Recipe: Julie's Loaded Chicken

A few weeks ago on a Sunday night when I didn't feel like cooking, John and I got takeout from Colton's Steakhouse. I'm not sure, but I think Colton's is a regional chain in the Southern U.S. I scoured the menu beforehand and decided on something called Colton's Loaded Chicken. Outback Steakhouse has a similar dish called Alice Springs Chicken. This is how it's described on Colton's menu: "A juicy grilled chicken breast covered in sautéed mushrooms, bacon, green onions, and a blend of cheeses. Served with honey mustard sauce."

My description? DELICIOUS. I chose this dish not only because it sounded amazing, but because I knew I could easily make two meals out of it. The calorie count per meal, however, hovered right around 400. Way higher than what comfortably fits into my daily total.

So I decided to revamp this recipe a bit and what do you know....success! 278 calories and 36.2g protein per serving. Here's how I did it.

The cast of characters. Skinless, boneless chicken breasts, center cut bacon, Kraft 2% Mexican Blend, canned mushrooms, Newman's Own Lite Honey Mustard Dressing.

First, I pan fried the bacon until it was not quite crispy and drained it on paper towels to soak up any extra grease. I used Petit Jean bacon for my version...it's a local product, but Oscar Mayer Center Cut bacon would be a great choice. I calculated the nutrition stats for this recipe using one slice of Oscar Mayer bacon per 4 oz. chicken breast.

After I cooked the bacon, I drained the grease and wiped out the skillet. In this same pan, I cooked the chicken breasts...about 4 or 5 minutes on each side until done.

Oh! And I seasoned the chicken breasts with this:

 

It gave them incredible flavor!

I know that some Bandsters don't do well with mushrooms. If that's you, you might want to skip this step. As we all know, my band is NOT fickle. And I love mushrooms. These are already cooked, so I basically just pushed them around the skillet a bit to warm them up. I also gave them a dash of the Montreal Chicken Seasoning. I think next time I'll add a little splash of Worcestershire Sauce too. That was John's suggestion. :)

After that, all that's really left is the assembly. First the chicken breast, then the bacon slice, then about a half cup of sauteed mushrooms, then a 1/4 cup shredded cheese. I cound not get over how much cheese 28 grams actually is. I weighed it on my trusty kitchen scale. You could easily use less than this, but I was going for indulgent.

Put everything under the broiler until every thing is nice and melty.

Before:

After:

You can serve it with a tablespoon of the Honey Mustard dressing on the side, but I prefer to pour it right on top. Yum.

The nutrition info is for:
1 four ounce boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 slice Oscar Mayer Center Cut bacon
1/2 cup canned mushrooms
1/4 cup (28g) Kraft 2% Mexican Blend Cheese
1 T. Newman's Own Light Honey Mustard

This is the best 278 calories I've had in a long time. And check out that protein!

I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I did. If you make it, let me know.

Thanks for reading!