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
This was so good and so easy! The rotini works really well in a one-pot pasta – the other one-pot pastas I’ve tried have usually called for linguine, which I’ve tended to have problems with either sticking/clumping/turning mushy – but not the rotini in this recipe, it turned out perfect. I’ll be trying something like rotini in all my one-pot pastas from now on! I loved the combo of flavors in this, and just added more bbq sauce and cheese for my taste. Thanks!
Making this right now and it smells amazing. The chicken chili and the southwest skillet were a hit in our house. I’ve given this site out to friends already!
The Monterrey Chicken Skillet is absolutely DELICIOUS!! Although I didn’t have a rotisserie chicken on hand, I cooked the chicken in a skillet. Also, I didn’t fusili pasta, so I used angel hair instead. Best of all, I was able to make more than enough for leftovers. Thank you Beth, for this awesome recipe-despite what others think!!! :-)
I used chicken breasts for the pasta dish. Angel hair pasta was something that I had on hand, as well. :-)
The pasta you use in the pictures looks like rotini not fusilli, will they both cook as well?
Yes, they should both work fine. :)
Based on some of the comment I was worried this wouldn’t turn out well, but it was quite good. I accidentally opened a can of Tomato sauce so used about half of that with the chicken broth and it added some excellent flavor.
Great! Quick and easy and my kids really liked it.
I just tried this dish. Nobody in my household likes it including me.
It came out just fine as it is very simple to prepare , but the flavors are just undesirable .
Perhaps a more concentrated amount of chicken broth and something other than BBQ sauce ?
The BBQ sauce ingredient was the one that really gave me pause, but I tried it anyways.
Love it!
I found it was a little light on the veggies so I added chopped onion, green pepper, and mushrooms, and that was great.
I also like to cook the chicken in some of the bacon grease if I feel particularly indulgent.
The only issue I have is getting the pasta to cook properly. I find that it ends up with a strange mealy texture.
I’m devastated! I followed this recipe exactly, and I have a pot of brown mush. What a waste :( I think I’ll try it again and cook the pasta separately as the pasta seemed to make the sauce thicken way too quickly. At a loss.
My husband refuses to eat tomatoes. I’ve tried chopping them tiny, tell them they are peppers, etc. and he doesn’t buy it. Could I add just green chilies and omit the tomatoes or are they vital? Thanks!
I think it would be tasty with just green chiles. :) There will be less liquid, though, so you might need to add an extra half cup or so of broth.
I also don’t like tomatoes, but just bought a can of rotel anyways and blasted it for literally like 2 seconds in my magic bullet so that there weren’t any identifiable chunks of tomato, but it wasn’t liquidy. Totally worked!!
I finally got around to making this. I used bowtie pasta and Trader Joe’s regular BBQ sauce, which has a bit of a kick to it. Even then, though, my husband said he wished it were a bit more spicy, so next time I might add some sriracha!
husband and I both agreed that the leftovers were even better..I just made a second batch and plan to serve it tomorrow to give the favors sometime to merge. I used a hickory smoked BBQ sauce and thought it was excellent (found store brand tomatoes with chiles for 2nd batch, we’ll see how they compare with the name brand)
So good! I added Sriracha with the BBQ sauce for some spice. I’ll totally make this again.
I ended up doing this the long way, as I had no BBQ sauce (so I made some) and no cooked chicken (so I cooked it). But I was longing for a different taste.
Wow. Such an easy way to add some variety. Husband and children GOBBLED it up. Hard to save some for lunches.
AMAZING! I used a rotisserie chicken, and doubled the recipe (family of 5, and I try to have left overs for lunch for my husband and I). I love this blog!!