This Bacon Wrapped Chicken is the perfect balance of smoky, savory, and sweet. Chicken breasts are wrapped in bacon and brushed with a quick 3-ingredient glaze, then baked until the bacon is crisp and caramelized. It’s a family favorite that takes just minutes to prep!
It’s an easy meal served over a bed of garlic mashed potatoes with a side salad or a simple vegetable like broccoli or roasted green beans.
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Holly’s Recipe Highlights: Bacon Wrapped Chicken
- Flavor: Juicy chicken breasts are wrapped in slices of smoky bacon and brushed with a sweet-tangy apricot Dijon.
- Technique: Tucking the bacon ends under the chicken keeps the wrap secure without toothpicks.
- Serving Suggestions: This chicken pairs well with oven baked rice, mashed potatoes, honey roasted carrots, roasted green beans, or a simple salad for a complete meal.
Total Time: 45 Minutes Servings: 4 Cooking Method: Baked
Ingredient Notes
- Chicken: Use boneless, skinless chicken breasts that are similar in size, ideally around 6 to 7 ounces each, so they cook evenly.
- Bacon: Regular-cut bacon works best so crisps up nicely. Larger chicken breasts may need an extra half slice of bacon to fully wrap and cover them.
- Apricot Preserves: Apricot preserves or jam adds sweetness to the sticky glaze. Peach jam or orange marmalade can be used in place.
- Dijon: Dijon mustard adds a savory tang that balances the glaze. Swap with yellow mustard for a milder flavor, or grainy mustard for extra texture.
How to Make Bacon Wrapped Chicken
- Season the chicken breasts, then wrap with bacon.
- Combine the glaze ingredients and brush over the bacon-wrapped chicken.
- Bake, then broil for extra crispy bacon (full recipe below).
Optional Broiling: While broiling is optional, it helps crisp the bacon at the end. Use foil instead of parchment if broiling!
Storage and Leftovers
- Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days and in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Reheat at 350°F in the oven for 8 to 12 minutes or in the air fryer for 5 to 8 minutes until heated through.
More Easy Chicken Breast Dinners
Did you enjoy this Bacon Wrapped Chicken? Leave a comment and rating below.
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts about 6-7 ounces each
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 8 to 10 slices bacon you might need a couple extra slices if your chicken breasts are large.
For the Glaze:
- ¼ cup apricot preserves or orange marmalade
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a baking dish with foil or parchment paper for easy cleanup.
- Season the chicken breasts on all sides with the paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
- In a small bowl, combine apricot preserves, Dijon mustard, and apple cider vinegar until smooth.
- Wrap two slices of bacon around each chicken breast (or 2 ½ slices if the chicken is really large), making sure the ends of the bacon are tucked under the chicken to hold it in place. Place chicken into the prepared baking dish. Brush the glaze over the outside of the chicken.
- Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until chicken reaches 165℉ at its thickest part. Broil for 1 to 2 minutes at the end of cooking for extra crispy bacon.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dinner, Main Course
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Great Recipes!
Thanks Carrie.
Tastes great! I would say there are a couple of difficulties, I too had issues with the bottom being uncooked from all the grease and cheese. So I ended up pan frying it at the end for a few min. Also a lot of the filling came out during cooking. But I must say, I used the ingredients as posted and it was just delicious!!! Just made it tonight, and wow. Thank you for sharing, I think next time I’m going to try toothpicks to seal the open ends better and use a wire rack underneath. I will also probably cook the bacon just a bit before just because I’m still new to cooking as far as something a little more advanced than just seasoned baked chicken so i want to make sure the bacon is fully cooked. lol but not changing the ingredients. Phenomenal flavor truly!!!
So happy you enjoyed it Brett!
Hi, My advice to is use thin bacon slices. I found that bacon slices comes in all sort of flavors & some are really thick. Today I’m using thick slices because my daughter bought wrong bacon. What Im gonna do is fry it until 1/2 cook & pat dry it & then wrap around the chicken.
Cook on a rack of some sort, the bottoms of mine were’nt cooked and were sitting in so much grease/juice it was hard to get them out of the oven without spilling
Thanks for sharing your tip Gabi!
This was so delicious and so easy! I can’t do garlic or jalapenos anymore (even tho I love them both); however, I used 1T of garlic herb cream cheese just for a taste and 3 T of the plain cream cheese and no garlic. I also didn’t use too much sw seasoning cause I can’t have spicy but it wasnt spicy. I will add more next time so it looks more like your picture! I served it with Long grain and wild rice and honey glazed carrots.. My bf loved it!!
This is so delicious oh my gosh 5 star totqlly try it
Awesome!! I didn’t put the peppers in it. Use my own seasoning
So glad you enjoyed it!
Just to clarify, how much should each breast weigh? Do you mean what some people call whole chicken breasts (the entire chest of the chicken), or what the same people call a breast half?
These would be chicken breast halves.
Made this last night and it immediately won a place in the meal rotation! My chicken breasts were really huge so pounded them a bit before I put the cheese mixture on them. Even then they were still huge so I had to use 3 strips of bacon on each (gosh darn it!) I baked it about 40 minutes. Delicious and moist. I didn’t have a “soutwest ” seasoning so I made one using an Emeril recipe – delicious. I also made a chipoltle cream sauce for it. Served with a big pile of summer squash roasted with onions. Fabulous!
Woohoo! Glad to hear that this recipe was a hit!
I’m excited to find another bacon wrapped chicken recipe :-) I will be making this tonight!
I make a version of this bit I put asparagus and chive cream cheese inside before wrapping with bacon.
Going to make this. Never thought of chicken, bacon & cheddar together. We’re not really into southwestern flavors so I’m going to use Italian parsley, garlic, & other Italian herbs instead of the jalapenos & southwestern seasonings.
Your herb mixture sounds delicious too!
What would be a good substitute for the jalapeños? I will not be using them. Canned, chopped green chilies?..
You could certainly leave them out if you don’t like the heat or sub in chopped green chilies.
I’m having guest for dinner and I think this will be a good dosh but what side should I serve with it? Besides a Cole slaw my kids are not to found of it. This seems easy to make and doesn’t take much time. If making more than two the cook time should still be the same or will it require more time?
Steamed or roasted broccoli, a rice dish and a tossed salad would go perfectly with this. The cooking time does not need to be increased if you double the recipe, just ensure the chicken is a little bit spread out (not touching one another) and they should be fine!
Sorry but where does the southwest seasoning go?
The seasoning is rubbed on the outside of the bacon before baking.
Wow this looks really good! I’m definitely going to try this next week! We eat chicken very often but I will have to add some cheese and bacon next time!
3 favorite words: cheesy. bacon. chicken. Boom done!
LOL… my favorites too!
Yum!! This looks so good and delicious! Bookmarking this to make it on the weekend!
Thank you Sam! Enjoy!
Wow, my meat-loving husband would love this. I’ll make it for him! :-)
I hope he loves it as much as we do!
YES love the idea of a bacon wrapped chicken breast – not sure why I haven’t thought of that myself!
Thank you Vicky! It makes them so tasty!
I think I need to add more cheese and bacon to pretty much everything. This is fantastic!
LOL Bacon and cheese are my two favorite food groups!
Let’s face it – you could probably wrap cardboard in bacon and I would eat it! LOL. This juicy, cheesy, spicy chicken sounds waaay better. :-)
LOL, yes, definitely would be better! Thank you Rebekah! :)