Recipes and Cooking Ideas for Homemakers and Amateur Cooks
 

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken

Posted on June 3, 2008
Filed Under Chicken and Turkey, Pork and ham

I’ve never made bacon-wrapped anything. I’ve had bacon-wrapped crackers and I’ve had bacon-wrapped filet mignon, but didn’t make either of them. So, here it is, the first time I’ve made a bacon-wrapped something…

bacon-chicken7.jpg

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken    Recipe taken from the 2001 Quick Cooking cookbook

6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 carton (8 oz) whipped cream cheese with onion and chives
1 Tbsp. butter or margarine, cubed
Salt to taste
6 bacon strips

Flatten the chicken to 1/2″ thickness.
bacon-chicken1.jpg

Spread 3 Tbsp cream cheese over each. Dot with the butter and sprinkle with salt. Have you ever tried spreading cream cheese on slippery raw chicken? It’s hard!!!
bacon-chicken2.jpg

Roll up. Wrap each with a bacon strip. Place, seam side down, in a greased 9×13 pan.
bacon-chicken3.jpg

bacon-chicken4.jpg

Bake, uncovered, at 400 for 35-40 minutes or until juices run clear. Broil 6″ from the heat for 5 minutes or until bacon is crisp. Yield: 6 servings. Look at the difference in the pan of the picture above and the picture below! The bacon sizzled and splattered while baking. We could hear it.
bacon-chicken8.jpg

bacon-chicken6.jpg
We had creamed peas and Red Lobster biscuits with it.

This bacon-wrapped chicken actually looked REALLY good and sounded like it would be top notch, as in put it on the make-for-company list. The combo of chicken and bacon was really good, but the chicken was a bit dry and it wasn’t really all that extra flavorful.

Next time, I’m going to skip the cream cheese thing and sprinkle other seasonings inside instead. Then, I’ll bake it covered (so the splattering bacon doesn’t total my oven!) and uncover it for the broiling at the end. I think the chicken would stay more moist that way. And then we could eat it with barbeque sauce. Bbq sauce didn’t seem like it would go with that cream cheese mixture.

But it does look kinda neat, doesn’t it? One thing that surprised me was that the bacon stayed on, even when it ended at the top. I didn’t have to tack it down with toothpicks or anything!

One of these weeks, I’ll have to do a week of re-doing recipes that I’ve tried. I say ‘next time’ and then just keep making new recipes and ‘next time’ doesn’t really happen, although I did try something different with those carrot pancakes… I traded the cup of carrots for 1/3 cup of pumpkin and doubled the pecans. I kept everything else the same, but maybe should’ve added nutmeg. It was much better than the original recipe!

Comments

10 Responses to “Bacon-Wrapped Chicken”

  1. Annette33 on June 3rd, 2008 12:00 pm

    I think I’ve tried this one before, and I didn’t like the cream cheese filling. I may just have to try it again, making your change suggestions. If you decide to redo the recipe, you could call it Recipe Remix, or Seconds with a Twist, lol.

  2. Shannon on June 3rd, 2008 1:55 pm

    Interesting. I rarely buy bacon… might be something I have to try.

  3. Kelly on June 3rd, 2008 2:41 pm

    Mmm..this looks good. I think I would take your advice, remove the cream cheese, put some herbs in, and then use some BBQ sauce.

    Looks delish!

  4. Freida on June 3rd, 2008 2:44 pm

    Those look yummy! The only time I ever bacon-wrap anything is for shish-kabobs. I wrap it around fresh mushrooms and put it on there. Never thought of putting it on chicken. I’ll have to give it a try.

  5. barb on June 3rd, 2008 3:59 pm

    Looks really good Kay. I have never bacon-wrapped anything either. They do look really neat. I am glad you tried them first, because I don’t like dry chicken. Isn’t it funny how some recipes are that way. You just know they will be good. With the ingredients it calls for, its got to be good. But then it just isn’t that great. It’s a good thing there are cooks like you that can re-do a recipe and make it taste wonderful.

  6. Elizabeth on June 3rd, 2008 4:07 pm

    It sounds good though! you should try bacon wrapped hot dogs!! grilled of course. its really good!

  7. Cheryl on June 3rd, 2008 6:21 pm

    One summer we had a favorite of marinating the chicken breasts in Italian dressing and then we put onion and pepper strips in the center and rolled the chicken and wrapped them in bacon. If you like peppers and onions…its really good, at least we liked it. We grilled them. I want to say there was some swiss cheese in there too but don’t remember for sure. I’m not sure how you would keep it from running out the ends.

  8. Angela on June 4th, 2008 1:49 pm

    You might want to try grilling this recipe, that would bring out more flavor. My husband says if you wrap bacon around anything it will taste better! =)

  9. barb on June 4th, 2008 8:08 pm

    Kay,
    I guess I am going to try blogging my kitchen experiences. Thanks to you, it just got me motivated. I went ahead and did a post on soft pretzels, but I still want you to. People need to know how to make them:)
    franskitchen.blogspot.com

  10. Jo on June 4th, 2008 8:54 pm

    We’ve sometimes put a slice of pineapple on top of a burger, wrapped bacon around it, and grilled it. Mmm, mm, good! (A challenge to manuever on the grill, however!)
    I’d second your idea of covering the chicken during the baking time. Maybe a bit of lemon juice & water in the bottom of the pan, too…I despise dry chicken breasts!!!!