Alice Springs Chicken Recipe (Outback Copycat)

This is such a wonderful dish! If you've ever had the Alice Springs Chicken at Outback, or the Mushroom Jack Chicken Fajitas at Chili's you probably appreciate the combination of mushroom, bacon, and chicken - and the Alice Springs Chicken has the bonus of that delicious honey mustard marinade / sauce that it's served with that just gives it that something "extra".

This was wonderful served alongside some simply oven roasted asparagus for a filling, delicious dinner! And it uses ingredients that we almost always have in the refrigerator which is a bonus (I can't be the only one who thinks of bacon and mushrooms as staples)! You do have to plan ahead to allow time for marinating - time for that delicious sauce to infuse into the chicken is always a good thing!

Alice Springs Chicken Recipe (Outback Copycat) from Culinary Hill

Ingredients

For the marinade
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp lemon juice

For the chicken
4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 3-4 pounds), cut in half
8 ounces mushrooms sliced
8 slices cooked bacon chopped into 2-inch pieces
5-6 slices Colby Jack cheese

Directions

1. Combine the marinade ingredients in a small bowl or 4-cup measurer. Whisk until smooth.
2. Reserve about 1/4 cup of the marinade for serving, place in a small container in the refrigerator.
3. Pour the rest of the marinade over the chicken in a Ziploc bag, rotate until all chicken is well coated and refrigerate a couple hours, up to overnight.
4. When you are ready to cook - preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cook the bacon in a large nonstick skillet. When cooked through and lightly crisped, remove to papertowels to drain grease. Pour most of the grease out into a small bowl (for cooking the chicken), and cook the sliced mushrooms in about 1 TBS of the bacon grease, left in the skillet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper during cooking. Cook until tender, and moisture has released - about 5-8 minutes. Place mushrooms in a bowl and set aside. 
5. Wipe out skillet and return the rest of the bacon grease to the skillet. Heat to medium to medium-high heat and saute the chicken pieces (in batches as necessary, don't overcrowd the skillet) for about 3-5 minutes per side without moving to allow a nice brown crust to form.
6. Place browned chicken on a baking sheet.
7. Discard all remaining marinade from the Ziploc bag.
8. Once all chicken is browned, divide the mushrooms over the tops of them, chop the bacon into about 2-inch pieces and distribute over the mushrooms, then place a slice of cheese (or half slice depending on the size of your cheese and chicken pieces) until all the chicken is covered.
9. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
10. Serve with the reserved mustard sauce.