Bacon Wrapped Chicken

Easy Grilled Chicken Recipe

Bacon wrapped chicken served with a zingy pineapple, pepper and chilli salsa.

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Plus a quick review of the Tefal OptiGrill.

I've used the OptiGrill to cook all sorts including Bacon, Chicken, Burgers, Pork Steaks and Corn on the Cob and everyone has turned out perfectly - yep I say this grill is excellent.

The Tefal Optigrill uses sensor technology to measure the weight and thickness of different meats to decide how long it will take to cook them.

For steak, the grill alerts you when the meat is rare, medium and well done. Fantastic as you can take out a rare steak while leaving the rest to continue cooking.

With that said, at the time of writing I haven't tried steak but since everything else came out perfectly I have no doubt steak will be just as good. I did cook homemade burgers and selected 'medium' and we couldn't fault them.

Tefal Optigrill Review

First up was crispy bacon. In our opinion bacon (to be used in a sandwich) just isn't worth bothering with unless it's smoked back bacon and cooked till it's nice and crispy.

Using the Optigrill, you can choose if you want to remove your bacon at the lightly cooked, well done or crispy stage.

Now, resisting the temptation to have a quick look as it cooked we had chosen 'crispy' but we needn't have worried, the bacon turned out proper crispy and just perfect.

The grill is designed so that excess fat and juices run away from the meat and are caught in a removable container.

Once you’ve finished cooking and the grill is cool, you can also remove the cooking plates for cleaning (they are dishwasher safe) but using just hot sudsy water as I did they clean up brilliantly in next to no time.

All this is fine and dandy but what happens when you cook chicken breast fillet for example - would it be dry?

The fillets cooked to perfection and certainly weren't at all dry. I wrapped chicken fillets in bacon and they were cooked through but still moist. When I cooked pork steaks they turned out just right too.

I also cooked corn on the cob in the microwave for 4 minutes on high adding a tablespoon of water.

Removed and poured away the water then left to cool. Brushed with a little olive oil then onto the Optigrill (using the manual setting) to cook for just a few minutes so you get the char-grill look and heat through.

Remove from the grill onto a serving plate, season with sea salt and pepper add a sprinkling of chilli flakes and a knob of butter - delicious.

All in all

It's easy to clean, dead easy to use and can even cook food from frozen by selecting the correct mode before cooking.

The audible beep altering you to the different cooking stages is really quite loud which is a good thing. The Tefal Optigrill lived up to all it claims to be and personally, I can't fault it at all.

Cook the chicken on a preheated Tefal Optigrill selecting 'poultry' until the indicator light shines red and alerts you that the chicken is done.

Fresh salsa recipe

Meanwhile, make the pineapple salsa - see the recipe card below.

To serve the chicken, squeeze over a little lemon juice from the lemon you kept from making the marinade.

Oven Bacon Wrapped Chicken

You can cook in a preheated oven at 200°C/400°F or Gas 6 for about 30 to 40 minutes.

Since all ovens vary, plus the thickness affects the cooking time I'll leave it to you to decide when your chicken is done.

Or you can take the guesswork out and kit your kitchen with the Tefal Optigrill, I'm confident you won't be disappointed.

I also have the ActiFry if you have one you might like to check out these Tefal ActiFry recipes.

Update

Since writing this post back in 2014, I just thought I'd pop back to say 7 years on (2021) and we are still using the OptiGrill at least once if not twice a week.

 *Further update February 2022* The OptiGrill, started to lose the plot and began forgetting the chicken selection and reverting back to manual, so it has gone to OptiGrill heaven. Not bad though as it was used a LOT!  

It's still looking good and the plates could honestly pass for brand new. I have never put them in the dishwasher because it's too easy to clean as I mentioned above.

I've noticed they now do Tefal OptiGrill Plus X-Large which would be perfect for larger families.

Have you tried this recipe? Please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating in the recipe card below!

bacon wrapped chicken, grilled bacon wrapped chicken, salsa recipe

chicken, bacon wrapped chicken, fresh salsa recipe

English

Yield: 2

Author: Jan Bennett

Bacon Wrapped Chicken with Fresh Pineapple Salsa

Top Tip! Make the salsa as near to serving as you can as the mint will go black quite quickly once chopped, or add the mint at the last minute.

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 34 MinTotal time: 44 Min

Ingredients

Chicken Marinade - In a small bowl mix together the following

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 fat clove of garlic - peeled and very finely chopped
• a few fresh rosemary leaves - very finely chopped
• a good pinch of freshly ground black pepper
• the zest of a lemon (keep the lemon for later)

For the Pineapple Salsa

• 3 rings of pineapple - cut into smallish dice (I used tinned since that's all I had but fresh pineapple would be all the better)
• 1/4 of a cucumber - sliced into four lengthways - seeds removed and then cut into small dice.
• 1/2 a green bell pepper - seeds removed and cut into small dice
• 1/2 a red bell pepper - seeds removed and cut into small dice
• 1 or 2 spring onions - sliced diagonally
• 1 large mild or medium heat fresh red chilli - top and tailed, seeds removed and very finely chopped
• 1 and a half teaspoons of fish sauce (nam pla) available from any good supermarket
• the zest and juice of 1 lime
• 2 teaspoons of caster sugar
• a couple of fresh mint leaves

You will also need

• 2 nice fat skinless chicken breast fillets
• 4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
• 2 small sprigs of rosemary
• Juice of half a lemon (the lemon you used to make the marinade will be fine)

Instructions

Prepare the Chicken

1. Rub each chicken fillet with a little of the marinade popping a sprig of rosemary on top.
2. Wrap each fillet with two rashers of streaky bacon to almost cover each fillet.
3. Rub with the rest of the marinade and cover with cling film while you get on with making the salsa.

Make the Pineapple Salsa

1. In a bowl add the pineapple, cucumber, peppers, spring onion and chilli.
2. Mix in the fish sauce, lime zest and juice, caster sugar along with 1 tablespoon of pineapple juice either from the can (or whatever comes of dicing a fresh pineapple).
3. Throw in the chopped mint.
4. Mix well, have a taste and serve straight away.

To cook the Chicken on the OptiGrill

1. Cook the chicken on a preheated Tefal Optigrill selecting 'poultry' until the indicator light shines red and alerts you that the chicken is done.
2. To serve, squeeze over a little lemon juice from the lemon you kept from making the marinade.

To Oven Cook

1. You can cook in a preheated oven 200°C/400°F of Gas 6 for about 30 to 40 minutes.
2. As all ovens vary and the thickness affects the cooking time I'll leave it to you to decide when your chicken is done.

Notes

Oven Bacon Wrapped Chicken

You can cook in a preheated oven 200C/400F or Gas 6 for about 30 to 40 minutes. Since all ovens vary, plus the thickness affects the cooking time I'll leave it to you to decide when your chicken is done.

Did you make this recipe?

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