Outback's Alice Spring's Chicken

If you've ever been to Outback, I'm sure you're aware of a dish called Alice Spring's Chicken.  This dish is chicken smeared with honey mustard, blanketed in bacon and smothered with delicious cheese.  I can think of a better way to battle that low cholesterol level.  The original dish calls for mushrooms, but as I do with everything, I leave the mushrooms off.  No mush for me.

Outback's Alice Springs Chicken

4 chicken breasts, ½" thick

honey mustard

6 slices bacon, sliced in half

½ tsp. McCormick's Season All

1 cup sliced mushrooms, drained (opt.)

3 cups shredded Colby or Monterrey jack cheese

Rub chicken breast with Seasonal All and set aside to marinate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350º. While the breast is marinating fry bacon crisp and drain. Sauté chicken breasts on medium heat in pan with just enough oil to prevent sticking. Cook on both sides until a slight golden color and cooked in the middle but not dry. Remove from pan and place in a 9 x 13 dish. Spread chicken breast with honey mustard, cover with a layer of mushrooms, three pieces of bacon and then sprinkle with shredded Colby/Jack cheese, chicken should be covered with shredded cheese. Bake about 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Sprinkle with parsley and extra honey mustard may be served on the side.

Tired of your bacon getting too curly?  Rachael Ray says that if you start your bacon in a cold pan and allow the heat to rise gradually, it won't curl nearly as much.  I have tried this and it occasionally works, but not 100%.  I will say for those who don't cook bacon a lot, I'm sorry.  I would also like to say, don't make the mistake of cooking it too hot.  Like many dishes, you don't need as much heat as one might think to cook them done.  I usually cook my bacon on 4 (on a heat scale of 1 - 10). Give it a shot, see what you think.  Addition (7/10/10): Don't cook your bacon until it's really dark.  It will become darker when you take it off heat.  If you want your bacon to be crispier, then allow it to get slightly dark OR remove it from the heat and then put it back in the pan. If you are like me and you also like the bacon just before it gets crispy.  I just feel like it has more flavor when it isn't really crispy.

 

A great tip for cooking chicken in a skillet.  Once you've placed your chicken in the skillet, don't move it until it releases itself from the pan.  In this recipe, I first cook the bacon, then drain the pan of the drippings, but I do not wipe it clean.  This helps flavor the chicken and also helps to keep it from sticking.  If you look at the pan in the picture with the chicken, it looks awfully dirty, but it will clean up beautifully if you de-glaze the pan with water while it's still hot.  I also sometimes soak it with detergent to help release the remaining bits.

 

I hope you try this dish, It's truly delicious.  A few other changes I make.  I use Colby Jack Cheese.  I buy it by the block at Walmart (or even Costco) and let Percy shred it with the slicer/shredder attachment.  The first time I tried this recipe, the honey mustard seemed more tangy than sweet so the next time (and every time since) I've always mixed the honey mustard with actual honey.  When you're purchasing your honey mustard, take a look at the sugar content.  If you buy the one with less sugar, you'll probably want to also get honey.  I like this tangier honey mustard to use on sandwiches and I would rather mix it with honey than buy the sweeter mustard.  If you have the honey mustard that is used to dip chicken nuggets in, then it will probably be fine by itself.  I hope you enjoy!