Bacon Wrapped Chicken Breast

Yum! This is my favorite dish to make when we have people over. It's easy to make ahead of time, economical, and tastes incredible. Plus, if it's nice out, you can stick your husband with the food on the grill and enjoy your company! (But I would never do that!- cough)

Anyway...for this you will need:

• Chicken Breast (I usually wait until the frozen bags are BOGO and stock up)


• A tub of Philly Onion and Chive cream cheese spread. (If you're cheap, you can buy the blocks and mash in your own onions and chives...but I had a coupon and they were on sale.)


• One pound of bacon


• Tin foil

If you're using frozen bags of chicken breast, you'll need to plan ahead. These need to thaw for a day or two.

I usually start by laying out "stations." It's easier and faster to do if everything is readily accessible. In addition, you're not continuously washing your hands between handling chicken and the tin foil box, etc. You'll need about 6-7 12" sheets of tin foil (look in your bag to see how many chicken breasts you have).

I apologize for the weird lighting in my kitchen.

The mid afternoon sun is really weird over here.

Use a shallow baking sheet, put 2 chicken breasts in a plastic bag, hammer flat.

I use kitchen sheers to cut off excess fat on the meat. Ugh, I hate chicken fat. Then, I put approx. 1 1/2- 2 TBSP of cream cheese on the chicken and spread it out a bit.

Roll up the chicken and wrap two pieces of bacon around it. Then, wrap in tin foil. (I wrap them Subway style- starting in a corner first and folding in the two outside corners to make a nice tight seal.

If you're freezing them, put all your chicken "balls" in a ziploc bag and freeze.

Cooking: If fresh- 350 for 40 min. If frozen - 350 for 1 hour.

Cost per serving: $1.84

Variations:
Low Fat: You can go low fat by using turkey bacon and reduced fat cream cheese and add your own chives and onion to it.

Gluten Free: Use nitrate free gluten free bacon, natural cream cheese and mix in your own chives and onion. (Cost per serving: $2.65)



This is also a great and easy dinner to bring to people if they've just had a baby, moving, etc. I usually wrap up some baked potatoes in foil and show up with X amount of tin foil balls (1 for every person in their family). The baked potatoes need to cook at 350 for an hour too, so its a good match.

Aside: probably not a good idea to bring to someone who has just had bypass. ;)

Enjoy!