In this paper, the problem of the stabilization of uncertain non-linear systems expressible in the perturbed-chain-of-integrators form is considered. Under suitable assumptions, the control problem is solved via a combined backstepping/variable structure control strategy that retains n - 1 steps of a backstepping-like procedure and associates with them a final step aimed at generating a second-order sliding regime on a suitably selected sliding manifold. As a result, the uncertainty terms turn out to be compensated for, thus guaranteeing satisfactory performances, which are compared, in the paper, with those of the original procedure. The proposed approach has also the advantage of a reduced computational load.