Easy Chicken Sliders

If you’re a fan of easy dinners, you’re going to love these Easy Chicken Sliders!  The sliders were cooked, photographed, and on the table within 30 minutes.  (Here’s a shoutout to my family for all cold meals they’ve eaten while waiting for me to take a picture!) To simplify this recipe even more, I cooked the bacon in the oven and seasoned the chicken with some ready-made Creole seasoning. But this recipe is infinitely versatile to personal tastes…different cheese, different toppings, different seasonings, you can’t go wrong with these little sandwiches.

Here’s how they’re made!

Oven Baked Bacon

Cooking bacon in the oven is the only way to go.  Place the bacon on a foil lined tray and place in the oven for 12-15 minutes while you prep the rest of the ingredients for the sandwiches – easy!

About 15 minutes later, you have perfectly cooked bacon without touching it – or splattering grease all over your clothes.

The Chicken

To get the fastest, and most consistent results, pound the chicken out to about 1/4″ inch fillets and slice into slider-sized pieces.  I like to use a gallon sized plastic bag, cut open on one side, to make quick (and clean) work of this step.

For these chicken breasts, I sliced whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts in half horizontally. Then I pounded them to 1/4″ thickness and cut them in half vertically. In other words, each full chicken breast becomes about 4 mini cutlets for sliders.

The Seasonings

As I mentioned earlier, I used Creole seasoning on these sandwiches, but any variety of seasoning will work great. You can take these sandwiches any direction…season with barbecue seasoning and then finish with a squirt of your favorite barbecue sauce. Or use a red pepper, oregano, and garlic seasoning and finish with Gruyere cheese. See what I mean? So many right answers and no wrong answers….

Here are some seasonings I found in my pantry, all of them would work great with this recipe.  I bet you have something hanging out in your pantry that would make a pretty amazing chicken slider too!

The Toppings

For this batch of sliders I used medium cheddar cheese, lettuce, and tomato. But honestly, several people in my family tore the lettuce and tomato off their sandwiches as soon as the pictures were taken – ha. I won’t judge you!

Any small slider buns will work for these sandwiches. For this batch I used mini brioche buns. If you’re lucky enough to live in a part of the country where Martin’s potato rolls are sold, I would use those in a heartbeat!

Grilling the Chicken

The chicken can be grilled inside or outside, but for this batch I was feeling particularly lazy and decided to just pull out my indoor griddle. If you gril inside, be sure to place a few tablespoons of vegetable oil in the bottom of the skillet or griddle and fry both sides until brown….

…and the chicken is cooked through to 165 F.

Just before the chicken has finished cooking, place the slices of cheese over the cooked chicken and  let the residual heat melt the cheese into a thick blanket over the chicken patties.  The slices don’t need to be perfect, they will melt over the edges and coat the sides of the chicken.

Remove from the griddle and serve immediately. Perfection!!

Easy Chicken Sliders

4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
16 slices medium cheddar cheese
16 slices bacon, cut in half
Creole seasoning, to taste
16 slider buns
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Condiments of choice: barbecue sauce, may, mustard, etc.

Directions

Bacon:

Place the bacon on a foil lined baking sheet and baked at 400 F for 12-15 minutes until crispy. Remove bacon from the baking sheet and let drain on a paper towel lined plate. Set aside while cooking the chicken.

Chicken:

Cut the chicken breasts in half horizontally. Pound to 1/4″ thickness (see pictures above) and slice each half, into half. In other words, one large chicken breast should become 4 thin chicken breast fillets. Sprinkle liberally with seasoning and grill inside, or outside, until the internal temperature reaches 165 F. In the last minute of cooking, place slices of cheese over the cooked chicken and leave on the grill until the cheese has melted.

To assemble the sandwiches:

Place one chicken patty, 1 slice of bacon (cut in half), and desired toppings on each slider. Serve immediately!

**Any mixture of seasoning and cheese and sauce work well with this slider. Let your imagination (and your pantry) be your guide!**