This is seriously my FAVORITE way to make chicken! Okay…truthfully, I like food a lot so it’s really ONE of my favorite ways to make chicken. It is so, so yummy!! It is a chicken breast rolled up with cream cheese and green chilies on the inside, then wrapped with 2 slices of bacon on the outside. It is finished off with a drizzle of barbecue sauce and baked to golden brown perfection. My boys LOVE this! Like love it, love it! It is so full of flavor and deliciousness. I never have any leftovers when I make this and I always wish I would have made a few extras (they actually do reheat really well).
While you can technically grill these, I like them better baked in the oven. The struggle with grilling them is that the bacon grease drips into the flames creating a pretty large and hot fire in your grill, which leads to easily burning the chicken. The nice thing about the oven is that you can control the temperature, and with the chicken baking in a pan, you don’t have to worry about creating a grease fire.
Another thing I love about these is that they are perfect for a summer dish, but are also a good fall/winter comfort food. You can even prepare them a day ahead and keep them in the refrigerator to be baked later – which to me equals a perfect company chicken. The less I have to do right before entertaining guests, the better!
Ingredients
- 5 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 4 oz can green chilies, drained
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 20 slices of bacon
- Barbecue sauce
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
- Slice each chicken breast in half from the side - you want them to be thin but still large enough to roll. It's easier if you place onr hand on top of the chicken breast and slice from the long side using your other hand - just be careful cutting!
- Pound the chicken so it's even thinner
- Mix the softened cream cheese, green chilies, and cheddar cheese.
- Scoop one large spoonful of the cream cheese mixture and put it in toward one short side of each flattened chicken breast. There is a lot of cream cheese mixture, so you can be generous!
- Roll each chicken breast and place seam side down.
- Take one piece of bacon and wrap it long ways around the each chicken breast - this covers the open sides to keep the cream cheese mixture on the inside.
- Take another slice of bacon and wrap the opposite direction from the first slice of bacon.
- Drizzle generously with your favorite barbecue sauce
- Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Turn the chicken breasts half way through to help them cook evenly.
- After 30 minutes, baste with more barbecue sauce and turn the oven up to 400 degrees. Bake another 10 minutes to help crisp up the bacon.
- Remove from the oven and enjoy! These are really addicting!
Linda says
This chicken sounds delicious. There are so many great flavors combined. I agree bacon on the grill is hard for me to manage. I don’t have a kitchen sink this weekend due to planning issues with new countertops, so this will have to wait til next week. Pinned.
Wishes for tasty dishes,
Linda