Aussie Chicken

20120606:
This dish came out well. However, there was room for improvement. The dish would have benefited from more mushrooms, having the chicken cook in the pan less, and adding the cheese earlier.

DETAILS:
Marinated the Chicken:
Marinated the chicken with 1/2 cup (French's) Worcester sauce* (replaced the seasoning salt), added about four cloves of fresh garlic, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, (Spice Islands) 1/2 tsp onion powder, and lime juice squeezed from a quarter of a lime. Let it sit for half an hour starting at 5:30PM.

While I waited, I made some other preparations, the sauce, and worked on making Baked Macaroni and Cheese.

Other Preparations:
Fried six strips of bacon, each cut in half. Sauteed one cup of mushrooms. Pounded chicken down: I didn't really know what I was doing, but I think whatever I did was probably right.

Sauce:
1/2 cup honey: crushed the honey because it had crystallized. 1/2 cup Dijon mustard. 1/4 cup light ranch (substituted for mayo): apparently the mayo in the fridge expired last December 2011; I threw that jar out and instead of heading back to the store, I looked for a substitute. My dad suggested light ranch, and I thought that was an appropriate substitute. 1 tsp onion powder. 1 tsp garlic powder

Final Steps:
Spread the sauce on top of the chicken breasts.
Laid the bacon on top of the sauce and laid all the mushrooms on top of the bacon.
Put the first pair of breasts in on the left side of the oven at 7:26PM and waited until 7:56PM to take them out.
Cut up an extra cup of mushrooms for the other batch.
Put the second pair in on the right side at 7:33PM and wait until 8:03PM to take them out.

*Also known as Worchestershire sauce.

Comments:
I made a mess. The clean-up ended at around 7:51PM. Good thing I had to wait for food to finish baking anyways.

With 1 minute left for the left side, my dad said, "Wait, didn't use any cheese?" He was absolutely right! So I turned the oven down to 300 F, added 5 minutes to the clock and added the cheese. Then, after the 5 minutes expired, the left will have cooked for 34 minutes and the right for 27 minutes.

In contrast to the baked macaroni and cheese, all the flavors in the Aussie Chicken really come together. And although the chicken was a little dry, all the other flavors usually made up for it. The dish was not overly sweet.

[20121118]

---

Relevant Links:
Aussie Chicken (AllRecipes.com)