Creamy, Cheesey Chicken Pleasey

I don't know about you mommas, but I actually do not mind cooking for my family. I love to try new things, I like being able to monitor the types of food going into our bodies and not to mention eating at home can save some major moo-la! Sometimes however, I do find myself in a rut- making the same old things over and over. Don't get me wrong everyone needs to have a few good "go- to's" in their arsenal of dinner recipes in my opinion. Those are especially helpful when you need a quick fix meal; but, I get bored with the same old things, or highly similar things, very easily. In an effort to start the new year off with good habits, I resolved to make dinner five nights a week. That's a lot for a working momma to juggle but I feel better when I make fresh food for dinner.  In an effort to pull myself out of my cooking rut I did a mix up mash up of some of the yummy recipes we've tried and liked in the past.  My result was this yummy keto-ish chicken dinner and it was a HIT! That is what I call a WIN WIN!  Honestly the chicken was soo moist and tasty, the kids tore it up and my husband was pretty impressed too. I mean how can you go wrong with bacon and cheese and chicken (insert Homer Simpson salivation growl). Okay on to the recipe! 

Creamy, Cheesey Chicken Pleasey

Prep Time- 20 minutes  Total Cook Time- 45 minutes 

1 - 2lbs of  thin Chicken Breasts or tenders would work great too.  ( I suggest using a bit more chicken than you would normally so you'll have some left overs or seconds - either way I won't judge).  

Pepper, Garlic powder and Season salt to taste 

1/2 a package of Bacon cooked and crumbled (I used a precooked bacon to speed up the process and just crumbled and reheated in a skillet for a couple minutes to get it extra crispy and render off some fat). 

Sliced Muenster Cheese (I love Muenster but you can add any cheese of choice here). 

*Sauce Ingredients below*

1/2 a block of cream cheese- softened (4 oz.)

1/3 cup of mayonnaise (I am not a huge fan of mayo- but if you are feel free to omit the cream cheese and add an additional cup of mayo instead).  

2 Tbsp of Dijon Mustard 

1 Tbsp of natural honey (be careful here- honey is NOT truly Keto - but I choose my battles- (this is not one of them). 

1 Tbsp of onion flakes

Salt & Pepper 

Garlic (fresh minced)

Glass backing dish large enough to fit all chicken breasts/ tenders spaced out a bit. 

I started off my setting my cream cheese under a warm glass on the counter to soften it up faster (works well for butter too). I pulled out my chicken breasts and trimmed them down and thinned them out a bit for a quicker cook (here is when I decided this would be better with tenders or thin chicken breasts). I sprinkled them with season salt, pepper and extra garlic powder on each side put them in a zip-lock bag and let them sit in the fridge while I prepped the sauce (schmear ? what ever you want to call it) and let the oven pre-heat (375 degrees). Here I got the bacon going, and then began adding my "saucy -schmear" (yeah that's sounds right) ingredients to a bowl; cream cheese, mayonnaise, honey, Dijon mustard, dried onion flakes, minced garlic & salt/ pepper, mix well and set aside. I pulled the bacon out of the pan, leaving as much of the grease that cooked off as possible. Next I pulled the chicken breasts out of the fridge and placed them in the pan over medium - low heat. I had four breasts and let them cook for about 2 minutes per side, I tried to flip them each only once. While the chicken was sautéing and bacon cooling, I prepped my glass baking dish by smearing a bit of  the "saucy- schmear" on the bottom of the pan (just a little bit you want as much as possible on top). Then I pulled the chicken out of the pan let them cool/ rest and then placed in the dish. I coated each breast with "saucy- schmear" trying my best to coat them each well and evenly. Then I added the crumbled bacon over the top of each. Finally I added 1/2 a slice of muenster cheese to each (I used the cream cheese so I was a bit more conservative here, if you use mayo- feel free to cheese it up) and placed in the oven for 20- 30 minutes.  I served them with roasted asparagus (which I threw on a pan with EVOO and  salt and pepper and roasted while the chicken cooked) and garlic- herbed mashed cauliflower (bought in a bag frozen at Aldi cooked and added butter salt and pepper and blended smooth). ENJOY! 

           

                                                                                                        - Lori