So, after making this recipe a few times, and absolutely loving it every time, I finally took my time to make it AND take pictures to post and share! (Thank you Erica for letting me use your kitchen as a background while I was visiting <3 )
This might be one of my favorite meals, and as Matthew puts it, “This stuff changes your life.” That being said, I think one of my favorite parts about eating low-carb is that “good foods” like bacon and cheeses are still on the menu. It takes some getting used to, but if you give it an honest effort and give Pinterest a good look over, this is a way of eating that doesn’t have to be bland or boring which makes it a more sustainable diet than some others you may have seen. (I use the term diet here as “the way a person eats” definition rather than “eating habits to lose weight” definition.)
A little warning here, the “breading” or topping is made out of pork rinds, which deters some away from it, but just try it! If you’re not on board the low-carb/keto-train that’s fine, this is still delicious and you can easily switch out the pork rinds for a bread crumb of your choice. Or modify any of the ingredients to fit your style for that matter.
What you need:
- 4-6 chicken breasts
- 5-7 slices of bacon
- 1/4 cup jalapeno slices
- 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 oz bag of pork skins
- 4 TBSP butter
First things first, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Put the chicken in a 9×13 pan and bake. Suggested use for this recipe is 6 chicken breasts, but I find that using 4 makes for a better chicken to cheesy jalapeno mixture ratio.
I usually cook the chicken for 20 minutes on one side, flip and season it, and 20 minutes on the other side. Feel free to use whatever seasonings you wish but for this dish, most of the time I just use salt and pepper.
Next thing to do is cook up the bacon. The original recipe called for 5 slices, but we like bacon, so sometimes it ends up being closer to 7… As far as cooking, it doesn’t really matter how you do it, until recently I used an indoor electric grill but recently switched to just throwing it in the oven for a few minutes with the chicken. Or you can go a completely different route and cook it on the stove top. However you decide to do it, cook it and let it cool so that you can have it cut and ready to mix in with the other deliciousness.
The next thing to do is to make sure you get your jalapenos cut and cream cheese softened because those are going in next.
Mix together the diced bacon slices, cheddar cheese, cream cheese, jalapenos, mayonnaise and half of the parmesan cheese (half cup).
Once that is well blended, crush the bag of pork skins, melt the butter and mix those two things in a separate bowl with the rest of the Parmesan cheese.
By this time the chicken should be getting close to being done. Once it is cooked through, take the chicken out of the oven and turn the temperature down to 350 degrees.
Spread the cheese mixture on top of each chicken breast. After that, add the pork rind topping. Put the chicken back in the oven for 15 minutes or so to let everything warm up and the topping brown a bit.
And boom! Finished! One of the greatest things that may ever enter your mouth! ENJOY!
Jalapeno Popper Chicken – Low Carb
