Bacon Wrapped Chicken Bites

Forgive me for my belated post.  I’ve been dealing with computer issues (don’t put a quarter in me about Best Buy at the moment).  To make up for my absence, I bring you bacon wrapped chicken bites.  Not only are they amazingly delicious, but they’re perfect for everything from dinner to game day finger food for the guys. 

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• Diced chicken breasts
• Bacon
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons lime juice
• ½ - 1 teaspoon salt (depending on how salty your bacon is)
• ½ teaspoon pepper 

The first thing you need to do is par-cook the bacon.  If you skip this step you’ll either have dry chicken or soggy bacon, neither of which is allowed in my house.  The easiest way to cook bacon, is in the oven.  Just line a sheet pan with foil and lay the strips bacon on it. 

Slide the pan into a cold oven and turn it to 325°.  I think it took about 15 minutes for my bacon to get to this stage.  You want it to be basically cooked, but still quite limp.

Remove the slices to a plate lined with paper towels and set them aside. 

Up next is the chicken.  I find the easiest way to dice chicken is with a pair of kitchen shears.  KitchenAid makes some pretty decent ones that are affordable.  For me, affordable is a good thing in the shears department, because I’m pretty tough on them.  I throw them in the dishwasher frequently, cut open packages and all kinds of food stuff, and I’d rather just replace them once every year or so than have to worry about sharpening them. 

Cut your chicken into something resembling one inch cubes. 

Now for the seasoning.  In a small dish, combine the brown sugar (I used coconut sugar, but regular brown sugar will work just fine.) salt, and pepper. 

Stir them together and add the lime juice. 

Stir that all together.  Now it’s time to make a little assembly line.  Cut your bacon strips in half and line a sheet pan with parchment.  Now is also a good time to preheat your oven to 375°.  Wrap each piece of chicken with a half slice of bacon. 

Dip it into the brown sugar mixture, coating the whole thing.  Allow the excess to drip off. 

Place it, seam side down, on your pan. 

Repeat until you run out of chicken.  I was able to get 17 pieces from 2 chicken breasts and 1 package of bacon, and still had some leftover sugar mixture. 

Bake at 375° for about 20 minutes.  While mine was in the oven, I got distracted by a little squirrel out the back window. 

I know exactly what you’re thinking right now.  And yes, I am a bit like this. 

So, after 20 minutes, you should have bacon wrapped chicken perfection. 

We had ours for dinner, with macaroni and cheese (Trader Joes has some in their freezer section that’s surprisingly awesome) and zucchini.  You could also serve them with toothpicks as part of your football snackies. 

What’s your favorite thing to do with bacon?

Homemade Flour Tortillas

And holy guacamole are they easy!  Sorry, I had to.  Seriously, though, they are so easy to make and amazingly delicious.  Hubby says they’re the best tortillas he’s ever had, and trust me, he’s not one of those husbands who just says that to appease me.  The other day, he took a bite of some rosewater and cardamom ice cream I made (which was freaking awesome) and said it was the worst thing he’s ever tasted.  And no, he wasn’t being facetious.  My point is, if he doesn’t like something, he doesn’t hesitate to let me know, so these tortillas must really be fabulous. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 2 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 Tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 Tablespoons oil
• ⅔ cup hot water

Put the flour, salt, and baking powder into a mixing bowl. 

Whisk them together.  Cut the butter into chunks and throw them in. 

Add the oil.

Mix until you have something that looks like wet sand. 

Pour in the hot water and mix. 

It’ll be sticky when it first comes together. Knead it for two minutes or so.  It’ll still be very soft, but it will no longer be sticky and it will completely clean itself from the bowl. 

Cover that and allow it to rest for at least an hour.  You’ve just created gluten with the kneading, and it needs some time to relax or you’ll never be able to roll the dough thin enough for tortillas.  When you’re ready, heat a skillet over medium heat.  I used nonstick, but if you have cast iron, that’s probably even better.  Pull of a piece of dough about the size of a golf ball and roll it in your hands so it’s mostly round. 

Pat it out on a floured surface. 

With your rolling pin, roll it as thin as you can get it, being sure to keep moving it so that it doesn’t stick to the countertop.  It won’t be a perfect circle, but don’t worry.  That’s the beauty of homemade, right?  You want it to be thin enough that you can see through it. 

Lay it into the heated skillet.  No oil or anything in the pan.

When it bubbles up like this, it’s time to flip. 

It should be nicely browned. 

Give it about 45 seconds then check the underside.  If it’s similar in color to the top, remove it from the pan.  Stack them up on top of one another, keeping them covered with a towel as you go. 

With a little practice, you’ll be able to roll one out, lay it in the pan, then quickly roll out the next one before it’s time to flip.  Occasionally you’ll probably end up with a bit of flour in the pan, just wipe it out so it doesn’t burn. 

This recipe makes about 8 tortillas.    

If you wrap them tightly in two layers of towels, they’ll stay warm for like an hour while you make whatever you’re putting inside. 

Soft, beautiful, and delicious. 

 

What would you like to put inside these fabulous tortillas?