It used to really irk me when recipes called for “pre-cooked chicken.” I was like, “What the huh, who has pre-cooked chicken laying around?” But then I kind of warmed up to the idea of grocery store rotisserie chickens, okay maybe “became addicted” would be more accurate than “warmed up to.” So, if you’re a rotisserie chicken fan or otherwise have some pre-cooked chicken around, you definitely have to try this Monterey Chicken Skillet.
What is Monterey Chicken?
This quick skillet pasta is a take on a recipe that I’ve seen floating around the web for years, Monterey Chicken. It’s a unique combo of tomatoes, green chiles, BBQ sauce, cheese, and bacon. Sounds strange, but there are so many good things going on in this dish that you really never get a dull bite. There’s just a LOT of flavor. As usual, I turned it into a pasta dish to help stretch out the cost… Because chicken, bacon, and cheese aren’t exactly cheap.
Substitutions:
I used a little rotisserie chicken, went light on the cheese, and only included the bacon because I happened to have some left over in my freezer. Honestly, I think the BBQ sauce and cheese carry the flavor here, so if you don’t want to spend on the bacon you could skip it and still get a great meal. The Rotel tomatoes (diced tomatoes with green chiles) can be kind of spicy, so if that’s not your ticket, you can use plain diced tomatoes instead (a 15 oz. can is okay).
So, ready to see how easy this is? Let’s go…
Monterey Chicken Skillet
Servings 4Ingredients
- 2 cups shredded pre-cooked chicken (1/2 rotisserie chicken) ($3.50)
- 1 10 oz. can Rotel (diced tomatoes with green chiles) ($0.99)
- 1/2 lb. fusili pasta ($0.63)
- 2 cups chicken broth ($0.30)
- 1/3 cup BBQ sauce ($0.36)
- 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese ($1.24)
- 3 slices bacon ($0.92)
- 2 green onions, sliced ($0.17)
Instructions
- Place the chicken, pasta, and Rotel tomatoes (undrained) in a large skillet. Add two cups of chicken broth and stir to combine. Cover the skillet with a tight fitting lid, turn the heat on to high, and let it come to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 15 minutes, giving it a quick stir every 5 minutes or so.
- Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a skillet until brown and crispy. Drain the cooked bacon on a paper towel, then crumble into pieces.
- After simmering for 15 minutes, the pasta should be tender and most of the liquid absorbed. If the pasta is still firm, let the skillet simmer for 5 more minutes. If the pasta is tender, but there is still a lot of liquid in the skillet, let it simmer without a lid for 5 more minutes.
- Once the pasta is cooked and most of the liquid is absorbed, drizzle the BBQ sauce over top. Sprinkle the shredded cheese over the BBQ sauce and cover the skillet with the lid. Leave the heat set on low and let the skillet sit for five minutes to melt the cheese. Once the cheese is melted, top with the crumbled bacon and sliced green onions, then serve.
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Notes
Nutrition
Video
How to Make Monterey Chicken Skillet – Step by Step Photos
Before we begin, let’s take a second to talk about Rotel. Rotel is a brand of canned diced tomatoes with green chiles that is available in most U.S. supermarkets (usually 10-oz. cans). If you can’t find Rotel, you can use a can of plain diced tomatoes, or a can of diced tomatoes plus a can of diced green chiles. Original Rotel is spicy, so consider that, although I’ve seen other brands that use mild green chiles so you get the flavor of the chile without the heat.
Anywho, put that can of Rotel in a skillet (undrained) along with two loosely packed cups of pre-cooked chicken and 1/2 lb. of pasta.
Add two cups of chicken broth then stir everything together well. Place a tight fitting lid on the skillet, turn the heat on to high, and let it come to a boil. As soon as it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Make sure that it is still simmering on your lowest setting and if it isn’t turn the heat up just a smidge. Also, make sure to stir it once every five minutes or so just to keep the pasta from sticking to the bottom.
While the skillet is simmering, cook the bacon. I happened to have a half package of bacon left over in my freezer, so I cut that in half and froze the remaining 1/4. So, the portion I used is roughly equivalent to 3 slices. If I hadn’t had the bacon, I probably would have skipped it and still been happy with the dish.
Brown the bacon in the skillet, then drain it on some paper towels. Once it’s cooled, crumble it into pieces.
After the skillet has simmered for 15 minutes, the pasta should be tender and most of the liquid absorbed off the bottom. If the pasta is not yet tender, let it simmer for another 5 minutes (with the lid). If it’s tender but there’s still quite a bit of liquid, just let it simmer for a few minutes more WITHOUT the lid, to help the moisture evaporate. Once the pasta is tender, drizzle about 1/3 cup of BBQ sauce over top. It’s easy to go overboard here, so keep it kind of light (I went a little too far I think).
Then sprinkle one cup of shredded Monterey jack over the BBQ sauce. Replace the lid and let it sit for a few minutes, or until the cheese is melted (I still have the heat on low).
Once the cheese is melted, you can turn off the heat and top the skillet with sliced green onion and the crumbled bacon. Hellloooooooo!
Yeah, I was in the mood for indulgent today. :P
Beth, first I want to say thank you for putting so much time, love and effort into this site. I’ve been following it for a few years and every recipe I’ve tried has been delicious. I’ve recently decided that I need to spend more time and effort on my meals, making plans and focusing my shopping so that I’m not buying things on whims and never eating them. It’s only been two weeks but I’m doing good so far :) I made the one-pot chili (DELICIOUS) and teriyaki meatballs (ALSO DELICIOUS) and enjoyed every bite.
Which brings me to the second part: I made this recipe tonight despite a migraine that makes me not interested in eating. I couldn’t find tomatoes with green chiles in Canada so I just used diced tomatoes and no green chiles, a bit less than 1/3 c of BBQ sauce (and got the bottle out of my fridge – hooray!), and used a tex-mex cheese blend cuz the store was out of Monterrey jack cheese… and HOLY SMOKES IT IS SO DELICIOUS. This is DEFINITELY going on meal rotation. I can’t get over how wonderful it is. YUM. Thank you so much for sharing!
Crystal, if you have a Save-on-Foods near you they carry them. It’s their Western Family brand.
There is one near me, I’ll check it out. Thanks! (They reportedly also have mint M&Ms which will be the first time I’ve ever seen them in Canada, I need to stock up!)
This was really good! My fiance is currently working on bowl #3, so I’m not sure how leftovers are going to happen lol! I roasted a chicken the night before last, so I shredded some of that. Also, after adding the cheese I popped it into a 350* oven for a few minutes so the top got toasted a bit.
It was amazing!
costco does a great rotisserie chicken, and they’ve also got breast meat in vacuum packages at some stores now. It’s a good price, and I’ll Take that home and separate it into 4 ounce packages for one serving meals or uses like this.
I’ve got this on the stove now, can’t wait to dive in! I’m doing low carb, so added a bell pepper, left out the noodles, and made my own sugar free bbq sauce. For sides, I made your quick seasoned black beans (from some I had in the freezer…thanks to “kicking the can” ;) ) for my husband, and some leftover grilled butternut squash enchilada filling. CAN’T. WAIT. TO. EAT!
I made this for dinner, and J ate two bowls before I stopped him from eating my lunch for tomorrow. So yummy!!
This recipe looks so good, and it’s a great way of using leftover ingredients.
Wow, this is so yummy! Thanks for the recipe. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the barbecue sauce addition but I made it exactly as written (using the “mild” variety of Ro-Tel) and I’m SO glad I did. I am really happy I used a more runny, orange/reddish, tangy barbecue sauce–as opposed to a dark, thick, sweeter, brown-colored sauce–because I think it makes it easier to drizzle lightly over the pasta and it just tastes more balanced with the other flavors. (Head Country sauce was what I used.) Oh and I used cavatappi/cellentani pasta instead of the fusilli. So excited for leftovers tomorrow. :)
This looks fantastic! I know what you mean about pre-cooked chicken. :) I usually try to cook up an extra breast or two when I’m making chicken for another dish, but I don’t always succeed! :)
I made this last night and we both liked it. I used a can of home-canned tomatoes and a can of green chilies, but I think the Rotel would have been a better choice. Partner and I both felt the BBQ sauce made the dish a little sweet and it could have used something spicy in there to balance it.
I need to prepare some pre-cooked chicken so making food will be a billion times faster. Love how quick this one is and how delicious it looks!
November is a good time to pick up a cheap turkey, then you can roast it and freeze the meat for later use. Last year I got a huge one from my employer–17 lbs., much bigger than my honey and I could eat–and I froze most of the meat. It was a really handy thing to have around.
Does the lid stay on while simmering?
Yep, that holds in the steam to help cook the pasta.
As an FYI a lot of supermarkets have house-brand diced tomatoes with green chilies. I’ve seen that they’re priced at least twenty cents below Ro-Tel so more savings!
Looks delicious and great for a weeknight. I always keep cooked chicken in the freezer. When chicken breasts and thighs go on sale I buy a huge pack of each and then throw them in the slow cooker and cover with chicken broth and voila!
I definitely feel like attempting a vegetarian option. Love the above commenters suggestion of mushrooms. Any other veggies you might add to make it more hearty? Thanks Beth!
Valerie – I was thinking of doing a vegetarian option as well. My thought was black beans and corn would go nicely with the bbq sauce and Rotel flavors.
As someone else mentioned, I think black beans would be a natural fit. I’d also chop up an onion and add that in there. I think that’s it, though.
I made a semi-veggie (need my bacon!) version of this last night using tempeh purchased at Trader Joe’s. I cute the tempeh into bite-sized cubes and tossed it in with the tomatos + pasta as if it were the chicken. DELISH! Tempeh is a great source of clean, lean protein and probiotics and it is quite cheap (and a million times better than tofu in every way)! Beth–I would LOVE to see what you would do with tempeh. :)
I’m not a big fan of BBQ sauce, but this looks great. Black olives and mushrooms come to mind.
Maybe a “pizza” version with pizza sauce instead of BBQ sauce?
Great idea! We’ve always got a little leftover sauce or salsa that usually just gets tossed when we can’t remember how old it is.