Creamy Beer Cheese Chicken With Crispy Bacon No Heavy Cream

I’m probably talking goals of a few readers with that last sentence. Guilty of loving Beer Cheese Sauce and Beer Cheese Soup just as much as the next person, I wanted to do a twist and come up with a way to serve it with pan fried chicken breasts — not ever forgetting the crispy bacon and chives that is normally served with either — and woah did this work or what! The absolute best part is that the sauce is as lightened up as possible, using 2% milk rather than heavy cream to reduce calories since we’re talking beer in here. Of course, you can go full steam ahead and use heavy cream if you wish! Or even half and half. The choice is yours!

PLUS bacon? What in the WORLD! Talk about winning. You guys have been raving about this Creamy Honey Mustard Chicken With Bacon recipe, that adding bacon to THIS ONE was a no brainer. It seems to me that cheddar > bacon > chicken > beer = brilliant combination.

How to make Creamy Beer Cheese Chicken With Crispy Bacon, with No Heavy Cream:

Start by marinading your chicken breasts in the most deliciously simple marinade: beer, garlic, salt and pepper. The beer adds so much flavour to this chicken that you don’t need to add much of anything else! (Just like in this Crispy Beer Chicken recipe). Now, if you don’t have time, a good 20 minute soak is enough time to have it absorb. Just pierce your chicken pieces all over with the tip of a sharp knife and allow a good soak for as long as you can. If time DOES allow, then try to let it sit over night in beer. You WON’T regret it. When ready to cook, drain your chicken and discard the marinade, then pan fry until nice and golden on both sides. I don’t bother drying it with paper towel before cooking, because I still want to get all that garlicky lager flavour into the chicken. Are you with me? Once you’ve made your sauce, you can add a little extra lager into it, or cheddar, or salt and pepper if you need to. I found salt wasn’t necessary as the cheddar provided enough salt, and the beer in this recipe was the perfect amount for us without the sauce becoming too bitter.

As always with savoury cooking, feel free to add your own spin on the recipe to suit your tastes.