These BACON WRAPPED CHICKEN BITES are topped with a simple homemade barbecue sauce and cooked in the air fryer until the bacon is crisp and the chicken is juicy! Serve with extra BBQ or ranch dressing on the side for dipping!
Chicken is a super versatile ingredient in American cuisine, right?
We eat it cooked basically every imaginable way. We serve it with almost everything you can buy in the produce section of your grocery store. Except onions, because I am not a fan of onions. 😉
One of the greatest pairings with chicken, in my humble opinion, is bacon. Bacon is the best of the best.
For this recipe, we cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces, wrapped it in a slice of bacon, and brushed with a butter based barbecue sauce.
We are addicted to these things and you will be too!
And the barbecue sauce is on point! A little sweet, a little spicy, with a nice body thanks to the butter! I will share this recipe with you below also!
I hope you enjoy these as much as we did. This is definitely a recipe we will repeat many times!
Ingredients:
The bacon wrapped chicken bites are just 2 ingredinets – bacon and chicken!
However, we brush them with a homemade BBQ sauce. If you’re short on time, you can use bottled BBQ sauce, but this butter-based BBQ sauce is outrageously good and only takes about 10 minutes!
You’ll need:
- Chicken Breasts – thighs would also work
- Bacon – cut the strips in half
- Butter
- Honey
- Brown Sugar
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Chili Powder
- Salt & Pepper
- Ketchup
How to make the barbecue sauce:
This homemade barbecue sauce starts by melting a stick of butter in a sauce pan. Then you’ll stir in the honey, Worcestershire sauce, and brown sugar, chili powder, salt, and pepper.
Bring this mixture to a low boil over medium heat, whisking to melt the sugar.
Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in some ketchup.
Allow the sauce to cool for about five minutes for a bit. It’ll thicken right up.
Add about 1/3 cup of sauce to a small bowl and pop the rest in a mason jar to store in the fridge for later.
How to make chicken bites in the air fryer:
Cut up your chicken breast into strips lengthwise. Then cut those strips in half.
Take your bacon and cut that in half as well.
Wrap a single half of bacon around each of your pieces of chicken.
Place the wrapped chicken strips into your air fryer basket with a little space in between them. Do not stack them in the basket. Cook these in batches if there isn’t enough room in your basket to cook all your chicken.
Now take the small bowl BBQ sauce and brush all of your chicken bites with barbecue sauce. When you are done, discard any remaining BBQ sauce from this bowl and clean your brush, or get another one for use later.
Cook your chicken bites for 15 minutes at 380 degrees F.
Flip all of the chicken bites over and cook them for an additional five minutes.
Remove the chicken and brush it with the remaining BBQ sauce, or if you prefer, you can serve your second bowl as a dipping sauce.
Ranch dressing makes a great dip too!
Kitchen tools for this recipe
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Air Fryer: We use and love this 6 quart model. It’s quiet, cooks evenly, and it fits a lot of food.
Basting Brush: These silicone brushes are easy to clean and work great.
Good knives: We have two favorite knives. One expensive, fancy knife and one budget friendly. Both are very sharp and get the job done.
Meat Thermometer: I’m a nut about food safety and I always test chicken with this instant thermometer. It works perfectly every time, is easy to use, and it’s magnetic so you can pop it on the side of your fridge so it’s always easy to find.
More recipes you might like:
Bacon Wrapped Chicken Bites with Barbecue Sauce
This recipe combines our homemade barbecue sauce with bite-sized bits of chicken fully wrapped in bacon. It is a great mix of sweet and salty with a tiny bit of spice from the BBQ.
Ingredients
For the BBQ Sauce:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- pinch of black pepper
- 1/2 cup ketchup
For the chicken:
- 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
- 1 pound bacon, sliced in half
Instructions
- To make the sauce:
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter with the honey, Worcestershire sauce, and brown sugar. Bring to a low boil over medium heat, whisking often, until the sugar has dissolved.
- Remove from the heat and whisk in the chili powder, salt, and pepper.
- Allow the sauce to cool for about 5 minutes and then whisk in the ketchup.
- Divide sauce into two bowls, one with about 1/4 cup of sauce and the other with the remaining sauce, and set aside while you prepare the chicken.
To prepare the chicken:
- Wrap a piece of bacon around each piece of chicken.
- Place the wrapped chicken strips into the basket of your air fryer in a single layer. You may need to work in batches, depending on the size of your air fryer.
- Brush the chicken bites with the BBQ sauce from the smaller bowl. Discard any remaining sauce from this bowl.
- Cook at 380 degrees for 15 minutes. Flip the chicken over and continue cooking for 5 more minutes.
- Remove from the air fryer and brush with the reserved sauce or serve it with the chicken for dipping.
Notes
This sauce is butter based and will slightly thicken when it cools.
Be sure to divide the sauce for brushing and serving. Once the brush with sauce touches raw chicken, you do not want to use that sauce for dipping.
This recipe makes about ¾-1 cup of BBQ sauce.
If you would like a spicier sauce, double the chili powder.
You may also use already prepared BBQ sauce in place of making your own.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 728Total Fat: 46gSaturated Fat: 20gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 23gCholesterol: 212mgSodium: 1783mgCarbohydrates: 15gFiber: 0gSugar: 12gProtein: 61g
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2 comments
This is a question… it looks like the bacon wrapped chicken is being placed on parchment paper in the air fryer. Is this so, and will it work? I’m afraid to try it, it may start a fire!!!
Hi Marilyn! The photos do show the chicken on parchment, but we’ve actually tested this without and prefer it that way. It allows the grease to drain through to the bottom of the basket better. We do use parchment in our air fryer with no issues though, but don’t recommend it for this recipe.