Honey Mustard Chicken with Mushrooms and Bacon

Chicken doesn’t get better than this. The combination of flavors in this dish just sings: chicken marinated in a honey mustard sauce, with bacon, sauteed mushrooms and green onions stacked on, along with Monterey and cheddar cheeses.

I hadn’t made this dinner in a while. When one of my children saw what was being served he exclaimed how he loves this kind of chicken then proceeded to gobble his dinner down.

This recipe serves four.

Honey Mustard Sauce:

½ C. Dijon mustard
½ C. honey
1 tsp. vegetable oil

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 T. vegetable oil
2 C. sliced mushrooms
1/4 C. sliced green onion (reserve a tablespoonful)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T. butter
A dash of salt, pepper, paprika
8 slices of bacon, cooked
1/2 C. Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1/2 C. Cheddar cheese, shredded (more cheese if you like)

Mix up honey mustard sauce, reserve and chill one 1/3 of the sauce, and pour the rest over the chicken breasts in a dish. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour or two.

When done marinating, place chicken in a baking pan, sprinkling the minced garlic over the chicken and seasoning with salt, pepper and paprika. Cover with lid or aluminum foil. Bake at 400 F for approximately 40 minutes, depending on the thickness of the chicken breasts. Check for doneness - juices should run clear.

While the chicken cooks, fry up the bacon. Wipe out the pan, melt the butter and saute the mushrooms and green onion over medium heat with a dash of salt, pepper and paprika.

Before chicken is done, use a little of the honey mustard sauce to baste the chicken, saving extra in a small serving dish.

With chicken still in the baking pan, stack two pieces of bacon crosswise on top, then mushrooms, 1/8 C. Monterey Jack cheese and 1/8 C. Cheddar. Pop them back in the oven until the cheese bubbles, about 5-10 minutes.

Plate the chicken and top with green onion. Serve with honey mustard on the side to be drizzled on top.

Tip: This chicken is also great grilled on the barbecue, just place in a pan when done grilling and basting, stack and melt the cheeses in the oven.

Pasta in Chorizo & Tomato Sauce Recipe - Macaroni en Salsa de Tomate con Chorizo

Last September, my family hosted a wonderful high school student, Dani, from Segovia, Spain, for three weeks. He brought gifts from Segovia for us, including a cookbook written in Spanish. I tried this pasta recipe with a little help from a similar recipe I found online from Lisa and Tony Sierra at the website below. Since I only speak a little Spanish, the English version was very helpful!

The recipe calls for penne pasta (or pasta of your choice), crushed tomatoes, onions, garlic, red bell pepper, Spanish paprika and Spanish chorizo sausage, a firm, dry sausage - I used a Basque chorizo from a local store. See the link for the recipe.

The Sierras say this dish is a very common in Spanish households. For me, it was a new flavor for pasta. The paprika and chorizo give this dish a unique, delicious taste - muy bueno!

Click here for: Pasta In Chorizo & Tomato Sauce recipe

Rayda’s Creamy Dressing

Rayda Renshaw of John Day shared a house dressing recipe she adapted from the Fiddlehead Restaurant, a favorite eating stop of hers in Juneau, Alaska.

I tried this one out using some olive oil and red wine vinegar. It has such a fresh taste to it. I liked it so much that after the salad I even dipped a few tortilla chips in it!

1 large tomato or two romas, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
1/4 C. safflower oil
1/4 C. apple cider vinegar, or your choice
1 C. mayonnaise

Roughly chop the tomato, green bell pepper and green onions. Blend the ingredients until smooth. Add sour cream for a thicker consistency. This dressing goes well on tossed green salad, also on rice.