Chicken Marsala
Creamy Chicken Marsala served over Angel hair pasta, from thekitchn
Chicken Marsala is a traditional Italian entrée with a wine and mushroom sauce. The dish name originates from the particular wine, Marsala, used to create the sauce. Marsala is produced in Sicily, Italy, and is one of the country’s most famous wines. The popularity of the dish dates back to the nineteenth century, when it most likely originated with English families who lived in the western Sicily region, where the Marsala wine is produced.
A classic choice is to serve Chicken Marsala over cooked pasta like linguine, fettuccine, or even spaghetti. The pasta will soak up the delicious Marsala sauce. It also goes well with white rice, mashed potatoes and egg noodles. A steamed green vegetable or salad is often served to complement the meal and add a healthy element. Many Italian restaurants provide a basket of crusty bread or garlic bread on the table, perfect for sopping up any remaining sauce.
FMM: The recipe from Serious Eats has you add geletin to give the sauce a silky thicker feel than without it. If you use store bought chicken stock, this technique adds back the gelatin missing from a good homemade stock. Otherwise the sauce can be thin and uninteresting. Although not traditional, the recipe from thekitckn adds a little cream at the end for a creamy version of Chicken Marsala. My thouught is that this is to make up for sauces made at home can be thin and watery. I have also included a basic recipe from The Italian Chef.
Chicken Marsala
from https://www.seriouseats.com/
Chicken Marsala features pounded chicken cutlets in a glaze-like sauce flavored with mushrooms and Marsala wine. At its heart, though, it's just a basic chicken-with-pan-sauce dish, and so the fundamental rules of making a good pan sauce apply here. Master those rules, and chicken Marsala will quickly become one of those weeknight staples you can whip up in no time.
If you've ever eaten a good pan sauce in a restaurant, you've probably noticed that it has a viscosity similar to heavy cream. Bad versions, meanwhile, are thin and watery. The secret is gelatin. See, good restaurants make stock from scratch, and when they do, they make sure it's loaded with plenty of natural gelatin from the chicken's connective tissues. As the pan sauce reduces, that gelatin concentrates, thickening the liquids to a perfect, glaze-like consistency. Unfortunately, store-bought stock, which home cooks often rely on, has no gelatin.
If you use store-bought stock at home, you can open up a packet or two of unflavored gelatin and sprinkle it on top of the stock and Marsala; after a few minutes it will bloom, absorbing the liquid. Once heated, it will melt into the sauce, thickening it.
1 1/4 cups (300ml) dry Marsala wine (see note)
3/4 cup (180ml) homemade chicken stock or low-sodium store-bought broth
1 packet unflavored gelatin, such as Knox (2 1/2 teaspoons; 10g)
4 boneless, skinless chicken cutlets, each pounded about 1/2 to 1/4 inch thick (1 3/4 pounds; 780g total)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
About 1 cup all-purpose flour (5 ounces; 140g), for dredging
1/4 cup (60ml) extra-virgin olive oil, plus more if needed
10 ounces (280g) cremini mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced
4 medium shallots (6 ounces; 165g), minced
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon (about 3g) minced fresh thyme leaves
3 tablespoons (45g) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 teaspoon (5ml) soy sauce
White wine vinegar, sherry vinegar, or fresh lemon juice, to taste
Minced fresh parsley, for garnish
Combine Marsala and stock in a mixing bowl or large measuring cup and sprinkle gelatin all over surface. Set aside.
Season chicken cutlets all over with salt and pepper. Pour a roughly 1/2-inch layer of flour into a wide, shallow bowl. Dredge each cutlet in flour, tap off excess, and transfer to clean plate.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Working in batches if necessary, add chicken and cook, turning once, until browned on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Using a slotted spatula, transfer to paper towels to drain.
Add mushrooms to skillet (do not drain remaining oil) and cook, stirring frequently, until mushrooms have released their juices and browned well, about 10 minutes. Add shallots, garlic, and thyme and cook, stirring, until shallots are translucent, about 2 minutes. Add more oil if pan seems too dry at any point.
Pour Marsala mixture into pan, making sure to scrape in all the gelatin. Bring to a boil, whisking and scraping up any browned bits from bottom of pan, until liquids are reduced by about three-quarters. Add butter and soy sauce and whisk constantly until emulsified and sauce takes on the consistency of heavy cream. Season with salt and pepper. Taste sauce and adjust with a small amount of vinegar or lemon juice, as needed.
Return chicken cutlets to pan, swirling to bathe them in the sauce and warm them through. If the sauce begins to break at any point, swirl in a splash of water to bring it back together. Transfer to a warmed serving plate, spooning sauce all over chicken. Garnish with parsley and serve.
4 servings
Chicken Marsala
from The Italian Chef (www.italianchef.com)
2 boneless chicken breasts pounded thin
1/2 pound of mushrooms
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup Marsala wine, dry if possible (lightly sweet)
2 tablespoons of butter
flour, spread on a plate
Salt & Pepper to taste
Chopped chives, for garnish
Slice each chicken breast in half length-wise. Place each half between two pieces of wax paper and pound thin with the flat side of a meat mallet.
Heat olive oil in large saute pan over medium-high heat.
When the oil is hot, dredge both sides of the chicken breats in flour, shake off excess flour and place in pan. Saute chicken, turning once, until lightly browned on both sides. Transfer the chicken to a warm plate.
Drain all but a little bit of the oil and add mushrooms. Saute the mushrooms until they begin to release their juices.
Add the Marsala wine, and scrape loose with a wooden spoon all browning residues on the bottom and sides of the pan.
Add butter, chicken broth, salt and pepper. Cook until the liquid is reduced by half, approximately 5 minutes.
Place the chicken breasts back in the pan and cook until heated through. Transfer the chicken breasts to warm serving plates, pour sauce over them and serve.
Serves 2
How To Make Chicken Marsala at Home
from https://www.thekitchn.com/
With creamy sauce spiked with lots of garlic and, of course, the namesake Marsala wine, this take on chicken Marsala is next-level good. And while it might sound like a dish that requires hours of cooking, it is actually a super-fast, one-pan chicken dinner that is perfect for weeknight cooking. You can serve the chicken and Marsala sauce over angel hair pasta (just like your favorite Italian restaurant), over cauliflower rice, or, with a simple Caesar salad.
For the chicken:
1 cup all-purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
For the Marsala sauce:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, as needed
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, quartered
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup dry Marsala wine (lightly sweet)
3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup heavy cream
Serving options:
Cooked pasta, such as angel hair
Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
Lemon wedges
Heat the oven and season the flour. Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 200°F. Mix the flour and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
Pound the chicken thin. Working with 1 chicken breast at a time, place inside a gallon zip-top bag and pound with the flat side of a meat mallet or rolling pin to an even 1/4-inch thickness. Set the flattened chicken breast aside and repeat with the remaining breasts.
Dredge the chicken. Return the flattened breasts to the bag and add the flour mixture. Seal the bag and shake to coat.
Brown the chicken. Heat the oil in a 12-inch straight-sided skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the butter, followed by 2 of the chicken breasts. Fry until golden-brown on both sides, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Remove the browned chicken to a baking dish or rimmed baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining 2 chicken breasts.
Keep the chicken warm. Cover the chicken with aluminum foil and place in the oven to keep warm.
Brown the mushrooms. Keep the heat on medium-high. If there isn't grease left from frying the chicken, add up to 2 tablespoons more butter to the pan. Add the mushrooms and cook until their juices start to release, about 3 minutes.
Add the garlic. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Deglaze and reduce. Add the Marsala and scrape the bottom of the pan to remove any browned pieces. Add the broth and simmer until reduced by half and starting to thicken, about 15 minutes.
Add the cream and chicken. Add the cream and return the chicken to the sauce. Cook until the sauce thickens and the chicken is well-coated, 3 to 5 minutes.
Serve. Serve the chicken and Marsala sauce over cooked angel hair pasta if desired. Garnish with chopped parsley and a squeeze of lemon.
Serves 4 to 6
