This copycat Monterey Chicken recipe is a low carb favorite! Juicy chicken, sugar free BBQ sauce, plenty of cheese and bacon, and it’s all topped off with diced tomatoes and green onions. This is the ultimate keto chicken recipe that the whole family will go nuts over!
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Oh gosh, I’m not even sure where to start with this Monterey Chicken! So tender and juicy. So much flavor. So stinkin’ easy to make. This one is just a keto dream come true, you guys!
This recipe is a Chili’s copycat. Do you remember their Monterey Chicken? So good and always a popular menu item! Not sure why, but they removed it from their menu.
Oh well! I’m happy to make my own Monterey Chicken at home, because it’s super simple and I can be sure to use a keto BBQ sauce!
We’re still perfecting our homemade BBQ sauce, so in the meantime, we’d recommend Sweet Baby Ray’s No Sugar Added sauce. It honestly tastes just like the regular Sweet Baby Ray’s and it’s pretty easy to find at most grocery stores these days. Plus, it uses allulose as a sweetener, which is all natural and has no funky aftertaste.
We love to serve Monterey Chicken with a side salad topped with our keto ranch dressing and some Instant Pot broccoli or garlic parmesan asparagus. Such a simple dinner!
If you love easy chicken recipes, you’ll want to try our Mayo Parmesan Chicken, Creamy Garlic Parmesan Chicken, and Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Peppers too!
Ingredient Notes:
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CHICKEN – Chili’s version of Monterey Chicken uses chicken breasts and that’s what we’re using here. Chicken thighs would also work well.
SEASONING – Garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper! We’re keeping it simple.
BBQ SAUCE – As mentioned above, use my keto BBQ sauce, the Sweet Baby Ray’s No Sugar Added sauce, or whatever brand of sugar free sauce you like best!
CHEESE – We’re using colby jack here, but you can use cheddar if that’s what you have on hand.
TOPPINGS – After glazing the chicken with the barbecue sauce and melting the cheese you’ll top it all off with some crumbled bacon, diced tomatoes, and green onion. We like to make bacon ahead of time for use in recipes like this one. Try making some air fryer bacon, it’s mess free and so easy!
Easy enough for a weeknight and it packs in the flavor!
The whole family loves this one and no one realizes it’s low carb.
This is great for meal prep and reheats perfectly. Just keep the tomatoes and green onions on the side.
How To:
Season – First up you’ll prepare the chicken breast by pounding it out to an even thickness and then sprinkling on the seasoning.
Sauté – When the chicken is seasoned and the butter has melted in the pan you can start cooking! Let the chicken breasts cook for about seven minutes per side, or until they’re cooked through.
Sauce – Spread the sauce over the top of the chicken.
Cheese – Sprinkle the cheese right over the top of the chicken. We like to really pile it on. Turn on the broiler and pop the pan under it to melt the cheese. Alternatively, cover the pan with a lid and let it set for a few minutes to melt that cheese.
Finish – Sprinkle the chicken with crumbled bacon, diced tomatoes, and diced green onions and then serve it up!
Don’t want to turn on your broiler? Just work quickly so that your pan is still nice and hot after topping the chicken with BBQ sauce and cheese, and then pop on a lid. The residual heat will melt the cheese in just a few minutes.
FAQ’s:
It’s generally chicken topped with BBQ sauce, melty cheese (like Monterey Jack for example), bacon, tomatoes, and green onion, or other toppings! It’s also popular at restaurants, and this is pretty much a copycat of Chili’s Monterey chicken recipe.
You can keep the Monterey chicken stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 4 to 5 days. We like to store the tomatoes and green onions on the side, so that they’re not also getting reheated.
More Low Carb Cheesy Chicken Recipes:
- Bruschetta Chicken
- Keto Chicken Parmesan
- Air Fryer Stuffed Chicken
- Chicken Stuffed Peppers
- Crack Chicken Soup
- Spinach Stuffed Chicken
Monterey Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breats pounded to an even thickness
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cracked pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/4 cup sugar free barbecue sauce
- 1 cup shredded Colby Jack cheese
- 4 slices bacon cooked and crumbled
- ½ cup diced tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons diced green onions
Instructions
- Sprinkle both sides of the the chicken with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper and spread the seasoning around to coat the chicken.
- Heat a large, oven safe skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil and butter and heat until butter has melted.
- Add the chicken to the pan and cook for 6 minutes per side or until chicken is cooked through.
- Brush the BBQ sauce over the top of the chicken breasts. Flip the chicken and brush the bottoms with sauce, if desired. (You’ll need a bit more sauce than called for, but worth it if you like your chicken extra saucy.)
- Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top of the chicken breasts.
- Place the pan in the oven under the broiler for 2-3 minutes to melt the cheese.
- Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the crumbled bacon, tomatoes, and green onion.
- Serve hot.
J. Neal says
Don’t be fooled. The no-sugar-added BBQ sauce contains sucralose. It appears in the ingredient list as among those ingredients each deemed at less than 2%. The trouble is… that 2% quantity of sucralose (which is ultra-sweet) outperforms the sweetness of the token allulose quantity used. If the manufacturer was honest, they would have used ALL allulose for the sweetness in the sauce. Sucralose is a potent synthetic sweetener that messes with your gut and your body’s sugar cravings. It is cheaper to add for sweetness, but it’s presence does your health NO favors. This BBQ sauce also contains modified food starch, “natural” flavors that have been chemically tinkered with, and preservatives. You are better off buying some pure allulose and making your own “no-sugar-added,” low-carb barbecue sauce with healthy, whole food ingredients instead of this sham sauce trading on the ballyhoo that it has allulose, while slipping in all kinds of chemical sleight-of-hand, highly processed stuff AND artificial sweetener that is garbage for your body.
Karly Campbell says
Oh, you’re right – I didn’t see that it contained sucralose. Such a small amount though, so it doesn’t bother me personally. There are other BBQ sauces out there on the market that have ingredients you might prefer.
Lorraine Gualtieri says
Whole family loves this. Goes great with cauliflower fried rice
Sandy says
Fairly easy to make and the taste was GREAT! Hubby says he would like to have this one again. (and he’s picky)
Karly Campbell says
I’m so glad y’all enjoyed this one! 🙂