Chicken Rumaki

Many years ago, we went to this Polynesian restaurant and they made a formerly nose wrinkling appetizer in a new way that I loved.  Traditional rumaki is made with chicken livers and well...no.  You can stop at livers.  (Just saying the word makes me retch because I still smell it when my great grandma from the old country would make it.)  But this place made it with chicken thighs.  So I did one better and made it with chicken breasts and a new Christmas Eve tradition was born.

The Mr and mama declare it's not Christmas Eve without them and while after a long week of preparing other things it might be the last thing I want to do, they are truly little effort for the smiles.  The Mr said he wanted to learn how to make them this year so he could take them on for me for next year and I was more than happy to show him.

Now I'll show you in case you need an appetizer idea for New Years Eve.

Here's what you'll need:

8 chicken breast tenderloins (I marinated them in a little huli huli sauce but you can use a spice rub)
Low sodium bacon
Whole water chestnuts
Toothpicks

Take a strip of bacon and one of your tenderloins.

Flatten the chicken to a similar thickness all the way around so it cooks evenly.

Place the chicken over one end of the bacon.

Place the water chestnut at the end on top of the chicken.

Roll chicken, water chestnut and bacon until you're halfway up the strip of bacon.
(Ignore phallic food image)

Flip it so that the next roll of bacon will cover the open ends of the chicken.

When the chicken is totally wrapped in the bacon, put a toothpick through it making sure you hit the water chestnut inside so the whole appetizer is connected or it could fall apart during baking.

Repeat with other ones and if you have a rack insert for a pan it will help let the bacon grease drip off as it bakes.

You can make these ahead by a day and keep them covered in foil until you're ready to bake them.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 25 minutes or until chicken is cooked all the way through.

I always put them in our food buffet (affiliate link)  with other appetizers so we can enjoy yummy noshes instead of doing a full blown meal.

A delicious Christmas Eve tradition can now be a part of your New Years or any other party!

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