seeking a taste of authentic barbecue culture.
Fried Apples
Fried Apples are a dish of pure comfort, a warm and syrupy blend of tender fruit, butter, and spices that embodies the essence of Southern hospitality. Though simple in preparation, the dish carries deep roots, tracing back to early American settlers who preserved apples by cooking them down with sugar and cinnamon. Over time, fried apples became a staple in Southern kitchens, gracing breakfast tables alongside biscuits and ham, and later finding their place as a beloved side dish at barbecue joints, where their caramelized sweetness perfectly balances smoky, savory meats.
Popular across the South, from Tennessee to Texas, fried apples appear on menus at iconic spots like Cracker Barrel and Famous Dave’s, often paired with pork chops, ribs, or country-fried steak. Their appeal extends beyond barbecue, echoing the flavors of German Apfelpfannkuchen (apple pancakes) and French tarte Tatin, though Southern fried apples remain distinctly their own—less refined but rich in rustic charm.
In recent years, fried apples have been elevated in gourmet circles, enhanced with bourbon, maple syrup, or smoked sea salt, yet their essence remains unchanged: warm, spiced, and deeply nostalgic. Whether spooned over buttermilk pancakes, served alongside a platter of slow-smoked brisket, or simply enjoyed from a cast-iron skillet with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, fried apples continue to be a cherished dish, proving that the simplest ingredients, when cooked with love and tradition, never go out of style.
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Famous Dave's Drunken Apples Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 Granny Smith Apples peeled, cored and sliced
- 3 Honeycrisp Apples peeled, cored and sliced
- 4 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
- 1/2 cup Brown Sugar packed
- 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 cup Apple Cider
- 1/4 cup Bourbon or spiced Rum
- 1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Place butter into a medium skillet. Place over medium heat.
- When butter has melted and is hot (do not burn), add apples, tossing to coat them in butter. Cook for 5 - 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they start to soften.
- Sprinkle in brown and granulated sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, stirring well to distribute the spices evenly over the apples.
- Pour in the apple cider. Simmer, reducing sauce slightly as the apples continue to soften, about 5 more minutes.
- Stir in the bourbon. Cook another 3 - 5 minutes, allowing alcohol to cook off and sauce to thicken into a rich, syrupy glaze.
- Finish with lemon juice and vanilla, stirring to combine. Remove from heat.
- Serve warm, spooned over smoked pork, barbecue ribs or alongside biscuits and vanilla ice cream.
Famous Dave's Drunken Apples
A Famous Dave's Copycat Recipe
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Photo of “Barbecue” is by John and is used by permission under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Creative Commons License. Read the Full License Here – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/legalcode.en. Photo of “Dining Out – Famous Dave’s Restaurant In Columbia, Maryland (July 2023)” is by Joe Haupt and is used by permission under the CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic Creative Commons License. Read the Full License Here – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode.en. Thank you, John and Joe. Great Pictures. Photos may be “representative” of the recipe and not the actual finished dish. All photo licenses listed were correct at the time of the posting of the page. Recipe is original to Secret Copycat Restaurant Recipes. Recipe created by Secret Copycat Restaurant Recipes based on information from the restaurant and other sources on the internet – many courtesy of the Wayback Machine. Additional Information is from original research done by Secret Copycat Restaurant Recipes and/or courtesy of Wikipedia and is used by permission.
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