Brown Sugar Bacon-Wrapped Chicken

I made these a few nights ago because they're pretty quick. The original recipe is to be made in the crockpot, but my morning was a little hectic so I decided I'd bake them at night instead. While the recipe is pretty quick to throw together, I still had to stop prepping a few times to get juice, change a diaper, and stop a dog from taking a diaper out the trash! So, realistically I'd say this takes 20 minutes max to get ready, but it took me around 30 or so.

Chicken thighs. Anyone who has read enough of my posts knows that I'm super, super picky about meat and poultry. It's not that I don't like dark meat, it's juicy, flavorful, but the "weird stuff" is near the dark meat. The fattier parts that are harder to chew through...you know, those parts. I pretty much exclusively cook with chicken breasts, but I figured I'd go for thighs this time since that's what the recipe was and Dan loves dark meat. This recipe is delicious, but I found myself cutting apart far too much of my chicken to fully enjoy it. That's my issue though, not a chicken issue. Anyone else this picky or is it just me?

I personally think the best part of this recipe is the brown sugar. The caramelizing of the sugar, with the saltiness of the bacon, give it amazing flavor. I wish I had added more brown sugar, but then again, maybe I could try and be a little healthier (with me choosing a fattier part of the chicken, thick cut bacon, and sugar to begin with).

You know what's great? When for no reason, your computer closes out of the internet and everything you just typed didn't save. Everything above this paragraph was started 2 days ago (remember, I'm on mom time). I just added a whole bunch more and started writing out the recipe. Put the laptop to the side to grab a Band-Aid for a mysterious cut that just showed up on P's foot, and came back to the window closed out and my task manager open...wonderful.

Anyways, what I had tried to add was that I bought a family-sized pack of chicken thighs because it was more economical to do so. So, I tried to sacrifice my chicken issue for savings, but I ate two of these and Dan had the rest. The pack had 14 thighs. I used 8 for this recipe and baked the other 6 plain so Dan could do what he pleased with them. He and P ate them for other meals. I think I'll stick to chicken breasts moving forward, I found that I wasted far more with the thighs due to my pickiness. Below is my preparation of the recipe.

Brown Sugar Bacon Chicken Thighs
adapted from Dinner Then Dessert

8 chicken thighs
16 slices bacon
3-4 cloves garlic minced
salt & pepper
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Lightly (very lightly, there will be bacon grease!) grease a cookie sheet. Salt and pepper both sides of the chicken thighs. Spread a little of the minced garlic on each thigh. Wrap two slices of bacon around each thigh.
3. Sprinkle brown sugar over each thigh.
4. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Every oven is different, mine took just about 40, but I also used thick cut bacon.

And that's it! Add some sides for a quick and delicious meal!

Now to finish my grocery list, head to store, and try and make dinner for tonight. Maybe I'll even get to post it tonight.....