Bacon Wrapped Chicken Thighs are a super easy and flavorful weeknight dinner.
I first created this recipe in 2013 when I lived in Glasgow. One thing that continually fascinated me was how it was virtually impossible to get American-style bacon.
Sure, there were rashers and even streaky bacon (which looks like American bacon) but nothing tasted quite the same. It doesn’t have any of the sugar normally added to the bacon in the States and is pretty salty. No matter, I wanted to make baked chicken thighs and decided to make them a bit more special.
Update 5/8/2018: In the interest of continual improvement, I updated this post by adding some tips and new photography, plus retesting and slightly modifying the recipe. Enjoy!
Why I Love Chicken Thighs
Chicken thighs are my go-to weeknight protein.
They’re more flavorful and juicy than chicken breasts because they have a bit more fat. That keeps the meat from drying out and becoming like, well, a dry piece of cardboard. Plus, chicken thighs are usually a lot less expensive than chicken breasts.
Can You Use Bone-In Chicken Thighs?
Generally, I like skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs best (I mean, Cast Iron Skillet Chicken Thighs with crispy skin, anyone?!). But for this recipe, I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs which makes the wrapping with bacon part a bit easier. Use what’s available to you, and just know that this recipe is pretty flexible.
If you’re frugal, you could always buy bone-in chicken thighs and remove the bones yourself. (Hint: I save the bones in the freezer for making bone broth.) Nevertheless, this recipe is packed with flavor thanks to smoked paprika, garlic, and of course, bacon.
Smoked paprika – one of my favorite spices – adds another layer of smoky flavor to the mix. If you can’t find smoked paprika, you could use sweet paprika instead. It won’t be quite the same, but pretty close.
Make These Bacon Wrapped Chicken Thighs for Meal Prep
Roast up a double batch, eating some for dinner and saving the rest for lunches throughout your week.
This recipe is very simple to make. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lay the boneless chicken thighs on it. If there are big chunks of fat, you may want to trim it off.
Then, season both sides of the meat with the smoked paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. I usually play it chill on salt because the bacon will add a bit of salt on its own.
How to Make Bacon Wrapped Chicken Thighs
Next, lightly roll the chicken thighs up. Try not to roll them too tightly or it’ll take longer to cook. You just want to make sure that the bacon strips will fit most of the way around.
Lastly, wrap a piece of bacon around each chicken thigh. It’s okay if it pops off a little bit during baking. You could also prepare the chicken thighs as above and roast them in a cast iron skillet (see the one I use and recommend).
For a complete meal, you may want to serve these Smoky Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Thighs with:
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Smoky Bacon Wrapped Chicken Thighs (Paleo, Gluten-Free)
Bacon Wrapped Chicken Thighs are a delicious way to elevate chicken to a new level. Season with smoked paprika, wrap with bacon, and bake. These are paleo, gluten-free, and Whole30-friendly.
Ingredients
- 2 lb chicken thighs boneless, skinless
- 8 oz bacon (or 1 piece per thigh)
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Trim any skin and excess fat from the chicken thighs. Season the chicken with smoked paprika, salt and pepper.
Wrap one piece of bacon around each chicken thigh and place on the baking sheet.
Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes or until cooked through.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
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Do you like chicken thighs? Let me know in the comments.
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this looks awesome! i’ll hafta try it!
Isn’t this from Bill & Haley’s “Make It Paleo” cookbook?
Is it? I haven’t seen that one. Just something I came up with here on my own.
There’s a very similar recipe in the “Practical Paleo” cookbook, but instead of smoked paprika, salt, and pepper, she uses a “smoky spice blend” that she also gives a recipe for. At any rate, they are FABULOUS, as I’m sure your smoky bacon-wrapped chicken thighs are as well!
I’ll definitely check it out! One thing’s for certain…it’s hard to go wrong with bacon 🙂
Oops, yes, Practical Paleo/Balanced Bites has it! http://balancedbites.com/2012/01/easy-recipe-bacon-wrapped-smoky-chicken-thighs.html I knew I had seen it recently. “Make It Paleo” has Smoked Paprika Chicken.
Ahhhh nice! thanks!
https://www.stephgaudreau.com/comment-policy/
By your logic, there would be no use for a new cookbook to ever be published in the rest of humanity’s history. Yet…new ones come out daily. Everything’s been done before. This is my take on a concept. Nothing wrong with that!
I just bought smoked paprika for the first time ever yesterday. A friend uses it often. I know you aren’t judging me right now, so it’s for beer mac n’ cheese 😉 #sorry 😀
I absolutely love smoked paprika…one of my most frequently used spices. No judgment for you, my dear 🙂
the reason bacon is so rubbish over here in Scotland is because of the added water we pump it full of… i guess its to make the cuts of meat appear bigger than they are, but takes away from the taste somewhat
Hmmm…I didn’t know that! Thanks for the info, Chris!
I have lived in Glasgow for 12 years and just discovered where to buy American bacon – Sainsbury’s!! Yum was soooo tasty!
Hi Vivian…thanks for letting me know! Was it the store brand? Glad you liked it 🙂
really really like these! extremely tasty and super easy to make, I took the skin off the thighs as I believe that the picture has them skinless but the description didn’t specify and they came out wonderfull.
I also really like them as they are a perfect ” portable ” food and I enjoy them as a snack by themselves ( sometimes I will leave the house thinking im not hungry and then feel very hungry later and having one of these with me stops me from being tempted by unhealthy food choices) or chopped up with a nice salad.
they are very nice eaten cold as well as hot …. 10/10
whoops just seen that taking the skin off the thighs is in fact written in the instructions, my mistake 🙂
i made these today and they are the bomb!! i stuffed mine with pesto before wrapping it with bacon and it’s just out of the world. they were super easy to make, too.
YESSSS! Love to hear this 🙂
Pardon my stupidity but does the bacon go into the oven raw w/the chicken?
Hi Rebecca…yes, you’ll put the bacon on the chicken raw.
Fixed this tonight for supper….we really liked this….it was real good.
Does the skin NEED to be removed for this recipe to work out? I need the extra fat in my diet and buy skin-on thighs just for that purpose.
You could do it either way, Steve.
I make something like this.
I take Chicken thighs & cover them with garlic butter & wrap them in bacon.
Always goes down well at dinner parties.
🙂
how long should I leave it in the oven and at what temp if I’m making it in a actual pan?
What do you mean by an actual pan?
Hate to complain, but I was hoping to find a bacon-wrapped, bone in chicken thigh recipe. I like the taste of bone-in meats more than boneless, but more importantly, I need to keep my freezer stocked with bones for my bone broth. Could I just use this recipe with a longer baking time?
Hey Kathryn,
Can totally do it with bone-in thighs, you’ll just need to increase the bake time. I save chicken thigh bones for soup too 🙂
Cool! I looked up recipes for baked, bone-in thighs, and they go 25 ºF hotter, and 20 minutes longer. Wasn’t sure whether the bacon might come out scorched that way, so I baked the thighs alone at 375 ºF for 20 minutes, removed them from the oven, scorched my fingers removing the skins 😛 then seasoned the thighs per your recipe, wrapped the bacon round, and returned them to the oven at 350 ºF. Set the timer for 30 minutes, and they continue to bake as we speak. We’ll see how this goes…no smoke detectors have gone off yet 😀
If you have left overs just remove the bacon and add the chicken to your favorite curry chicken sauce. Just add more curry to the sauce instead of putting on chicken. Serve over rice. Oh yeah!
Great idea!! Yum yum 🙂
Made these tonight and they are so good! I had to finish them with a few moments under the broiler but that was due to my bacon taking its sweet time to crisp up. Definitely making this again!
Yay! Thanks for stopping by and making this dish Amy!
I’m making these tonight! We’re not paleo but are following a keto diet. I removed the skins but reserved them to fry for chicken crackers.
Yum, chicken crackers!! The best part!
Calorie count seems high for one chicken thigh and a slice of bacon?
Hi Patti…these counts are estimates at best. Chicken thighs vary widely in size. Again, it’s only an estimate.
Great recipe!
Take half a sliced de-seeded and de-veined Jalapeno filled with cream cheese and wrap that up in the thigh before you wrap it in bacon! It’s AWESOME!
wow that sounds next level!
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