Quick Chicken Marsala

It’s What’s for Dinner Tonight

Nov 13, 2006 Jacqueline Church

Chicken Marsala tastes rich and elegant. It's also quick and easy. Dinner can be ready in 40 minutes. My version is also light and healthy.

Here's a light and quick version of the classic . This rich tasting dish can be made with chicken, veal or tofu.

My version boosts the standard quantity of mushrooms so that the chicken and mushrooms are nearly in a 1:1 ratio. Mushrooms are so healthy for you and lend great flavor to the sauce. Some versions use cream to finish the dish, but it really doesn’t require it. Why not save your fat and calories for dessert?

Ingredients you should have on hand:

  • Pasta (1 lb for four)
  • 1/3- ½ C Flour (Wondra is best, all purpose will do)
  • 1 Shallot minced
  • 2 TBSP Parsley, chopped fine
  • Olive oil, butter (about 2 TBSP each)

Ingredients you might need to pick up:

  • 1 lb Chicken breasts pounded thin in cutlets or scaloppini
  • 1 C Dry Marsala Wine
  • Mushrooms - button, cremini, porcini
  • Optional: additional broth or white wine

Steps:

  1. Put water on for pasta.
  2. If you have whole breasts, pound them thin between two sheets of waxed paper.
  3. Dredge chicken in flour, flavored to taste with salt & pepper.
  4. Slice mushrooms, shallots, parsley.
  5. Sauté mushrooms in butter/olive oil, remove to a bowl or plate.
  6. Brown chicken cutlets and set aside on plate.
  7. Return mushrooms to pan, add shallots, oil as needed. Careful not to burn shallots.
  8. Sprinkle remaining dredging flour over mushrooms. Depending on how much liquid your mushrooms release you may need more or less flour.
  9. Add Marsala. You may also add additional liquid (chicken or vegetable broth, white wine or water) particularly if you’d like more sauce for the pasta.

Tips:

  1. Buy pre-sliced mushrooms to save time.
  2. Scaloppini is the term commonly used for veal or chicken thin, dredged then prepared in a light sauce such as piccata or Marsala.
  3. Easy-pour spouts like bartenders use make olive oil handy to use.
  4. To “dredge” means to coat lightly with flour.
  5. Wondra Sauce and Gravy flour is a cook’s best friend. Your gravies will never be lumpy; your sauces will never be pasty.
  6. Marsala is a Sicilian blended fortified wine with a deep nutty flavor. Generally aged for 2 years or more in casks. Sweet Marsala is drunk as a dessert wine and used in Italian desserts such as Zabaglione. Opened Marsala will keep for quite a while in a cool, dark cabinet.
  7. Low-sodium, fat-free, Organic broths are readily available in convenient cartons. Keep them in your pantry. Freeze unused portions in ice cube trays and you’ll have nearly perfect TBSP measures of broth in the freezer for future uses.

Variations:

  • Veal or tofu may be substituted for chicken. For tofu, use firm or extra firm and press cutlets in towel to remove excess water.
  • Replace Marsala with white wine and add lemon juice. Replace mushrooms with parsley and capers. Now you’ve got Piccata. The technique is identical. Brown the protein; create a sauce by deglazing pan with wine, thickening with flour as desired.

Serve with a green veg or salad and you've got dinner in 40 minutes.

The copyright of the article Quick Chicken Marsala in Gourmet Food is owned by Jacqueline Church. Permission to republish Quick Chicken Marsala in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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Comments

Nov 15, 2006 10:56 AM
Robert Dailey :
Jackie:
The chicken marsala sounds great. I'm definitely going to try it. Also, I did the ginger-scented lemon fish, and it was very good. Thanks. b
Nov 15, 2006 12:37 PM
Jacqueline Church :
Thanks Bob! Is the project group still going? I've not received an update in months....

what do you know about Turducken. I am repulsed by the thought but they claim it's truly Cajun. Thoughts?

- Jackie
Nov 17, 2006 8:10 AM
Robert Dailey :
Yes, I'm still part of the project. Also, Janice Benoit (Entertainment), Georgene Bramlage (Landscaping) and I had an online conversation about turduckens.
The fact is that, yes, they are Cajun, albeit a very recent addition to the Cajun cooking repertoir.
Basically, it's a deboned fryer, stuffed into a deboned duck, stuffed into a deboned turkey. Any remaining cavities are stufffed with any one of a number of different stuffings (eggplant, crawfish, cornbread, sausage).
The people who actually invented it started in a tiny butcher shop in Maurice, Louisiana. Some 12-15 years ago, the Wall Street Journal did an article on them and the turducken.
The name is Hebert's Specialty Meats, and they now have outlets in many major cities, and will ship turduckens to you already stuffed and ready for baking.They also have a website: http://www.hebertsmeats.com
They have a number of traditional Acadian foods also available such as crawfish pie (yes it's real, very rich, and wonderful) stuffed deboned chickens, a variety of sausages, including REAL andouille, tasso (which is a type of smoked meat used to flavor things like red beans and rice, or gumbo), stuffed and seasoned roasts.
Turduckens are cooked like a regular turkey (one hour per four lbs). Some people think they are "over the top" but they are deliciious. Anyway, most of us Acadians are a little "over the top" anyway, so it fits our personality.
I cook one every year for Thanksgiving (but they are also suitable for Christmas or any other holiday).
This Thanksgiving, we're having a ton of people (mostly relatives, but also a number of people who don't have family here), so we're having a turducken, a traditional baked turkey and a smoked turkey, which should satisfy most palates.
We're also having new potatoes in cream sauce, sweet potatoes, fresh green beans, several other vegetable dishes (see my calabacitas recipe at my site) and a number of other dishes, including oyster-cornbread dressing (my favorite). I'll be doing the sweet potatoes, beans, and baking pies as well.
We're expecting 30-40 people, so we should have enough to feed this small army.
Nov 18, 2006 2:58 PM
Jacqueline Church :
Bob - that sounds like my <a href="http://leatherdistrictgourmet.blogspot.com/2006/10/orphans-refug ees-and-procrastinators.html">Orphans', Refugees' and Procrastinators' Thanksgiving</a>. I have a great bourbon-orange sweet potato recipe, always a hit.

Happy to share!
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