Bacon Wrapped Chicken Thighs

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Thighs are one of my favorite ways to cook chicken thighs, easily. With the juicy chicken, the crispy bacon, the bbq sauce, oh my goodness, these are SO stinkin’ delicious!!

*****This recipe was updated in August 2024

Easy Bacon Wrapped Chicken Thighs

When I see chicken thighs on sale (or I might have some in my freezer), these are one of my go-to chicken thigh recipes. Honestly, these chicken thighs are SO easy to make it’s kinda laughable – but the level of deliciousness is no laughing matter.

Why are they the perfect main dish, you may ask?

• Chicken thighs are super juicy and hard to overcook.
• The contrast of the crunchy bacon with the soft tender chicken is excellent.
• The saltiness from the bacon with the sweet/smokiness from the BBQ sauce is the perfect combo on this chicken!
• They are a bit different from your normal chicken thigh recipe.

Ingredient Notes And Substitutions

This is the best thing – making bacon wrapped chicken thighs takes nothing out of the ordinary to make. No crazy, hard-to-get ingredients – I’ll bet you have everything you need right now in the pantry:

• Chicken thighs – I prefer to use bone-in chicken thighs. The reason is that usually cooking meat with the bone makes for far tastier meat. (Plus bone-in chicken pieces are usually cheaper than boneless chicken) It might take a little longer to roast than boneless, but I think it’s well worth the little bit of extra time. However, that being said, if you have boneless already, or boneless are cheaper than bone-in, on sale, go for it!
• Bacon – Ok, so you can use any kind of bacon you’d prefer here. My preference is thicker sliced bacon because I find it gives it more flavor and it will allow the chicken to fully cook before the bacon burns. Feel free to use turkey bacon for overall lighter calories.
• BBQ Sauce – The sky is the limit here. I used Sweet Baby Rays Hickory and Brown Sugar for this recipe, but I encourage you to use your favorite.
• Spices – The typical characters here, nothing out of left field. Salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder.

How to Make Barbeque Chicken Thighs With Bacon

• STEP ONE: Preheat oven. Pat dry and season the chicken thighs on top and bottom.
• STEP TWO: Take one strip of bacon and starting from underneath and near the end of the thigh, begin to wrap the bacon around the thigh, moving upwards to cover the meat with the bacon. Try to end with the bacon strip underneath the thigh.
• STEP THREE: After repeating this on all 8 thighs, place in a shallow baking tray and roast. Before cooking time ends, baste the chicken with the bbq sauce. Flip the thighs over first and baste, then flip them back, right side up, and baste again.
• STEP FOUR: Remove the chicken thighs from the oven and let them rest for 5 minutes.

Serving and Leftovers

SERVING: These bacon wrapped chicken thighs pair so easily with so many side dishes. For instance, I like to serve them with sweet vegetable sides sometimes, like these 3 Minutes Maple Cinnamon Carrots, or Instant Pot Maple Mashed Sweet Potatoes. They pair nicely because of the maple flavors.
Also, you could try:
Mediterranean Vine Tomatoes – these are delicious and easy to roast alongside the chicken in a different roasting dish.
Orange Pecan Roasted Broccoli
Crock Pot Baked Potatoes – I love this recipe and it couldn’t be easier. You just have to remember to throw the potatoes in the pot a few hours ahead of time. The bonus is that you’ll have baked potato flavors without using up valuable oven space!

LEFTOVERS: The thighs will keep nicely in an air tight covered container for up to 3 days.


Want to use your air fryer instead of the oven? Not a problem! Give this Air Fryer Bacon Wrapped Chicken Tenders recipe a try!

“I want to take the skin off the chicken”

It’s not a problem to take the skin off and I recommend that you do, actually. With the bacon wrapped around the thighs, the chicken skin may not crisp up. But don’t worry about them drying out, chicken thighs are higher in fat so it’s really difficult to dry them out, even if you overcook them a bit.

“I’d like to use chicken breasts instead of thighs”

For sure! Just remember the cooking time will be a bit different because the breasts are typically larger and will have no bones. But that recipe would be similar to my Chicken & Pancetta Cheddar Bake – so the roasting time would be very close. Probably around 20 – 25 minutes or until the internal temp comes to 165F.

Well, that’s it for today my lovelies! When you give this yummy bacon and chicken thighs recipe a try, please let me know what you think about it! Shoot me an email at joanne@thesaltypot.com or you can comment below. I’m interested to hear what you thought about it, or how you might have switched it up!