Barbecue Chicken with Bacon and Cheese

At the end of one year in high school, I remember my Young Life leader, Melinda, grilled up this barbecue chicken. So much of the memory is blurry, but I’ve never forgotten how much I loved this chicken. It’s so simple. Just barbecue sauce, bacon, some cheese and diced tomatoes and green onions (you can see only some of us wanted those). You really don’t need a recipe at all. But I’m still sharing it here because it has now been a favorite easy summer meal for 20+ years. We’ve made it in the oven in the winter as well. Because bacon. And cheese. And did I mention it’s quick and easy? So for those nights when I wonder why everyone has to eat dinner… yet again… this barbecue chicken is a great solution.

In other news, I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with this blog. I started it because I have fed a large number of college students over the years. And I feed the five others in my family most days. So many people ask me to teach them how to cook, and while I would love to, practically that’s really hard to do. So this blog is my attempt to pass on recipes that I have found that I love. Some are easy, like this. Some like this are more of a challenge.

I’m sharing this with you all because I wanted to ask if you could do me a favor and help make this blog more of a conversation than one-way communication. I’m an introvert, so I’m generally fine to talk to myself. But because it takes time to take photos and type up a post, silence here is causing me to lack some motivation.

I LOVE it when I get text messages or Instagram tags with something that you made from this blog! Don’t stop those! But if you’ve made one of the recipes I’ve shared, would you use the stars just below the recipe title to rate it? I just added that feature. Thank you!! In case you couldn’t figure out the obvious, one of my love languages is words of affirmation. The stars will help me know you’re reading and easy summer meal. My other love language is gifts… just saying. 😉

Print

Barbecue Chicken with Bacon and Cheese

Course Dinner

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Yield 4 people

Ingredients

• 4 (6- to 8- ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed
• 1 1/4 cups barbecue sauce, divided
• 8 slices bacon
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1 green onion, sliced
• vegetable oil spray

Instructions

1. Cook your bacon. I bake mine on a foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet in the oven at 350° for about 15 minutes or until it's as crispy as I like.

2. As the bacon cooks, place chicken breasts in a baking dish or ziploc bag and cover with 3/4 cup barbecue sauce. Place remaining 1/2 cup barbecue sauce in a small bowl. Let chicken marinate in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Turn all burners of your grill on to high, cover, and heat grill until hot, about 15 minutes.

3. Turn burners down to medium-high. Clean and oil cooking grate. Place chicken on the grill and cook until browned on first side, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes. Flip chicken, brush with some of the reserved barbecue sauce, and cook until browned on the second side, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes. Flip chicken, brush with barbecue sauce, and cook for 2 minutes. Repeat flipping and brushing two more times, cooking for 2 minutes on each side. Flip chicken again and brush with any remaining sauce. Cook until chicken registers 160 degrees, 1 to 3 minutes. Turn off the grill and top each chicken breast with two slices of bacon. Sprinkle with shredded cheese. Close the grill lid and let the chicken rest for 1 minute to melt the cheese. transfer chicken to a clean plate and let rest for 5 minutes. Serve with diced tomatoes, sliced green onions.

Notes

You can easily adjust this recipe to serve more or less. Plan for two pieces of bacon, about 1/4 cup barbecue sauce and about 1 tablespoon of shredded cheese per chicken breast.

For food safety, discard the barbecue sauce that the chicken marinates in (do not use it for basting). 

We often use a grill mat when grilling with marinades because clean up…