These Honey Mustard Glazed Bacon Wrapped Chicken Bites are one of those recipes that comes out fabulous every time we make it and will quickly become one of your family’s “go-to” recipes for cookouts and game days all in under 30 minutes!
This meal has been a family favorite for years. A couple of years ago, we moved this recipe to the grill and the taste got even better than it was before.
Serve this one up as a staple for game days along with grilled chicken lollipops and beer corn crack dip when you want to provide dishes that get all the rave reviews.
🐔 Ingredients
Chicken – We love to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs but use what you have on hand. Heck, you can even use legs and wrap the bacon around the legs and cook them the same way.
Bacon – Use the thinly sliced bacon here as the thicker varieties are harder to wrap. If you find that the bacon is still not staying wrapped, you may need to use a toothpick to hold it all together. Pull them out after you remove the chicken from the grill and serve.
🧑🍳 Preparation
Set up your grill for direct heat. Keep the temperature around 350 degrees, though. The direct heat will sear the bacon, and it won’t be too hot to burn it before the chicken is fully cooked. Expect that the bacon grease will drip into the coals and create some smoke.
Note: To minimize the smoke and potential flareups, use a GrillGrate. This is one of my favorite tools! It really minimizes the drippings from causing issues in the grill.
🔥 Instructions
Step One: Combine the ingredients to make your honey mustard. Combine the ingredients and whisk, nothing else needs to be done here. Can it be any easier?
Step Two: Set up the grill with direct heat. For the Big Green Egg, take off the plate setter and light the coals to bring the BGE to 350 degrees. It’s as easy as that.
Step Three: Slice the chicken into 1-2 inch chunks and cut each piece of bacon in half. Wrap the half piece of bacon around the chicken and place it on the grill.
Step Four: After about 6-7 minutes, turn the it over and slather it with the honey mustard sauce. Let it cook for another 6-7 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
I reserve some of the sauce for adding to the meat when it is time to serve.
For such a quick cook, this is an amazingly delicious meal to serve!
❗ Expert Tips
- Don’t apply sauce until the second half of the grilling. If you add it too early, it will burn.
- Try applying the sauce 2-3 times instead of just once. This allows the sauce to caramelize and get sticky. This technique of layering the sauce always ends up with the best results.
- Try double or tripling the sauce and “dunking” the chicken into it when it’s done and then putting back on the grill. This technique allows the sauce to get into every crevice of the chicken and bacon. We love to do this for our wings for full coverage.
- Allow the chicken to rest under a tent of foil when it comes off the grill. This keeps all the juices inside the chicken as it cools slightly. If you happen to pull it off and cut right into it, the juices just run out and what is left is a drier piece of meat. Then you think you can’t grill chicken because it’s always dry….you just need to add this step every time. Don’t skip it.
- Always check for bacon doneness. It should be firm, crispy and not too limp.
Recipe FAQ
We use a lot of chicken thighs or tenders in our house. They are easy to prepare and full of natural flavor. I found chicken breasts work just as well for this. If you choose to wrap bacon around chicken tenders (and I have no idea why you WOULDN’T!), double check your internal temperature before removing them from the grill. Sometimes, the bacon wrap adds a few minutes to the grill time.
It is easiest to use thinly sliced bacon for this recipe. You will get the full flavor without the the challenges of dealing with the thicker slices. I highly recommend you check out this recipe on curing and smoking bacon at home. Steer away from flavored bacon for this recipe.
Always remember that chicken is done at 165 degrees and it will continue to cook a little bit when it comes off the grill. So if you check it and it’s just over 160, I would pull it off and tent it with foil for five minutes.
Tried this recipe? Please leave a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. You can also stay in touch with me through social media by following me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook!
Honey Mustard Glazed Bacon Wrapped Chicken Bites
Ingredients
- 1 lb Chicken Thighs cut into one inch chunks
- 15-20 slices Bacon use thinly sliced
- 3 tbs Honey
- 2 tsp Mustard we use coarse dijon but feel free to use your favorite
- 1 lemon Lemon Juice juice from one lemon
Instructions
Make the Honey Mustard Sauce
- Mix honey, mustard and lemon juice from one lemon into a bowl and whisk. Set aside ½ of the honey mustard sauce. One bowl is to brush on at the half way point and one is to brush on at the end of the grilling.
Preparing the Chicken
- Cut the chicken into one inch cubes.
- Cut the bacon slices in half and wrap around each chicken cube.
Grill the Bacon Wrapped Chicken
- Place on grill with direct heat at 350 degrees and cook for about 6-7 minutes.
- Turn it over.
- Brush on the honey mustard sauce and cook for 6-7 additional minutes.
- Remove when the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Add a final glaze of the sauce and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Jason’s been firing up the grill for over 30 years after graduating from the US Coast Guard Academy. His love of finely-grilled steak and chicken led him to buy his first Weber grill to put on his apartment patio in 1992. Each military move led to a new grill (a mixture of gas and charcoal) until he fell in love with the Big Green Egg in 2008. Since then, he has added another 4 grills to the collection. Yes, he has a problem. Jason loves smoking in the ceramic BGE with exotic woods including olive wood from Egypt and hard to find varieties such as sassafras and orange wood. Jason takes the term “foodie” to a whole new level, jumping at the chance to take food tours and cooking classes during foreign travels. These have provided inspiration to incorporate new ideas into recipes when he gets back home. He has been featured in Fox News, Parade, Yahoo News, Kansas City Living and more. After retiring from the military and moving to southwest Florida, he has focused grilling and smoking locally sourced meats and fish (read: he likes to catch his own fish!)
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