Quick & Easy Bacon, Cheesy, Chicken & Broccoli

This one is for my buddy, Graham!  A couple days ago he was venting a very common frustration concerning searching the internet for “quick and easy” recipes and sifting through no less than 2,359 suggested results before finding one that is ACTUALLY quick and easy!  Of course, half way to that discovery you decided to go ahead an order pizza.  Today was not your day to cook a quick and easy meal. 

So here it is, Graham, my very favorite, Quick and Easy, Bacon, Cheesy, Chicken & Broccoli recipe.  There are four ingredients.  FOUR INGREDIENTS.  This takes no more than 30 minutes.  If it takes longer than that, you have clearly done something wrong, and it is not my fault.  If you live next to a grocery store, the 30 minutes I’m talking about could even include your shopping for the four ingredients.

I know you’re short on time, so let’s get right to it!

Ingredients:

4-5 Chicken breast fillets – I like to buy the yummy pre-marinated ones from my store, but you can use plain too, just as long as they aren’t more than about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick, they should cook perfectly

4 to 5 strips of bacon

1 (approx. 1/2 pound, 250g) bag of pre-cut, pre-washed fresh broccoli

1 cup shredded cheese – any kind you like

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 200°C (400°F).  If you have a broiler option, you can use that if you want, but don’t put the oven rack right under the broiler, put it in the slots 25% of the way down from the top.  If that’s too complicated, you just don’t care, or you prefer your bacon not at all crispy, leave your rack right in the middle, no broil setting, and carry on.

Next, dump the bag of pre-cut, pre-washed broccoli into the bottom of a baking or casserole dish.  Spread them evenly.  If you have children that think it is just too complicated to eat broccoli if they have to cut it before they eat it, then rip the broccoli into smaller pieces. I like to use my hands - who has time to get out the knife and cutting board!?!

Lay the chicken breasts over the broccoli.  Make sure they don’t overlap.

It’s time for the bacon.  Lay strips of bacon on top of the chicken. I like to cut the bacon strips in half before laying them on top of the chicken, mostly so I can cover the chicken better.  Feel free to skip that part and use whole slices.

Once the oven is preheated, put your dish in the oven.  Bake 20 minutes.  Take out of the oven and sprinkle your shredded cheese on top.  You have 2 options here:  just wait and let the cheese melt (you can cover your pan with foil – or not); or, pop your pan back into the oven for about a minute to get the cheese melted.

And that is it!  It really is quick and easy.  Enjoy!

Only 4 ingredients and it’s healthy, easy and delicious!