Bacon-wrapped Stuffed Chicken Breasts

    Chicken is a wonderful protein to work with, not only is it healthy (for the most part) but just about everyone likes it (that is unless you are a vegetarian or vegan). It is so versatile, it can be baked, broiled, fried, grilled, boiled, and the list goes on and on. Many different cultures use this as the main staple in a dish. You really cannot go wrong with cooking chicken-unless it's undercooked and that's BAD news! However, sometimes my family needs a change up from the usual "chicken and dumplings" or "chicken parmesan" meals that I make. (Don't get me wrong, we love pretty much any chicken dish that I make, but it can get boring fast). So one day while spending hours on Pinterest, I found this little gem and decided to try it. I mean, BACON wrapped, STUFFED chicken breasts. My mouth waters as I read the title of this!! Now before I post the ingredients and recipe, I will say that I've prepared this several times since discovering it. Yes, it is that damn good! I have several tips to add to it at the end. But I will start with the basic recipe.

The ingredients, notice the thin sliced chicken?

INGREDIENTS:

• Boneless, skinless Chicken Breasts, approx. 2 pounds
• 8 oz. Cream Cheese (the recipe calls for Chive and Onion, but you can use whatever. Check out my tip on this one).
• Bacon, 8 slices
• (as you can see in my photos, I used regular cream cheese and added my own fresh green onion)

pound that chicken!!

put the good stuff in it and roll

RECIPE:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Pound the chicken breasts with a meat tenderizer until about 1/2" thick (I have a tip for this also)
3. Spread each chicken breast with the cream cheese, then roll up.
4. Wrap two slices of bacon around each breast, secure with tooth picks
5. Place on a broiler pan and cook for about 35 minutes, turning each breast about half way through cooking (so after about 17 minutes, flip them!)
6. Turn oven broiler on, place the broiler pan on top rack and broil for 3-5 minutes, just long enough to get the bacon crispy. 
7. Enjoy!!

wrap it in more good stuff...mmm..BACON! (except Autumn's)

TIPS:

1. You don't have to use Chive and Onion flavored cream cheese. You can use any kind you'd like really, it's a preference thing. Even plain cream cheese with a little bit of garlic powder/salt isn't too bad...The last batch I made I used the garden veggie cream cheese and it was AMAZING! 
2. I haven't tried this trick yet, but plan on it the next time I do make this-adding slices of red, green, yellow or orange bell peppers (the garden veggie cream cheese has peppers in it, which gave me this idea). I bet adding other things like olives, jalapenos, pepperonis or whatever your heart desires would make this great dish even better. Let your imagination run wild!
3. If you do opt to make your own cream cheese filling, let your cream cheese soften at room temperature for a bit. It will make mixing and spreading much easier.
4. If you can manage it, buy the boneless, skinless chicken breasts that are already thin sliced. I find they are much easier to roll up, plus 98% of the time they are thin enough that you don't have to do Step #2. 



half way through cooking-with a special glaze

5. Whatever you do, don't use the HUGE whole chicken breasts. They are a hot mess to deal with, and even if you pound them out really thin, they still seem to be hard to roll up and don't cook as well. I learned a hard lesson from using too big of breasts (huh huh huh).

REVIEW:
I already told you that I've made this several times before, so this is a winner for my family. I do have to leave one unwrapped because Autumn doesn't like bacon (weirdo). I've also used the honey-ketchup sauce/glaze that I have been using for pork chops, recipe found a few recipes down. This sauce works great for this. I am going to try cooking them on the grill one of these days.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe as much as me. Remember you can subscribe to my blog,  Pinterest Kitchen Witch to see all the recipes I try from Pinterest. If you want to follow me on Pinterest, click here. If you don't want to follow the umpteen boards that I have, you can pick and choose which food boards you'd like to follow (I do have several of those). I love new subscribers and followers! I also like to hear other people's tips and tricks, as well as their reviews on items they've tried that I share. So please feel free to comment below!

mostly done (phone died before I could take the final picture)

Brightest Blessings!!