Chicken Marsala

*Not to be confused with Chicken Masala | Serves: ~4 | Prep & Cook: ~ 40min-1hr

Hardware

• Large sauté pan (6qts)
• Meat Mallet
• Tongs are helpful
• A Sharp Knife 🙂

Ingredients

• 4 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts¹
• All-purpose flour, for dredging
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 Cup extra-virgin olive oil
• ~8 ounces (pint carton) White cap mushrooms cleaned, stems trimmed, and sliced ~1/4 inch thick
• 1/2 Cup Marsala wine (dry preferable)
• 1/2 Cup chicken bone broth (unsalted stock also works)
• 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/4 Cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions

• Lay the chicken side by side on a cutting board and lay a piece of plastic wrap over them
• Tenderly (or angrily) pound them out with a mallet down to 1/4-inch thick.
• Put the flour in a shallow bowl and season generously with salt and pepper and mix
• Heat the oil over medium-high flame in a large sauté pan.
• When the oil is hot: Dredge both sides of the chicken cutlets in the flour, shake off excess and gently lay them into the pan
• Fry for ~5 minutes on each side until golden
  • You should only need to flip once.
• Remove the chicken to a large platter or ideally a cookie cooling rack inside a warm oven.
• Lower heat to medium-low and add the the mushrooms and sauté until they are softened
• Pour the Marsala in the pan and bring to a simmer for a few seconds to burn off the alcohol.
• Add the chicken stock and simmer for a minute to reduce the sauce slightly.
• Add the butter and stir to mix well
• Correct seasoning with salt and pepper
• Return chicken to the pan and simmer gently for 1 minute to heat the chicken through.
• Usually served over rice, but couscous, or orzo would work well too.

This is a recipe Nana and Mom made for us pretty regularly, and money was usually tight. I encourage ‘upgrading’ the mushrooms to Chanterelle or Oyster for a light flavor, or Porcini for something a bit ‘meatier’. Enoki would probably be pretty cool, too.

Love, Jimi

Notes

• Scaloppine dishes are basically chicken, veal, pork, etc., that are pounded thin, dredged and fried, often sauced with butter and a fortified wine (like Marsala). So take this method and apply it to a variety of stuff and you’ll get good results.
• ¹Chicken breast has a “tender” (where “chicken tenders” come from), if you run your finger along the backside (non-smooth side) of the breast, a smaller piece will easily separate. Just pull it off and prep it with the rest or save them for, you know, chicken tenders. Although Tenders-Marsala is pretty awesome. Just sayin’.
• Work in batches, only fry what you can very comfortably fit in a fryer or pan.