Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole

This meal combines  two of my favorite meats chicken and bacon. Frozen veggies, a cream sauce, and canned biscuits round this out for a delicious casserole sure to please the whole family! The biscuits on top and bottom are crunchy, but those that are touching the chicken stay doughy like dumplings.

3 chicken breast, diced
6 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
2cu cheese sauce
1/2cu ranch
16oz bag frozen mixed veggies
2 cans refrigerated biscuits
1/2cu shredded cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375*. Sauté chicken in a pan until cooked through, about 15min. Put chicken and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well. 

2. Open one can of biscuits and press to cover bottom of baking pan. Spread chicken mixture over biscuits. Tear the other can of biscuits into pieces and cover the top of the casserole. 

 3. Sprinkle with cheese and place into oven. Bake for about 15 minutes until the top biscuits are browned and its bubbling. Cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Tenders

BACON!!!! Now that I have your attention, join me for a delicious dish that features a meat which has inspired countless products that should not taste or smell like it (bacon scented bandaids anyone?). Bacon wrapped about bonless skinless chicken breast tenders are great to serve for dinner with the family or at your next party. They're also super easy to make. You can get away with just two ingredients, but I'm all about punching up flavor, so I take it a step further.

3 boneless skinless chicken breast cut into 24 pieces
8 slices of bacon cut into thirds
Brown sugar
Spicy seasoning of choice

1. Preheat oven to 425* and fit a baking sheet with a baking rack. If you don't have one, that's ok. You can still bake straight on the sheet, but you might want to drain the chicken on a paper towel before serving to remove excess bacon fat.

2. Wrap each piece of chicken in a piece of bacon. If the pieces are smaller you can just wrap it right around the piece and place into the pan loose ends down. If the chicken is longer wrap it around spiral style and place with both loose ends down. Sprinkle with seasoning if using. I left the seasoning off the pieces I was feeding my anti-spicy kids.

3. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes and flip over. Sprinkle brown sugar and more seasoning. Rotate pan and place back into oven for another 15 minutes. The bacon should be nice and crispy. Enjoy!

These are the three spicy seasonings I have in my cupboard. I used my Jim Beam Spicy Bourbon tonight.

This is how big I cut the chicken and bacon.

You can see the smaller pieces at the top have the bacon just wrapped around them. The larger pieces have the bacon going around in a spiral style.

This is what the chicken should look like after 20min when you're ready to flip. The ones in the bottom left do not have spicy seasoning on them.

Flip them over and sprinkle with brown sugar and more seasoning if using.

All done!

It's Friday!

For many people the work week is over and they're ready to enjoy the weekend. I'm going to enjoy a brew while I cook some bacon wrapped chicken tenders. Stay tuned for new blog post :-) I've got chicken cordon bleu, garlic oven fries, and tonight's dinner to post! What do you have cooking?

Oven Baked Bacon

If you've ever wondered how restaurants manage to make perfectly crisp bacon that stays flat let me tell you their secret. They bake it. That's right folks! They bake the bacon in the oven. This allows it to stay flat instead of turning into a curly mess that just doesn't work well on sandwiches. It also allows you to make way more bacon than you could in a single conventional skillet. This is usually how I make my bacon. I haven't really noticed that much bacon grease splatter in the oven which I know can be a concern. I like the addition of a sprinkle of brown sugar and chipotle chile powder when I flip it over. It adds a sweetness with a gentle smoky heat that is divine. This bacon is sooooo tasty that my friend Jessica STILL talks about it and it's been years since I made her some. She even told my boyfriend to make sure I make it for him, haha.

bacon
brown sugar
chipotle chile powder

1. Put a piece of parchment paper onto a baking sheet and lay your bacon onto it width-wise.

2. Place into a COLD oven and turn to 375*. Once you start to smell the bacon cooking and hear it sizzling check on it. Now, depending on how crispy you like your bacon it will cook for various times. Mine usually goes for 10 minutes the first round.

3. Flip the bacon over and sprinkle with as much brown sugar and chipotle chile powder as you want. Let cook until browned to your liking. For me this is another 5-10 minutes. Place onto paper towels with the brown sugar side UP to absorb excess grease and enjoy!

McCormick is the only brand of Chipotle Chile powder I use...

You can cook a lot more bacon on a baking sheet than a standard skillet

This is how the bacon looks when you flip it over. On the right you can see the brown sugar and chipotle.

Perfectly crisp and ready for a BLT! The bacon on the left has the chipotle on it.