Name: Bacon wrapped chicken thighs
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs; 4 pieces bacon (halved, crosswise ); 2 tbsp brown sugar; 1 tsp paprika; 1 tsp oregano; 1/2 tsp garlic powder; 1/4 tsp salt

Ready in under 30 minutes, you’ll want to add these bacon wrapped chicken thighs to your weeknight dinner rotation. Flavoured with a delicious sweet and savoury rub using brown sugar and paprika, this is a kid-friendly dinner.

Closeup of cooked chicken thighs in a white casserole dish.

What makes a recipe worthy of the stamp of approval for a weeknight dinner? For me, it’s easy, I look for recipes that are ready in under 45 minutes, don’t use five different pots or pans and are something that you can pull off after a busy day.

A few of my go-to weeknight chicken recipes are crispy roast chicken thighs, 20-minute chicken lettuce wraps, and sheet pan chicken thighs with vegetables.

Why this recipe works

The cheat code for a crowd-pleasing weeknight dinner is bacon. These boneless, skinless chicken thighs are wrapped in half a piece of bacon and topped with a rub made with brown sugar, leading to caramelized and delicious chicken.

If you love to dip bacon in maple syrup, you’ll love this recipe.

Ingredient notes

Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are best for this recipe as they stay nice and juicy. If you use chicken thighs with the skin on, you’ll end up with soggy skin.
Bacon slices are halved and diagonally draped across the chicken. You’ll get the perfect amount of bacon flavour that doesn’t overpower the chicken.
The rub is made with a combination of brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, salt and oregano. Each ingredient in the rub has a different purpose; brown sugar creates a delicious play on sweet and savoury and caramelizes in the oven, the garlic powder and oregano help to provide flavour, and the paprika helps with colour.

Expert tips

While the recipe says “wrapped” I recommend you “drape” the bacon across the chicken thighs and fold it over the edges, kind of like a little bacon sash. I’ve found if you actually wrap the chicken in a full piece of bacon, you end up with way too much bacon for one piece of chicken.
Using a 9×13 casserole dish helps to keep the chicken juicy and stops the sugar from burning (hello, easy cleanup!). You’ll also end up with delicious juices that you can serve with the chicken.

Three step process for making the chicken.

Step by step instructions

Start by stirring the brown sugar with paprika, salt, garlic powder and oregano.
Drape the bacon diagonally over each chicken thigh and tuck the edges underneath the chicken.
Sprinkle the brown sugar mixture all over the chicken and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes.

What to serve this with

We know that the main course isn’t the only part of getting dinner on the table, you’ll also need to consider sides. Here are some of my favourites:

Side dishes that cook at 425F

Since you’re cooking the chicken at 425F, the best solution is to have a side that also cooks at the same temperature. My go-to sides for this recipe are pesto cauliflower or roasted broccoli rabe.