Grilled chicken breast fillets with mushrooms and mozzarella cheese in heavy cream sauce

Here's a rich and tasty dish I threw together today for lunch. It's great over rice if your diet allows. It's great by itself, too!

This recipe is a bit more complicated than most I've posted here, but still qualifies as a 30-minute meal if you work quickly. 45 minutes if you work slowly.

Serves the two of us, with leftovers to spare.

Ingredients

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced into 4 fillets.
  Season chicken breasts on both sides with:
  • Granulated garlic to taste
  • Sea salt to taste
  • Paprika to taste
  • Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• Thin sliced Mozzarella cheese (enough to cover each fillet)
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
• ½ onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 4 slices of bacon, lightly cooked and chopped into small pieces
• Oil for cooking: we use bacon drippings but you can use olive oil, butter, ghee, etc.

Sauce Ingredients

• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• ⅛ tsp. turmeric powder
• ⅛ tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ¼ tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp fresh ground pepper
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp parsley flakes (or fresh if you have it)

Preparation

I start the sauce first, so it can reduce a bit while I prepare and cook the other ingredients. Once the sauce is simmering, move on to the other bits.

Prepare the sauce

• In a large skillet, wide saucepan or wok, combine chicken broth, heavy cream, and seasonings (turmeric, cumin, garlic and onion powders, ground pepper). Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring often.
• Reduce heat, simmer, stirring occasionally until reduced slightly.
• Stir in parsley and lemon juice.
• Keep warm while preparing other ingredients.

Mushrooms, onions, garlic, and bacon

• Saute mushrooms in your choice of oil over medium-high heat in a non-stick skillet until they start to brown, stirring or tossing frequently. Use enough oil to keep from sticking or burning.
• When the mushrooms have started to brown, add chopped onion, garlic, and bacon.
• Continue stirring/tossing over medium-high heat until onions, garlic are translucent.
• Transfer the prepared mushrooms, bacon, onion and garlic mixture to a small bowl or plate. If necessary, clean the skillet so you can use it to cook the chicken fillets in it.

Chicken

• Preheat skillet over medium or medium-high heat. Add sufficient oil of choice, add seasoned breast fillets and brown them on each side, about 3 to 5 minutes each.
• If you wish (and your diet or health allows), you may remove the chicken and deglaze the pan with ¼ cup chardonnay or vermouth. If you deglaze the pan, reduce the wine for a minute or two (until it just begins to thicken) and return the chicken to the pan.
• Reduce heat to low.
• Place the mozzarella cheese over the chicken pieces in the pan.
• Pour the reduced sauce over the chicken in the skillet. I use a silicone scraper to get all the sauce, no point wasting all that yummy goodness.
• Distribute the mushroom, onion, garlic, and bacon mixture over the chicken in the pan. Cover with a lid for a few minutes and simmer over low heat to ensure that the cheese melts and the chicken is cooked thoroughly (not too long, though, or you'll have tough chicken.)