Using a fragrant barbacoa sauce, the beef is slow-cooked until it is fall-apart tender and simple to shred. It’s comparable to the food at Chipotle and great for nachos, tacos, and burritos.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 10 mins |
| Servings: | 2 |
| Yield: | 2 servings |
Ingredients
- cooking spray
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon seasoned salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
- ¼ cup pesto
- 2 tablespoons shredded mozzarella cheese
- 4 slices bacon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil; mist with cooking spray.
- Mix onion powder, garlic powder, seasoned salt, and pepper together in a bowl.
- Sprinkle onion powder mixture over both sides of the chicken thighs. Lift up the skin to create a pocket; stuff pocket with 2 tablespoons of pesto and 1 tablespoon of mozzarella cheese. Wrap chicken with 2 slices of bacon, using bacon to seal the pocket. Place chicken thighs seam-side down on the baking sheet.
- Bake in the preheated oven until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the chicken, near the bone, reads at least 165 degrees F (74 degrees C), about 1 hour.
- Use the shredded cheese of your choice.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 466 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 4 g |
| Cholesterol | 105 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 33 g |
| Saturated Fat | 10 g |
| Sodium | 992 mg |
| Sugars | 0 g |
| Fat | 35 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I did not find the bacon complementary to the pesto. I think a Panko breading would have been more in line
I used the seasoning and the bacon . Instead of mozzarella, I use blue cheese and mix it with Parmesan to give it more of a bite. Other than that I used the rest of the ingredients. It was perfect ; very flavorful.
I used shredded co-jack instead of mozzarella turned out fabulous!
11.9.18 I loosely followed this recipe, but well enough that I feel my review is valid. I had five blsl thighs. Combined 3/4c shredded mozzarella & 1/4c pesto. I unrolled the thighs & divided the mixture on each. Then, rolled, & wrapped a piece of bacon around it like a bacon-wrapped filet, bacon touching the chicken “side,” not the pesto, & secured with a toothpick. Placed on baking dish. Cut pieces of uncooked bacon to lay over pesto & raw chicken that was visible in an attempt to have the chicken not be dry/hard. At that time, I realized I hadn’t seasoned the chicken at all. ‘Considered sprinkling with spices then, but didn’t. There really wasn’t a need anyway. The pesto & bacon seasoned it nicely. Baked twenty minutes at 350. To the oven, I baked white rice for thirty & had a nice dinner. Fancy-ish, but not too timeconsuming. Yay! 😀
I normally don’t look at recipes that don’t have at least 100 reviews, but I’m glad this one caught my attention. We love bacon, but I left it out figuring that the skin wouldn’t get crispy. Ended up with very tasty chicken, and crispy skin. Bacon wasn’t needed! Nor is any additional sauce. I only used 1/4 of the pesto/mozzarella (total of 2 tablespoons pesto and 1 tbsp. mozzarella). I first inserted the pesto/mozzarella; try to open the pocket where a flap of skin can be tucked under the thigh. Then enlarge the pocket over the thigh leaving the rest of the skin attached to the thigh. Spread around the pesto/mozzarella, then tuck the skin flap under the thigh. Then I sprinkled on the seasoning, Yes, I’ll make this again – it is terrific and easy!
this was really good! i used chicken breasts because that was what i had, i just pounded it down and rolled it up with the pesto and cheese and secured it with toothpicks. will make again!
This was pretty darn good 🙂 It’s a variation of one of the meals we make…a bacon wrapped chicken with cream cheese and jalapenos on the inside. I made a homemade cheesy cream sauce and poured over before placing into the oven. (You can also just add a can of cream of chicken soup and spread over the chicken.) Superb. The chicken was super moist, and the bacon chewy. Nice job! Thanks for the recipe!