I guess if I could pick a recipe that I’m best known for it’s this Chicken Marsala recipe. Everyone that tries it absolutely loves, loves, loves it! The added bonus is it’s a one pan dish AND it’s so easy to make. Winner, winner chicken dinner!
Not to brag (although us Texans are readily accused of that!) but Food52.com selected this recipe as a Community Pick and they made a video of it!!
I have edited the recipe below for a little clarification. Us chefs have a bad habit of assuming people just know what we’re talking about, but after teaching a class on this recipe and realizing Food52 sliced the chicken the incorrectly, I knew I needed to tweak the instructions a bit.
Just a heads up, this recipe is not the traditional Chicken Marsala. I use sweet Marsala wine as opposed to dry and I use chicken stock instead of beef. I also don’t slip this into the oven to bake. I find that slicing the chicken breasts into two or sometimes three scallopini, depending on how thick the breasts are, yields tender chicken without the baking time.
What’s scallopini you ask? Scallopini is the Italian word meaning thinly sliced meat. In this recipe it just happens to be chicken! Also, and it pains me to say this, this is where Food52 got the video wrong. The video shows the chicken breasts just being sliced in half lengthwise. The whole point of thin slices is to eliminate pounding the chicken between plastic wrap (always a salmonella disaster in my kitchen) and to shorten the cooking time.
To make slicing easier, especially with chicken, it’s always easier if the meat is slightly frozen. So, if using fresh chicken breasts, pop them in the freezer for a little while. Put the breast on the cutting board, place your flattened hand on top and carefully slice the chicken with a sharp knife. I cannot not emphasize FLATTENED hand and SHARP knife more! No trips to the emergency room allowed!
Now, give it try and let me know what you think!
Arrivederci y’all!
Chicken Marsala
This recipe uses sweet Marsala wine and heavy cream for a velvety, luscious sauce that’s a twist on the traditional. This is an elegant entrée that can be served with Parmesan risotto or a side of buttered pasta. Great for a romantic evening at home with a glass of your favorite wine.
Yield: 2 servings
Difficulty level: Moderate
8 oz. fresh button or Cremini mushrooms sliced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced horizontally into scallopini
Salt and pepper to taste
½ cup sweet Marsala wine
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Additional splash of Marsala wine
• Saute’ mushrooms in one tablespoon of the olive oil over medium-high heat. Remove from pan and set aside.
• Heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in the same skillet and brown chicken breasts on each side. Remove chicken breasts and keep warm.
• Deglaze the pan with the ½ cup Marsala wine. Add garlic. Continue to cook until wine is reduced until it coats the back of a spoon.
• Add cream and reduce slightly.
• Add stock and reduce slightly.
• Nestle chicken breasts into the sauce.
• Add the sauteed mushrooms.
• Simmer until chicken is cooked thru, about 5 minutes. If sauce gets too thick during cooking process, add a little more chicken stock.
• Remove chicken to serving platter leaving the Marsala sauce and mushrooms in the pan.
• Swirl butter into the sauce in the pan, add the splash of Marsala wine and season to taste with salt.
*If doubling the recipe, increasing the mushrooms is optional. Increase the Marsala, cream and chicken stock to ¾ cup each.
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