This Keto Bacon Wrapped Chicken breast with brown sugar is one of the easiest keto bacon recipes you can find. It’s the perfect mixture of sweet, a little spicy, and savory since it’s made with a brown sugar replacement and a delicious blend of spices. This brown sugar bacon wrapped chicken is so easy to make, and only 4 net carbs per serving since it’s made with a brown sugar replacement! Pop it into a cast iron skillet and it’s done in under 30 minutes.
We love easy, one skillet dinners, don’t you? You know what else we love? When dinner is wrapped in bacon, and has the perfectly balanced seasonings of sweet, savory and a little spicy too. If you have 30 minutes, you can make this keto friendly brown sugar chicken. This is the type of meal your whole family will love!
Have a peek at the ingredient list that can be found mostly in your keto pantry! Everything else is an easy, everyday fridge staple that we probably picked up at Jewel-Osco or Costco.
If you’re in the mood for another easy skillet meal, check out this low carb cheeseburger casserole skillet, our reuben skillet, or this jalapeño popper chicken skillet! If you’re sticking around for this mouthwatering sticky and sweet keto bacon wrapped brown sugar chicken, check out the ingredient list below!
Ingredients:
- Chicken breast
- Bacon
- Brown sugar replacement (Swerve Sweetener)
- Onion powder
- Garlic powder
- Pink salt
- Smoked paprika
- Ground black pepper
- Red pepper flakes
- Cayenne pepper
- Garnish with: fresh parsley
Let’s Make It!
Preheat your oven to 375°F. Dry your chicken breasts off with a paper towel. In a bowl, combine your brown sugar Swerve, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes and cayenne pepper. Mix well.
Add half of your Swerve spice mix to your chicken breasts so that they’re well coated. Reserve the rest of the Swerve spice mix for topping. Wrap the chicken with the bacon slices in a single layer. Secure with toothpicks if necessary.
Place the chicken in a cast iron skillet or oven safe dish. Coat the top of the bacon wrapped chicken with the remaining Swerve spice mix.
Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165ºF. If you like your bacon crispy, broil on high for 3-5 minutes, watching closely so nothing burns. Garnish with parsley, then serve and enjoy! Serve with these roasted green beans with garlic and lemons.
Substitutions & Notes:
- Chicken Breasts- If you prefer, chicken thighs would be great for this too! We used breasts simply because that’s what we hand on hand. Please note that the cooking time may need to be adjusted if you use chicken thighs instead of breasts.
- Bacon- To be honest, we don’t really know any good substitutes for bacon. If you guys have any suggestions, leave them in the comments! You could simply leave the bacon off if you don’t eat pork. We love the sweet, savory and spicy rub that we made for this chicken, and it would be great as a standalone seasoning.
- Brown Sugar Swerve– We absolutely adore Brown Sugar Swerve. It measures like sugar, and is such a great replacement for the flavor that regular brown sugar adds. Feel free to use other brown sugar replacements you like.
- Garlic & Onion Powder- you could use real garlic or onions if you minced them up pretty fine, but we don’t generally like to go thru all of that extra effort for this dish.
- Smoked Paprika – This is generally an optional ingredient in all of our recipes, but we love to add it for extra color and smoky flavor. You can substitute regular paprika or just leave it out entirely.
- Fresh Parsley– We love a hint of freshness and the pop of color this adds, but of course it’s optional.
- Red Pepper Flakes & Cayenne Pepper– Not a fan of spice? Feel free to adjust to taste or just leave it out if you want. You could also substitute with a little chipotle chili powder or just regular chili powder.
What Should I Do with the Fat that Cooks off the Bacon?
Since this keto bacon wrapped chicken with brown sugar cooks for about 20-25 minutes at 375°F, it gives it plenty of time for extra fat, juices and seasonings to render off. When the brown sugar chicken is cooking, there is a lot of fat that renders out from the bacon especially. Between other juices from the chicken, the brown sugar replacement and seasonings, a pretty flavorful liquid forms in the bottom of your cast iron skillet.
You can baste the drippings over the chicken a couple of times with a big spoon while it cooks to help keep the chicken flavorful and juicy. You will however want to take a few extra steps near the end of cooking if you want to keep your bacon crispy.
How Do I Keep the Bacon Crispy?
One step in this cooking process that might want to take to keep your bacon crispy is simply draining the liquid away from the chicken towards the end of cooking. Set aside your flavorful drippings for later. We like using it as a dipping sauce and basting the chicken with it once more before digging in.
After you’ve taken out the excess liquid from the cast iron, you can put the skillet back in your oven, and then broil it on high for 3-5 minutes. Broiling at the end is optional, and just kind of depends on if you like your bacon crispy like we do! Keep in mind that if you choose to add this extra step, you could probably take the chicken out a little early so you avoid overcooking it. Just make sure your chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165°F before serving.
How Do I Prepare the Chicken for the Oven?
For best results, you will want to pat the chicken dry with paper towels before seasoning it. This will reduce any excess moisture going into the pan.
In a bowl, we like to whisk together the brown sugar Swerve and all of our seasonings, so that the chicken gets coated evenly. Coat each piece of chicken with the seasoning mixture, and shake off the excess and reserve it for later. We generally add it to a parchment lined baking sheet while we work through all the pieces.
After the chicken is coated in seasonings, wrap each piece with bacon until it’s totally covered. You can use toothpicks to secure the bacon if you want. Once each piece of chicken is wrapped in bacon, place it in your cast iron skillet. Take the reserved brown sugar and seasonings and cover it over the top of the chicken until it’s well covered.
Transfer it to the oven and wait for it to bake! Please note that each oven is different, so keep an eye on it and an eye on the internal temperature of the chicken using a meat thermometer if you like. While the chicken bakes, prepare your sides or even a cocktail!
What Sides Do I Serve this Keto Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Chicken with?
Since this meal is a little on the heavier side, we like to pair it with something light like these roasted green beans with garlic and lemon, or this summer salad recipe with grilled peaches, avocados, mozzarella and strawberries. We have a healthy sugar free cherry lemonade recipe that would go great with this too!
Looking for Summer Cocktails to Go with this Recipe?
- Low Carb Rosemary Margarita
- Sugar Free Raspberry Mint Julep
- Summer Herb Gin and Tonic
- Rosé Ginger Paloma
We just love this easy and delicious summer meal that comes together quickly and easily. Serve with these garlicky, lemony green beans and you will very pleased, we hope! Also pictured below is this sugar free cherry lemonade.
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Related Recipes To Try:
If you get a chance to try this keto bacon wrapped chicken recipe, let us know what you think, would ya?! Leave us a comment, or catch up with us on Facebook or Instagram, or pin to your favorite Pinterest board for later. We love sharing your versions of our creations over on Instagram @afullliving!
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Until Next Time,
Briana & Chamere
Keto Bacon Wrapped Chicken with Brown Sugar
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken breast
- 16 slices bacon
- 3/4 cup brown sugar replacement (Swerve or your favorite)
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- fresh parsley to garnish
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375°F. Dry your chicken breasts off with a paper towel. In a bowl, combine your brown sugar Swerve, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes and cayenne pepper. Mix well.
- Add half of your Swerve spice mix to your chicken breasts so that they’re well coated. Reserve the rest of the Swerve spice mix for topping. Wrap the chicken with the bacon slices in a single layer.
- Secure with toothpicks if necessary. Place the chicken in a cast iron skillet or oven safe dish. Coat the top of the bacon wrapped chicken with the remaining Swerve spice mix.
- Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165ºF. If you like your bacon crispy, broil on high for 3-5 minutes, watching closely so nothing burns. Garnish with parsley, then serve and enjoy! Serve with these roasted green beans with garlic and lemons.
Notes
Nutrition
These nutrition facts are provided as a courtesy and are only estimates. We cannot guarantee the accuracy.
LAURA TOLBERT says
Just made this for dinner tonight and it was a hit. I love I will have leftovers for lunch tomorrow with my salad.
Briana says
Hey Laura!
That is music to our ears, thanks so much for giving it a try! Hope you enjoy the leftovers as well. 🙂