Creamy Honey Mustard Chicken With Crispy Bacon —mdash; Sunday Dinners That Give December Something to Look Forward To

First snow. Detroit's first real snow of the season fell on Tuesday night — three inches of wet, heavy snow that turned the city white and the commute into an obstacle course. I drove to the plant at five-thirty AM with my headlights cutting through the dark and the snow, and the car fishtailing once on Gratiot, and I thought about how my father made this drive for thirty years in worse conditions without complaining. I complain. I am working on it. The plant runs regardless of weather. Chrysler does not close for snow. The line does not stop because the roads are bad. If anything, bad weather means more people call off, which means more work for those who show up, which means overtime, which means money. I show up. I have never called off for weather. The Carter standard: if the building is standing, you are in it. Aiden saw snow for the first time last year, but he was six months old and did not register it. This year, at twenty months, he stood at the window and pressed both hands against the glass and said "wow" — a new word, deployed perfectly. Brianna bundled him in his new winter coat (the one I bought last month, navy blue with a hood, from Walmart) and took him to the yard, where he stood in the snow looking down at his boots with the expression of a scientist encountering a new element. He bent down. He touched it. It was cold. He looked at Brianna as if she had betrayed him. She picked him up and brought him inside, and he immediately wanted to go back out. This is the cycle of toddlerhood: desire, disappointment, desire again. I put up our Christmas tree on Saturday. It is a fake tree — a six-foot pre-lit thing from Walmart that Brianna bought two years ago — and it lists to the left no matter how I adjust the stand. We decorated it with ornaments that are a mix of store-bought and handmade, including a macaroni angel that Brianna made in elementary school and has kept for twenty years. The apartment is small and the tree takes up a disproportionate amount of the living room, but when I plugged in the lights and Aiden saw it glow, his face was worth every square foot of inconvenience. Sunday dinner was chicken and waffles. This is a Mama invention — not traditional in any regional sense, but something she started making on Sunday evenings in December because, as she says, "December is long and people need something to look forward to." The chicken is her standard fried chicken — buttermilk-soaked, flour-coated, cast-iron-fried. The waffles are from a Belgian waffle maker that Dad bought her for Christmas in 2003. She serves them with maple syrup and hot sauce on the side, because in this family, hot sauce goes on everything including, apparently, waffles. It works. Do not question it.

Mama’s Sunday dinners have always been the thing that makes December bearable — not the decorations, not the overtime checks, but the smell coming out of that kitchen when you walk in from the cold. If you don’t have a cast-iron chicken tradition already locked in, this Creamy Honey Mustard Chicken With Crispy Bacon is the one I’d hand you: it has that same sweet-and-savory pull she always chased, and the bacon on top is the kind of detail that makes a kid’s face do what Aiden’s did when the Christmas tree lights came on. Make it on a Sunday. You’ll want the leftovers.

Creamy Honey Mustard Chicken With Crispy Bacon

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 6 oz each)
• 4 strips thick-cut bacon
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

1. Cook the bacon. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon strips until crispy, about 6–8 minutes. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate and crumble when cool. Leave 1 tablespoon of bacon drippings in the skillet.
2. Season the chicken. Pat the chicken breasts dry. Season both sides generously with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and smoked paprika.
3. Sear the chicken. Add the olive oil to the skillet with the reserved drippings over medium-high heat. Add the chicken breasts and sear 5–6 minutes per side until golden and cooked through (internal temperature 165°F). Transfer to a plate and tent with foil.
4. Build the sauce. Reduce heat to medium. Add the minced garlic to the skillet and cook 30 seconds until fragrant. Pour in the heavy cream, Dijon mustard, whole-grain mustard, honey, and apple cider vinegar. Stir to combine, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
5. Simmer. Let the sauce simmer 3–4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.
6. Finish and serve. Return the chicken to the skillet and spoon the sauce over each breast. Top with crumbled bacon and fresh parsley. Serve immediately, with the extra sauce spooned over at the table.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 430 | Protein: 40g | Fat: 24g | Carbs: 13g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 710mg