Bacon-Wrapped Sweet and Spicy Sriracha Chicken

I woke up this morning with an awful chest/head cold, so I decided to take the day off from running. I’m hoping a day of rest means I’ll be able to put in a decent workout tomorrow.

I did manage to get in a long run of 7.4 miles on Saturday. Since Howie and I were going out with friends on Saturday night, I knew I probably wouldn’t be feeling up to it on Sunday, so Saturday afternoon Kirby and I hit the road. I went out without a real planned-out route. Sometimes I like to have a plan, other times I feel like winging it. I ended up doing two of the not-quite-three mile loops through town then down some back roads that circle back to my apartment, and then finished by tacking on another mile and a half through downtown. I finished feeling tired, but surprisingly pretty good overall. I’m handling the longer mileage well. For some reason, my problem lately has been getting enough of the shorter, harder runs in. I think that has more to do with the mental struggle of it being still pretty cold than being a physical thing. I’m weird and actually run my best in the heat of summer. Go figure.

Not too shabby!

Yesterday (Sunday) I didn’t run but was pretty active doing grocery shopping, as well as some shopping around for stuff for the apartment. I cooked dinner a little early, then spent Sunday night relaxing with Howie. I’ve also been keeping up with my daily yoga challenge, and it was a welcome start to my Sunday after a night out.

Tonight, I decided to try one of the recipes I had pinned on Pinterest, Bacon-Wrapped Sweet and Spicy Sriracha Chicken. The pinned recipe was for bite-size appetizer portions, so I amended it a bit to be more dinner-friendly, and it was a HUGE hit! This recipe is super easy, and will definitely be added to the dinner rotation. Here’s the recipe:

Bacon-Wrapped Sweet and Spicy Sriracha Chicken

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/2 cup oil (the recipe called for canola oil, but all I had was olive oil and this worked fine)

2 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoons Sriracha sauce

1 pound bacon

1 cup brown sugar

Mix together oil, lime juice, and Sriracha sauce. Cut chicken breasts into strips about 1-2″ across. Put chicken and mixed sauce into a plastic bag and allow chicken to marinate for about an hour.

After 1 hour, remove chicken from marinade and wrap each piece in bacon strips. Coat lightly in Sriracha sauce, then roll each piece in brown sugar, coating the outside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, then bake chicken in a coated pan for about 30-35 minutes. After the time is up, turn on broiler and slightly open oven door just a crack. Allow chicken to broil until bacon crisps up, but keep an eye on it because it can burn quickly.

Now that this easy dinner is done, I’m going to curl up on the couch for the rest of the night with some peppermint tea and Netflix. Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll have kicked this cold and be able to run. Goodnight, all!