Monday, August 25, 2008

Recipe:Monterrey Chicken--Many Meals in one!

This is a Lindsey (my sister) classic, she created this dish off something she ate in a restaurant and its a favorite of ours. I think this is a budget conscience meal and I usually make it as a two-for meal. Meaning, I make more than I need for the first meal and then jazz it up some and have a totally different meal the next night but with parts from this dish. I will explain below.

Ingredients:
Chicken Breasts (However many you need to feed everyone, I usually make 6 to feed 3-4 people plus have 2 left over for the next meal)
Package of Bacon Sliced or Cheese (We use Swiss, Cheddar, or Provolone...whatever I have)
Jar of Barbeque Sauce

Take Chicken and wrap a bacon slice around it, place in casserole dish or pan. Cover with bbq sauce and put in oven at 375 for about 45-60 minutes until done. With about 10 minutes left, add slices of cheese over each breast. You can also put this in the slow cooker on low and cook it all day and add the cheese at the end, just be sure to add about a cup of water at the beginning. Lindsey has also made tiny bite sized versions for appetizers.

For the next day, I have a few variations of this meal.
#1. My favorite is to take the leftover chicken breasts, sauce, and bacon and cut it up or shred it and add some butter and Frank's Red Hot Sauce and it makes a barbecue buffalo chicken. I put the chicken in a whole wheat tortilla with lettuce, ranch dressing, and any other fixins and make a wrap sandwich.

#2. You can also take that same buffalo bbq chicken and toss it on a salad, add baked tortilla strips or chips and you have a bbq buffalo salad, you could add blue cheese crumbles if you are a blue cheese person and bacon bits are also a nice addition.

#3. Lindsey will take the chicken and make quesadillas the next day with it, just shred it up, add cheese and anything else you want to a tortilla and cook it in a non stick or cast iron pan, flip when it gets toasty.

#4. You can also just cut up the Monterrey Chicken and add it to a salad the next day. I do this because I think it is cost effective since I don't have to buy items for two complete meals, plus it saves on prep time the second day and I don't have to turn on my oven and pay the electricity to have the oven on and my a/c to cool down the hot house from the oven being on. :) I just use the microwave the second day.

Try it! I hope you like it! Let me know what you think!

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