Sunday, July 6, 2014

Chicken Bacon Wraps

I first got this recipe from Jessica, but it turns out it's a Paula Deen. Don't worry, there isn't any butter in it. Actually, there are only 4 ingredients and they're pretty easy to make.

Jeff and I have made them for dinner twice, but both of those times were because we were really hurting for meal ideas. These are delicious, but they're much more of an appetizer than a main course. I keep imagining that someday someone will invite us to a cookout or dinner party and I will think to myself, "I know just what to bring!" and somehow I will get these there, hot and delicious. I'm not sure at this point how I would do that without prepping them and then using a friend's oven, but maybe that's just how it would have to be. The down side of that plan is that they have to cook for 30-35 min, and I feel like that's outside the polite "may I use your oven?" guidelines.


As far as "dredging" the wraps in the powder mixture... I'm not entirely sure what dredging means? So I dipped each one in, then used a spoon to pack a decent amount of powder onto the wrap, lifted it out, gave it a little tap to shake off excess, then put it on the pan. I also used my trick from the black bean flautas for baking these. I covered a baking sheet in aluminum foil, then laid a cooling rack on top and placed the wraps on the cooling wrack so they could drip onto the foil. The recipe calls for a broiler pan for the same reason, but apparently my oven didn't come with one. I wouldn't recommend using thick cut bacon for this recipe. Or, if you must, don't cut your chicken pieces as small as the recipe says. The end result will be dry chicken and chewy bacon - trust me on that.

Original recipe from Paula Deen
Ingredients:
-4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
-1 lb Sliced Bacon
-2/3 Cup firmly packed Brown Sugar
-2 Tbsp Chili Powder

Directions:
-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
-Cut the chicken breasts into 1" cubes. Cut the bacon slices into thirds
-Wrap each chicken piece with bacon and secure with a toothpick
-Combine brown sugar and chili powder in a small bowl
-Dredge wrapped chicken in mixture and place on broiler pan or cooling rack on a baking sheet
-Bake 30-35 min until bacon is crisp