Chicken Empiles`
Chicken, bacon, cheese, and BBQ sauce….who wouldn’t love this?! You cannot go wrong here with this combo, all these components put together are going to yield a great result, but you must make sure all the pieces are done correctly. Chicken is something everyone fears when cooking because you do not want to undercook it, but over cooking it just means your getting a dry piece of meat which just isn’t great. I recommend you get a thermometer to help with this process because cooking chicken is a blind process, the more you cook it the better you will learn to tell when it’s done. Of course, with a thermometer you can take all that guess work out of the equation.
This dish I call Empiles, which is French for, stacked or to pile up. That is basically what you’re doing here, you are going to cook a bunch of components and start stacking or piling them up together. When trying to think of what to call this I didn’t want to just say BBQ chicken as there is so much more here than just that and how do you explain all the things in it. I even thought about stacked chicken but figured I would see what other words mean stacked and came across the word Empiles under translations and thought it just fit perfectly!
When cooking this dish, you are going to have to build it in a skillet at some point so a good large cast iron skillet will be very handy. I am going to heat the grill to about 450 degrees and get my skillet set on the grill to get it hot. Now preheat the oven to 400 degrees as this will be used to cook the bacon. Take the bacon and lay it out on a sheet tray. Now that the oven is to temp place bacon in oven and cook about 20 minutes, until crisp.
Take the chicken and lay it out on a sheet try. Use canola oil, about 1 tsp per breast, to coat each breast. Season each of the chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and the BBQ rub. Now set the chicken in the refrigerator until time to cook. This should give the chicken some time to marinate in the spices as you start getting other things ready.
On the grill add the butter to the skillet and let it melt. Once melted add the onions and let them begin cooking. What we want from the onions is for them to begin caramelizing but not all the way there. I am looking to get these onions somewhere between caramelizing and what a fajita onion would be. As the onions cook start moving them to one side of the skillet as we will build and finish the chicken here.
Now take the chicken breast from the refrigerator and place on the grill. We are going to essentially cook these in the same manner as a steak searing the first side then flipping to sear the other side. One thing to note here is we are going to par cook this chicken as it will end up in our skillet. If we cook the chicken the entire way on the grill, then add it to the skillet, it will over cook and become dry and that will hurt this dish as the chicken is the element that brings it all together.
Chicken is cooked at 165 degrees internally, I like to take the chicken on the grill until it breaks 160 and then add to the skillet, build, and finish. The chicken will not be in the skillet all that long and the skillet should finish it up perfectly. After we have seared the first side of the chicken, flip it over, take your chicken glaze, and baste the breast with it. This should make the chicken nice and sticky and really help build your dish, plus that depth of flavor of sweetness will really add to the dish. At this point the bacon should be cooked and cooled so get it out and ready to build our dish. As the chicken comes to temperature of 160, I take it and add to the skillet. First, I top the chicken with the onions & peppers, then add the bacon.
Now I have done variations before with jalapeno and bell peppers which you can read about below in the variations section. I really like using pickled jalapenos as it really adds a nice kick. After the bacon is placed, cover the chicken with the BBQ sauce and then top with the cheese.
Now take a lid, I like to use the lid from my shrimp boiler
as it is large and will cover the entire skillet, add some water in the skillet
and cover with the lid, about 30 seconds. This will cause the skillet to steam,
and the cheese will melt beautifully over the chicken.
At this point remove the chicken as it should be done and let it rest for a few minutes. Now that the chicken is done top with the green onions and dig in!
Recipe Instructions:
Chicken Empiles`
Ingredients
- 4 Chicken breasts
- 8 strips Bacon
- 1 Yellow onion Julienned
- 1 Bell pepper Julienned
- 1/4 cup BBQ rub
- 1/2 cup Chicken Glaze
- 1 cup BBQ sauce
- 1 cup Monterey Jack cheese shredded
- 1 cup Medium cheddar cheese shredded
- 1/4 cup green onions chopped
- 4 tbsp canola oil
- 3 tbsp butter melted
- Salt n Pepper for seasoning
Instructions
- – Heat grill to 450° – Add large skillet to the grill to get it hot
- – Cook bacon strips and set aside
- – Once skillet is hot, add the butter and let melt. Add in the onion and bell pepper to start caramelizing
- – Lightly coat chicken breasts with the canola oil, then salt, pepper, and apply the BBQ rub. Let sit for about 10 minutes
- – Now grill should be at temp. Spray grill with grill spray and add chicken breast. Breast should cook for about 4minutes on one side, you are par cooking the breast as it will finish in the skillet. Flip breast over and baste the cooked side with the BBQ Glaze and again at about the 2-minute mark. After another 4 minutes breast is done, coat once more then add to the skillet.
- – Top each breast with the onions, peppers, cooked bacon, and BBQ sauce. Add ¼ cup each of the Monterey Jack and cheddar cheese to each breast. Take your lid and add some water in to the skillet and cover for about 30 seconds or until cheese had melted well.
- – Top with BBQ sauce and green onions and serve!