Apple Bacon Chicken recipe (and lots more apple ideas...)

I'm still getting Bountiful Baskets produce, and loving the experience! You can read about it in my blog post here.

A couple of weeks ago I got my regular basket, plus a big box of Gala Apples...about 38 pounds worth. I'd paid $24 for them. I couldn't pass up such a great deal, but I had to figure out what to do with so many apples! I have made...

• Lots of Slow Cooker Applesauce (much of which I froze)
• Apple Pie (using this pie recipe, with added cinnamon and nutmeg; and this crust recipe)

 

• Apple Coffeecake with Streusel Topping (skipping the glaze; the cake is awesome without it)
• Apple Bacon Chicken

I haven't used all the apples.... There are some still in the fridge, and I also froze a bunch of slices for future use.

But let's go back to that last bullet point...Apple Bacon Chicken.

It was a big hit. I used this recipe, but I adapted it for the oven instead of the slow cooker. My recipe follows. Enjoy!

Apple Bacon Chicken (adapted from chef-in-training.com)

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup barbecue sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
4 large apples, peeled, cored, and diced
8 slices bacon

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Trim chicken, and pound it to a uniform thinness (doesn't need to be super-thin; just pound out the thick parts to match the rest!)
3. Cut each chicken breast in half.
4. Wrap a piece of uncooked bacon around each breast half. Arrange chicken in a large baking dish.
5. Mix together barbecue sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice, and diced apples. Pour over chicken.
6. Put a meat thermometer into one of the pieces of chicken. Choose the thickest chicken piece in the dish. (If you don't have a meat thermometer, it's a great time to get one! I like the digital ones that beep when they hit a certain temperature. I think mine was about $10 at Walmart.)
7. Cook until temperature reaches 145 degrees. Honestly, I don't know how long this took...maybe 30-40 minutes. If you don't have a meat thermometer, cook until the chicken is almost done, but not quite.
8. Turn on the broiler. Keep the chicken on the middle rack. You're just going to finish cooking the meat, while letting the bacon get more crisp.
9. Cook until chicken is done (internal temperature of 165 to 170 degrees.) Be sure to scoop some of the yummy sauce on top of the chicken when serving. We had ours with rice.

Note: As much as I love leftovers, this was a bust when I reheated it in the microwave. So if you're serving just 2-3 people, you may want to halve the recipe. The men at the table ate two pieces each; I ate one piece; my 6-year-old daughter ate about 80% of one piece; and my 4-year-old son ate about 20% of one piece. Unfortunately, he's very picky about meat these days, so eating more than one bite is a victory for him!