Here are a few magically ingredients that will always go great together: Chicken, barbecue sauce, red onion, and cheese. They are my favorite together. Barbecue chicken pizza is one of my favorite foods. This barbecue bacon Monterey chicken takes all the yumminess of my fave food and subtracts the pizza crust, making it Weight Watcher friendly. One serving is just 4 WW FreeStyle SP and is worth every single point.

On a BBQ kick.

Okay, so, apparently I am on a BBQ chicken kick. This happens. I crave one type of food (in this case barbecue sauce) and find all kinds of reasons to eat that food. Sometimes I am more aware of this than other times. I’ve also been on a feta/blue cheese/goat cheese kick. All foods with soft cheese are screaming my name right now.

Oops. I did it again.

I didn’t even catch I was doing it this time. I had all the ingredients out and on the counter when it occurred to me that I just shared a BBQ chicken recipe. I thought about saving this BBQ Bacon Monterey Chicken recipe for another time, but it was just too good I didn’t want to wait! When I get excited about an idea I have a hard time tabling for later. This recipe was inspired by another Taste of Home recipe in this cookbook here. (I am also on a Taste of Home recipe kick, but I pretty much always am)

BBQ Bacon Monterey Chicken Salad.

Here’s an idea! If you have any leftovers save them for lunch the next day. Just reheat the chicken as it is described below. Then, chop everything up and mix it in with a salad to make a barbecue bacon chicken salad. YUMMO!

I hope you like this one as much as I do!

 Here is what you need:

1 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breast (4-4 oz. pieces of chicken)
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 Tbsp. barbecue sauce
4 strips of cooked bacon, cut in half
1/2 c. reduced-fat shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese
1 chopped tomato (about 1/2 cup)
1/4 c. chopped red onion
Cooking spray

Here is what you do:

On the stove-top, preheat a large saute pan to medium heat.

If you have thick cuts of chicken you may want to start by using a meat tenderizer to pound it down or cut them in half to make them cook quicker and more evenly.

Lightly spray a saute pan with cooking spray.

Sprinkle chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Cook chicken in the saute pan for 4-5 minutes on each side or until browned on the outside. (You can do 2-3 minutes on each side for thin-cut chicken)

Once chicken is cooked, coat each piece of chicken with 1/2 tablespoon barbecue sauce and sprinkle with a little bit of cheese. Top with 2 slices of bacon on each.

Top each with red onion, tomato and 2 Tbsp. cheese. Cover pan and allow to cook 3-5 minutes, or until cheese is melted and chicken is fully cooked.

Serve warm.

Makes 4 servings.
One serving is 5 Green, 4 Blue, and 4 Purple points.

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