Plants produce a wide variety of specialized (or secondary) metabolites that function as chemical defence compounds and provide protection against microbial pathogens or herbivores. This chapter focuses on the metabolic engineering of biosynthetic pathways for plant chemical defence compounds with antimicrobial properties for use in crop protection. It presents an overview of the metabolic engineering efforts made in the area of plant chemical defence. For in-depth information on the characteristics of a specific class of chemical defence compounds, the reader is referred to the specialized reviews on each topic. The chapter reviews the some of the scientific and technical challenges in metabolic engineering and the new possibilities emerging from recent technological developments. It concludes by discussing the outlook for bioengineered chemical defences as part of crop protection strategies, also taking into account issues of commercial viability and the socio-political context.