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.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
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,
Thank you so much for this recipe! I was a little skeptical of the Rotel and barbecue flavors working together, but they complimented each other well! I love your website and make your recipes often. They always turn out really good! Thanks for another unique and delicious (and so easy!) recipe!
~Katie
p.s. I used to feel the same way about “pre-cooked” chicken recipes, but now we like to broil or grill several chicken breasts at a time. It makes weekday cooking so much faster! :)
Came across this recipe while eating second breakfast and yet I’m READY to make it NOW. Looks so good! I have everything on hand and just need to cook up the chopped chicken in the freezer. This just might be supper tonight, even though we’ve had a couple BBQ meals already this week.
I can also easily use this recipe in an electric skillet while doing our kitchen remodeling this year!
Glad I found your site via Pinterest. I have a few good ideas already.
I usually don’t comment or rate things, but this time I had to. I’m eating this meal right now for lunch, and wow is it delicious! The barbecue sauce is such an amazing flavor, and the Rotel tomatoes (I used mild) provide a nice kick without being too spicy. This is just an amazing recipe that is easy to make and tastes delicious.
Good!! Better without the bbq sauce. I added a few dashes of chili powder and sriracha powder, plus some black beans. Was tempted to open some tortilla chips as we ate it.
This turned out fantastic though i made some substitutions. I had penne pasta on hand and i used a mix of Cheddar and mozzarella cheese instead of Monterrey ( needed to get rid of it). I also didn’t add the chicken or bacon since i had neither and included a can of black beans. I think i used this recipe as more of a template than following it to the letter- but it really helped. How does this keep in the freezer? Does it thaw and reheat well? i will probably make a second batch of it and keep it for later
It should keep alright in the freezer, although I ate mine so fast that I didn’t get to test it! :D
made this again tonight; added frozen corn and kale and realized after the fact that a can of black beans would have been the perfect accompaniment. next time!
Made this tonight. It was pretty awesome, even instead of half a pound of pasta I did two cups instead. I am so making this again. its so yummy.
Overall I loved this recipe. The only issue I had was from my own ingredient choice. I had a brown sugar bourbon BBQ sauce – and it made the dish too sweet.
I’ll make this again with a less sweet BBQ sauce.
Really easy and reeeeeally good. I changed it up a little. Instead of using bacon I used fried onions, since I use onions on almost everything. Turned out great. Really cheap too, all things considered.
I make a bunch of shredded pre cooked chicken at once and then freeze it (thanks for that idea!). How would the texture hold up if I defrosted some shredded chicken to make this recipy but then froze the leftovers?
I think that would work fine. The chicken may dry out a little, but I’d still eat it!
Was your precooked chicken frozen or thawed out?
Thawed out. :)
ALL THE YUM!
Made with the plain diced tomatoes because that’s what I had on hand and I try to downplay the spicy for the wee one.
But we have this great BBQ type seasoning to amp up the spice and add to that BBQ sauce flavor, Smokey Bair’s Fire Seasoning.
This dish was everything I (AND my husband) hoped it would be (daughter needs a few more tries before she’s truly on board, however)! Hearty, creamy, filling, and hitting all those sweet and savory notes….yumyumyum!
This was so good and so easy! 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.
Thank you for this recipe! It was so simple and turned out excellent. I loved that it was virtually a “one dish” recipe.
This and the Southwest Chicken Skillet are my go-to meals for those days when I have no time after work to cook. They’ve always turned out, even though my stove has a mind of its own when it comes to temperature regulation.
I’m not sure where I got the inspiration from, but recently I decided to make a pizza version extremely loosely based on this recipe (aka I used the same liquid-to-pasta/meat ratio). It turned out extremely well and tasted surprisingly like pizza. Same pasta and broth measurements, plus a can of tomato sauce, pepperoni/sausage/veggies, Italian spices, and a pinch of red pepper flakes.