This easy Cheesy Bacon BBQ Chicken is a quick and easy dinner recipe idea using plain ol’ chicken breasts, bbq sauce, bacon and cheese! It’s a 30 minute meal too!
This cheesy BBQ chicken with bacon is not a healthy dinner. There’s sugar in the sauce, fat in the cheese and bacon and a good dose of sodium, BUT it is a quick and easy dinner that every now and again won’t break your belt loops. And I’ve never met a kid that doesn’t love it!
Ingredients Needed for Cheesy Bacon BBQ Chicken
This ingredients list is short. Don’t blink, you might miss it!
- Homemade BBQ Sauce (or your favorite store bought sauce)
- Colby Jack Cheese
- Bacon
- Chicken Breasts
- Salt
- Pepper
- Smoked Paprika
- Cilantro
The amount needed of each ingredient can be found in the recipe card below.
How to Make Cheesy Bacon BBQ Chicken
We start by grilling up a few chicken breasts which we have butterflied, or in other words, cut in half to make two breasts instead of one.
We use our grill outside or a grill pan to cook them up and I don’t think it really matters. However, you will want to only cook them halfway done so they can finish in the oven. If you don’t want to grill, no worries, I have a fool proof method for knowing when chicken is done (see section below).
Here are the steps for making this recipe on the stove top:
- Preheat the oven.
- Heat a grill pan on the stove top.
- Sprinkle salt, pepper, and smoked paprika on both sides of the butterflied chicken breasts.
- Reduce the heat.
- Briefly cook the chicken on one side then flip it.
- Put partially cooked chicken in prepared casserole dish.
- Cover each breast with BBQ sauce.
- Top with cheese.
- Bake.
- Sprinkle with bacon and cook a little longer.
- Top with some chopped fresh cilantro and allow to rest.
- Serve.
How Do You Know When Chicken is Done?
Have you read our post on how to cook chicken in a pan and how to know when chicken is done? This method is SO easy and so worth the read. Cutting into the chicken breast to see if the middle is done is not a pretty site, not to mention it loses all of its juices that way. Hurry and open a new tab to read about how to cook chicken in a pan.
How Long Will BBQ Chicken Last?
BBQ chicken only lasts about 24 hours in the fridge. Unfortunately all of that cheese and bacon isn’t very good reheated on the third day, but if you must try it, try rewarming it in the oven with foil over it at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
What to Eat with Cheesy BBQ Bacon Chicken?
I always love a chicken dinner with some sort of potato side dish. Here are a few of my favorites followed by a few veggie ideas too:
- Oven Baked Potatoes
- Herb Roasted Potatoes
- Mashed Potatoes
- Cheesy Potatoes
- Corn Avocado Tomato Salad
- Marinated Tomatoes Salad
- Broccoli Salad
You can’t go wrong with a chicken dinner that involves cheese, bacon, and BBQ sauce! Easy cheesy bacon BBQ chicken is going to be a winner for your family! And you can’t beat a 30 minute meal!
More Easy Chicken Dinner Recipes:
- Honey Lime Chicken
- Smoked Chicken Thighs
- Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken
- Huli Huli Grilled Chicken
- Honey Lemon Basil Grilled Chicken
- Bottom of the Jar Chicken
- All our Chicken Recipes!
Cheesy Bacon BBQ Chicken
Cheesy Bacon BBQ Chicken
Description
Ingredients
- [Homemade BBQ Sauce]
- 1 1/2 Cup Colby Jack Cheese, grated
- 3 slices of Bacon, chopped and cooked
- 2 Chicken Breasts, butterflied creating 4 thin breasts
- Salt and Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
- Cilantro, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray nonstick cooking spray in a casserole dish.
- Heat a grill pan over high heat.
- Sprinkle salt, pepper and smoked paprika on each side of the chicken and place into the pan, turning the heat down to medium low.
- Allow to cook for three minutes, flip the chicken and cook for an additional three minutes.
- Place the chicken in the casserole dish.
- Spread a little bbq sauce on each breast, top with cheese and bake for 10-15 minutes.
- Sprinkle with bacon and cook for another 5-10 minutes or until cooked through.
- Sprinkle some chopped fresh cilantro on top and allow to rest 5 minutes and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Recommended Products
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Kim G.
I’ve made this several times. So quick and easy!
Sweet Basil
Yay! I’m so glad you enjoy it! Thank you for the feedback Kim!
LaRae
This looks so delicious! But, why are the carbs so high per serving??? Is that a typo?
Sweet Basil
Sometimes the calculator pulls crazy high numbers, I’m not sure why, but it should fix the error soon.
Carletha
Wwhat if you don’t have a grill can you just cook it in the oven…by the way this looks really good
Sweet Basil
Thank you so much, you can cook it in the oven, grill or stove top. 🙂
Diane
I prepared the Jack Chicken last night for dinner. It was a huge hit! Served it with steamed broccoli. Thanks for the recipe!
Sweet Basil
Thanks Diane! Our kids love steamed broccoli (thank goodness!) so that’s often what we do as well.
Mary
Although you note it in the paragraph description, you do not include in the recipe that the bacon should be cooked and chopped.
Sweet Basil
Hi Mary, thank you for catching that it only said chopped. It has been corrected. 🙂
Amanda S.
This looks scrumptious, I must try!!
I tried the link to the homemade BBQ sauce, however, the page doesn’t exist. How may I find the BBQ sauce recipe?
Thanks!
Amanda S.
Never mind, I found it! 🙂
Aimee @ ShugarySweets
Will you look at all that cheese? And Bacon? I heart you 🙂
Sweet Basil
xoxo!
Karly
This is one of our favorite ways to each chicken! I mean, of course…lean meat topped with bacon and cheese. 😉
Sweet Basil
right?! That’s how I roll
Christina @ The Beautiful Balance
My meat-loving boyfriend will LOOOOVE this! Love that you make your BBQ homemade. Store bought just does not even come close!
Sweet Basil
oh, not at all! It’s way better
Julie @ Tastes of Lizzy T
What’s not to love about this chicken? Looks so amazing!
Nicole ~ Cooking for Keeps
OMG. That is all. 🙂
Sweet Basil
haha, thanks girl!
Matt
This looks ridiculously good and would be a huge hit here!
Sweet Basil
thanks matt!
Rachel
This sounds so good right now! And I just so happen to have everything I need to make it. Guess I know what is for dinner!
Sweet Basil
yahoo!! hope you like it!
Gaby
This looks so good!!!