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Chicken with Sautéed Mushrooms, Bacon, Melted Cheese in Honey Mustard Sauce [Video]

This recipe is sometimes called Alice Springs Chicken, from the Outback Steakhouse dish of the same name. There are many 'copycat' recipes out there; this is an amalgamation of some of them.

Ingredients

Honey Mustard Sauce

  • ½ cup mayonnaise
  • ½ cup honey
  • ½ cup Dijon mustard (I used a mixture of Dijon, yellow, and full-grain mustard)
  • 2 tsp lemon juice

Main Ingredients

  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I pounded mine to reduce their thickness, before marinating them)
  • 8 oz button or baby bella (crimini) mushrooms sliced
  • 6-8 slices cooked bacon crumbled or halved
  • 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack and Cheddar (or Colby Jack) cheese
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • butter or oil (for cooking)

Instructions

  • Make the sauce: In a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, honey, mustard, and lemon juice. Set aside half for serving, and use the rest to...
  • Marinate the chicken for at least 30 minutes.

Conventional Oven:

  • Cook Bacon and Mushrooms: Cook the bacon in a skillet, until crispy, then remove and crumble. In the same skillet, using the leftover bacon fat, or a bit of butter, sauté the sliced mushrooms until tender and browned.
  • Sear the Chicken: Season the marinated chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Sear them in a hot skillet for 4 to 5 minutes per side, until golden brown.
  • Assemble: Transfer the chicken to a baking dish. Spoon a little honey mustard mixture over each piece, then layer with the cooked bacon, sautéed, and a generous pile of shredded cheese.
  • Bake at 400℉ for 8 to 10 minutes (or broil for 2-3 minutes) until the cheese is melted and bubbly and the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165℉.
    Drizzle with extra honey mustard sauce before serving.

Ninja French Door Air Fryer:

  • Cook the Bacon: Set the Ninja to Air Fry at 390℉. Place the bacon slices directly in the air fryer basket, or on the sheet pan laid on top of parchment paper. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes until the bacon is crispy. Remove the bacon, crumble or halve it, and carefully wipe down the pan to clear excess grease.
  • Sauté the Mushrooms: While the air fryer is running, quickly sauté the sliced mushrooms on the stovetop with a little butter, or some of them rendered bacon fat for 4 to 5 minutes, until tender and brown. Set the mushrooms aside.
  • Air Fry the Chicken: Pat the marinated chicken breasts dry, and season them. Place the breasts in a single layer on to the sheet pan or basket.
    Select Air Fry, set the temperature to 370℉, and the timer for 12 to 15 minutes. Flip the breasts halfway through cooking.
    Cook until the breasts readh an internal temperature of 165℉
  • Assemble: Pull out the air fryer tray. Leave the chicken right on the sheet pan. Brush each breast generously with your prepared with the prepared honey mustard sauce.
    Layer the crispy bacon and sautéed mushrooms evenly on top of each breast. Smother everything with a heavy pile of shredded cheese.
  • Melt the Cheese: Return the tray to the Air Fryer, and select the Whole Roast or Bake function (which uses a gentler fan speed so your toppings don't blow around. Set the temperature to 320℉, and the time to 3 to 4 minutes, until the cheese is completely melted, bubbly, and golden.
    Drizzle with your remaining honey mustard sauce, and serve immediately

Notes

Bryan's Notes

I had found this recipe, but it perplexed me. The photo clearly showed mushrooms, but there were no mushrooms mentioned in the recipe. When I started investigating similar recipes, it didn't take long before I discovered Alice Springs Chicken - many copycat recipes of the Outback Steakhouse recipe of that name.
So, with the help of Google Gemini (Google's AI), I combined a number of recipes into this one. In addition, I asked Gemini to come up with a recipe that used our recently acquired Ninja French Door Air Fryer, which we love. It's become our preferred method of baking, roasting, etc. So much so, that we hardly used our regular oven any more. 
When I came to make the resulting recipe, I changed it in a number of ways:
  • I only used 2 chicken breasts (one large, and one smaller), but I still made the same amount of marinade, so I ended up - predictably - with a lot more marinade in the final dish. But we liked it that way!
  • We were running out of Dijon mustard, and also yellow mustard, so I ended up emptying our remaining Dijon, and Yellow mustards, and I augmented that with a good dollop of whole-grain mustard. That, too, turned out well.
  • I used the cheese we had on hand: shredded Cheddar, and some shaved Asiago that needed to be used up.
  • We also had a full package of Baby Bella mushrooms that we needed to use up. So, I used more mushrooms than the recipe called for. But we ended up liking that, too.
  • The end result didn't look great - it reminded me of the look of a Cajun Étouffée (it means 'smothered' in French), but, boy, it was delicious, with unexpectedly different flavors.
The Air Fryer method worked wonderfully too! My lovely wife pronounced this dish full of Umami. We'll definitely make this again.