Bacon Wrapped BBQ Chicken Tenders

I know, I had you at bacon. Really, do I have to tell you how delicious these chicken strips are? Tender, flavorful and just so good--after all, bacon makes everything better. Not only was this a delicious dinner on a cold, gray day (will this winter ever end?), but it took all of 3 minutes to put together and 20 minutes to cook. Bacony goodness in record time. I'm always up for wrapping food in bacon and I'm glad my Secret Recipe Club match had this idea on her menu as well.

Since it's the second Monday of the month, that means it's reveal day for Group B! What's Secret Recipe Club?  Each Monday a group of bloggers post a recipe they've made from another blogger's repertoire.  Nobody knows who's featuring their blog until that day and it's a fun chance to visit new blogs and try something different. Visit some of the other bloggers in my group by checking out the blog hop at the bottom of this post.  To learn more about Secret Recipe Club, click here. For March I was assigned to Micah's blog, Cookin' Mimi where Micah shares tons of recipes exploring her love of cooking, founded by cooking with family throughout her life. Her recipes are a mix of Southern goodness, comfort food and some ethnic dishes, so there's a lot to explore. As usual I had a hard time choosing--Brownie Batter Ice Cream was calling me for sure, but then there were the Biscoff White Chocolate Blondies. Maybe Breakfast Tacos or Cinnamon Pecan Biscuit Twists. I was this close to making Baked Potato Soup, but then I saw Micah's beautiful collection of six (!) types of BBQ chicken and knew I'd found a safe haven. So of course I went with the Bacon Wrapped BBQ Chicken Breasts because, well, bacon. I happened to have some chicken tenders, so I decided to go with those instead of regular breasts. Seriously this couldn't haven been easier. I set the chicken to cook a wire rack atop a sheet pan to allow the excess fat to drip off and help the bacon crisp up a bit instead of get soggy. The bacon didn't get super crispy, but if left to cook for another 3 minutes or so, I'll bet it would have had a little more bite without drying out the chicken. I also added a bit of BBQ seasoning directly to the chicken, in addition to the BBQ sauce. You could certainly season the chicken with anything you like for a unique twist. My recipe below is for 6 chicken tenders, but you'll notice in my pictures I only had 5. That's a weird number so I couldn't write it up in a recipe. These will show up on our meal plan again, but I think I'll have to double this up so Dave and I have some leftovers. Be sure to visit Micah at Cookin' Mimi and check out her other wonderful dishes!

Bacon Wrapped BBQ Chicken Tenders

Ingredients

6 chicken tenders (about 1 pound total)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon BBQ seasoning
12 slices bacon
1/2 cup BBQ sauce

Line a rimmed sheet pan with aluminum foil and set a wire rack on top. Season chicken tenders on both sides with salt, pepper and BBQ seasoning.

Starting at one end of a chicken strip wrap halfway with one strip of bacon, then finish wrapping with a second strip. Place on the wire rack on top of the pan. Wrap remaining tenders with bacon.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and baste chicken with BBQ sauce.

Return to oven and cook for another 5 minutes or so until chicken is cooked through and bacon is crisp.

Serve with french fries and salad.

Makes 2 servings.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

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