Monday, February 23, 2015

Chicken Hugs

My apologies, it has been quite a while. You can catch up on my cross-country move, change in professions, puppy adoption and travels here.


Right now, I've got a creation that was inspired by mean post-workout hunger and very little time. We used 3 chicken breasts, a cup of cheese, 6 slices of ham (you could use any sliced deli meat) and 4 slices of bacon. It made 4 entrees, we each had two and we were very full after!

I'm not sure what to call this; "Chicken Hugs" comes to mind or "Reverse Chicken Cordon-Bleu" (I realise it is a different). Regardless here is what you need to do to make this meaty treat for yourself.

1. Cook yourself up some chicken. I blackened mine a little with some chili pepper spices and hot chipotle salt, but if you want to go a more Italian route you can season with garlic powder and traditional Italian spices.
On a separate ban half cook a piece of bacon for each entree you plan on making. Remove when half cooked.
2. Let your chicken cool after cooking and then rip it up into strips. I was able to use an entire small chicken breast in one of my entrees but it was tiny.
3. Lay out an entire piece of sliced ham on a baking sheet.
4. Lay down a bed of shredded cheese.
5. Lay down a layer of chicken with an inch or so to spare on each side to allow the ham to wrap over top.
6. Sprinkle more cheese on top of the chicken.
7. Wrap the layer of ham over the top of the chicken. As you can see for some of mine I double wrapped using two pieces of ham. Stick a toothpick through all the layers to hold it together.
8. Wrap your half cooked bacon around the ham with the ends coming together at the top.
9. Sprinkle more cheese on top.
10. Place pan in oven and allow to cook until the bacon is crisp and the cheese has melted.
11. Remove from heat and enjoy!


Bam, there you go! My unnamed chicken creation! To simplify the process we stuck out bacon I our George Foreman grill for a quick half cook and used chicken breasts we already had made. We had plenty chicken left over from the 3 breasts to make a salad as well!