Alice Springs Chicken

So date night for my hubby and I just got alot cheaper! We both LOVE Alice Springs Chicken from Outback but for $14 per plate, that specialty does not happen very often, until now! I found the following recipe, made the chicken, and to our pleasant surprise, the taste was very similar!

Recipe

• 1 cup Dijon mustard
• 1 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 4-6 boneless skinless chicken breast
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 12 slices cooked bacon
• 3 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1. Combine the mustard honey and 1 tablespoon of the oil along with the lemon juice and mix. Mix vigorously .
2. Place the chicken in a 1 gallon Ziploc bag and pour half of the mixture on top. Refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours.
3. Save and chill the remaining marinade to serve later with the chicken.

After the chicken has marinated:

1. Preheat your oven to 375°F.
2. Place the remaining oil in a frying pan, heat and sear chicken on both sides.
3. Put the chicken in an oven safe pan and brush liberally with the marinade.
4. In the same frying pan and add the butter and sauté the mushrooms.
5. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper.

6. Place bacon strips across each breast, spoon mushrooms on top, and then add approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of a cup of cheese on each backspace.

7. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake 7 to 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with honey mustard marinade.

Man this stuff is good, try it out and let me know what you think! Enjoy!

Crescent Roll Braid

I found Week 2’s recipe on Sumo’s Sweet Stuff.  Its called a Crescent Roll Braid. You can see how her’s turned out here. Because it was just my hubby and me eating,  I cut the recipe in half and it was perfect.

The nice thing about this recipe was I didn’t have to buy any special ingredients, I already had everything in the fridge and pantry. Here is a picture of all the ingredients you need, minus the chicken ( it was defrosting in the microwave when I took this picture).

Bistro Chicken

The new recipe I tried for this week is called Bistro Chicken. I found this recipe at Kraftfoods site. Here is the original recipe but I ended up changing some things around to make it easier and cheaper.

What you need:

2 tsp. oil

3 cups  sliced fresh mushrooms

1 onion, chopped

1 can  (15 oz.) stewed tomatoes, undrained

1/4 cup KRAFT Zesty Italian Dressing

3 Tbsp.  tomato paste

4 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 lb.)

1 cup  KRAFT Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese

2 slices OSCAR MAYER Fully Cooked Bacon, crumbled

I ended up substituting these three items ( stewed tomatoes, undrained, KRAFT Zesty Italian Dressing,  tomato paste) for a jar of Spaghetti sauce. I’m not sure how much this changed the taste, but the ending result was not bad. I may try the original sometime to compare the two.

Here is how you make it:

HEAT oil in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and onions; cook 5 min., stirring occasionally.

ADD chicken; cover. Simmer on medium-low heat 12 min. or until chicken is done (165°F).

Stir in spaghetti sauce. When it is warm, TOP with cheese and bacon; simmer, uncovered, 5 min. or until cheese is melted.

I served mine over Spaghetti noodles to give the meal a little more substance, but my husband said that made it harder to eat.  Next time I will probably just do the chicken with some other side and leave the noodles out. Any ideas?

So final verdict: Good, but not perfected. Will probably experiment some more on this, but it will be made again.