Bacon Goes Good With Everything!

I used to be a vegetarian.  Seriously!  I became a vegetarian on January 1st, 1997.  I wanted to see how long I could go without meat.  I didn't really LOVE meat beforehand anyway.  I typically only ate chicken & pork.  (What girl is raised on a farm and does not appreciate a good hamburger or steak?  This girl, that's who!)  I know it's weird for most people to comprehend.  I lasted over 6 years.  It all ended when I was pregnant with my first child.  It was a teacher workday and some of my colleagues and I were in training all day.  When we got a lunch break, we headed out to eat.  This was when I lived in Durham and I taught at a school on the other side of the city, so I just tagged along with my coworkers to a nearby BBQ joint.  No big deal - I can order a salad or some veggies at practically any restaurant.  But, when I walked in, I was overwhelmed by the most delicious smell of BBQ pork!  I knew right then and there that I had to have a BBQ sandwich.  For the remaining months of my pregnancy, I craved BBQ.  Now I will eat chicken in addition to pork and some seafood.  It took a while after my first BBQ craving to give bacon another try.  I forgot what I was missing out on!  What is it about bacon that makes it so darn tasty???  We make cheesy, bacon potatoes on the grill, bacon/egg/cheese sandwiches for breakfast, and grilled cheese & bacon sandwiches for supper some nights.  Bacon just goes good with almost everything... my sister's sister-in-law recently made a bacon-maple-buttercream cake.  It looked divine, but I am not so sure about bacon dessert yet.  Who knows, though.  I will have to give a try one day in the near future!

With bacon on the brain, I thought that tonight would be a good night to fix one of our family's favorites.  I have my sister Laura to thank for this one!  She found the recipe and passed it on to me.  My husband fell in love (with the bacon and chicken), and I agree that it's a phenomenal treat!!  It's usually prepared to serve as an appetizer, but we love them so much, that I sometimes just make this entree for our main dish at dinner.  It's a modified Paula Deen reicpe and you can find her recipe on the Food Network website here.  Here's my version:

Here's what you'll need:
12-15 chicken tenderloins (uncooked)
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 1b. pack of bacon slices (uncooked)

Here's what you'll do:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheet/jelly roll pan with foil & spray with non-stick spray.
2. Combine the brown sugar, chili powder, and garlic powder and mix well in a medium.
3. Cut bacon slices in half.  Roll one of the half-slices of bacon around a chicken tenderloin.  Then roll that in the brown sugar/chili/garlic mixture.  Place on foil-lined pan.  Repeat this step with remaining chicken tenders/bacon.
4.  Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until bacon is slightly crispy and the chicken is cooked through.

*I know that I need to get better quality photos, but I was in such a hurry so I could eat this chicken tender, that I totally did not care what the photo looked like! :)

These are sweet, yet savory at the same time.  TOTALLY delicious.  If you want to serve it as an appetizer, just cut each chicken tender into 1" portions and slice the bacon in thirds, instead of halves. Wrap one piece of chicken with one of the thirds of bacon slices, then roll in the mixture and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  ENJOY!