Alice Springs Chicken

My favorite dish (maybe also the only one I've ever ordered) from Outback Steakhouse is the Alice Springs Chicken.  I've looked online several times in the past and have been unable to find a copy cat recipe.  Until I found this one.  Super excited to finally find a recipe, I gave it a go and was not disappointed. It was pretty easy to make and, although this is not Outback's exact recipe, it comes pretty darn close.  Close enough that I'll be making it again.  I'm not even going to try to tweak it to make it closer to Outback's -- it's that close. 

Slightly Adapted From:  The Finer Things In Life

What You Will Need:
4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, pounded to 1/2 inch thickness
Seasoning Salt to Taste
6 Slices of Bacon, cut in half
1/4 Cup Mustard
1/3 Cup Honey
2 Tbsp Mayonnaise 
2 Tsps Onion Powder
1 Cup Fresh White Button Mushrooms, sliced
2 Cups Shredded Colby Jack Cheese

Here's What You Do:
1.  Sprinkle season salt on the chicken breasts and rub in well.  Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

2.  While the chicken is in the refrigerator, cook your bacon (I baked mine).  Save the bacon grease. 

3.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

4.  Saute the chicken in the bacon grease for about 5 minutes per side (until browned).  As you cook each piece of chicken, place the cooked chicken in a 9 x 13 baking dish.

5.  In a bowl, mix the mustard, honey, mayo, and onion powder.  Apply this mixture to each chicken breast. 

6.  Place a layer of mushrooms, bacon, and shredded cheese on each chicken breast. 

7.  Bake the chicken for about 30 minutes, or the cheese is melted and the chicken is completely cooked through.   

8.  Serve the chicken with the remaining honey mustard sauce that you made in step 5. 

I served my Alice Springs Chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and green bean casserole.   It was delicious!

Enjoy!

Stuffed Mushrooms

I've got a Book Club meeting coming up and I'm supposed to bring snacks, so I've been trying out a bunch of different appetizer recipes.  This is the first one I tried.  I LOVE mushrooms.  So, stuffed mushrooms made sense.  This recipe is fairly simple, although there is a lot of chopping, and the result was pretty delicious. 

Adapted from: The Girl Who Ate Everything

Here's what I used:

24 White Button Mushrooms
⅓ Pound Hot Pork Sausage

½ Whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced

4 Cloves Garlic, Finely Minced

8 Ounces, Cream Cheese, softened

1 Whole Egg Yolk

¾ Cups Parmesan Cheese, Grated

Salt And Pepper (to Taste)

Here's what I did:
1.  Put the sausage on the stove to cook and heated the oven to 350 degrees.  As the sausage was cooking, I finely diced the onions and garlic and set them aside.

2.  When the sausage was done cooking, I put it in a bowl to the side to cool.

3.  I washed all of the mushrooms and removed the stems.

4.  I finely diced the stems of the mushrooms. 

5.  I put the onions and garlic in the same pan the pork had been in and sauteed them for about 2 minutes.  I immediately added the mushroom stems and sauteed for an additional 2 minutes.

6.  I removed the onion/garlic/mushroom stem mixture from the pan and put it on a plate to the side to cool.

7.  I used an electric mixer to mix the cream cheese and egg yolk.

8.  I stirred the parmesan cheese into the cream cheese/egg mixture.

9.  I added the sausage to the mixture and stirred until mixed well.

10.  Finally, I added the onion/garlic/mushroom stem mixture and stirred well.

11.  I stuffed the inside of each mushroom with the stuffing mixture, using my fingers to press the mixture in, making sure each mushroom was stuffed as full as it could be.

12.  I put the mushrooms on a cooking sheets and put them in the oven to bake.  I left them there for about 20 to 25 minutes. 

Enjoy!