I love Chicken Marsala. But I've had some really bad chicken Marsala in my time. There's nothing worse than bad chicken Marsala. For this reason, I usually shy away from ordering it anywhere other than Carraba's and Biba's and I've never found a recipe that I could totally trust. Then I came across this recipe from my new favorite recipe blog http://www.smittenkitchen.com/. This chick puts out fantastic food even more fantastic photos of food and even much more fantastic stories about her food. Her chicken Marsala really looked good, seemed easy and a perfect solution as to what to feed my in laws when they came for dinner Sunday night. And guess what cats and kittens? It WAS! The chicken is moist and great, the mushrooms made this great sauce and I served it with linguine with just a smidgen of light Alfredo and green beans. The Marsala mushroom sauce was perfect with the noodles and because I had used so little sauce on the noodles, the end result was perfect. The only variations I made were I used boneless skinless breasts, more mushrooms than it called for and a re hydrated some dried porcini mushrooms to give it a more earthy flavor. In my opinion, you don't need any fancy mushrooms. If you have dark meat loving people, you could do 1/2 boneless thighs and 1/2 boneless breasts. The meat does not need the skin that the recipe calls for.
Chicken and Mushroom Marsala
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 onion, sliced thin
3/4 pound mushrooms, sliced thin
1/2 cup Marsala1 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
Pat chicken dry and season with salt and pepper. In a large heavy skillet heat oil and 1 1/2 tablespoons butter over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and brown chicken in 2 batches, transferring with tongs to a large plate as browned.
Discard all but 1 tablespoon fat from skillet and saute onion and mushrooms, stirring occasionally, until liquid mushrooms give off is evaporated. Add Marsala and cook mixture, stirring, until Marsala is almost evaporated. Add broth and chicken with any juices that have accumulated on plate and simmer, turning chicken once, until cooked through, about 15 minutes. Transfer chicken with tongs to a platter.
Simmer mushroom sauce until liquid is reduced to about 1/2 cup. Remove skillet from heat and stir in remaining 2 tablespoons butter and salt and pepper to taste, stirring until butter is just incorporated. Spoon mushroom sauce around chicken and sprinkle with parsley.
Pat chicken dry and season with salt and pepper. In a large heavy skillet heat oil and 1 1/2 tablespoons butter over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and brown chicken in 2 batches, transferring with tongs to a large plate as browned.
Discard all but 1 tablespoon fat from skillet and saute onion and mushrooms, stirring occasionally, until liquid mushrooms give off is evaporated. Add Marsala and cook mixture, stirring, until Marsala is almost evaporated. Add broth and chicken with any juices that have accumulated on plate and simmer, turning chicken once, until cooked through, about 15 minutes. Transfer chicken with tongs to a platter.
Simmer mushroom sauce until liquid is reduced to about 1/2 cup. Remove skillet from heat and stir in remaining 2 tablespoons butter and salt and pepper to taste, stirring until butter is just incorporated. Spoon mushroom sauce around chicken and sprinkle with parsley.
