Chicken Marsala

By MelanieAnn

Chicken marsala is a well-loved Italian classic in which sautéed chicken cutlets are blanketed with a marsala wine-and-mushroom-flavored pan sauce. Simple, yes, but not always successful. We’ve had our fair share of mediocre, even miserable versions at purportedly authentic Italian restaurants. We decided to make our own and stay true to the dish’s roots.

Preparation starts with sautéing the chicken, after which the sauce is constructed in the same pan to capitalize on the fond, or the flavorful browned bits left behind by the chicken. For the thin cutlets typically used in this dish, we found it best to cook them quickly overhigh heat so that they browned a bit and stayed moist; dusting them with flour before cooking also helped prevent them from drying out.

With the chicken resting, we built the sauce in the skillet. The first step in building a complex-tasting sauce was browning the mushrooms along with onions and garlic. Next, we deglazed the pan with marsala and simmered it until slightly thickened. Sliding the cutlets back into the pan warmed them and married sauce to meat. But we weren’t done yet — we still had a problem: The mushrooms sucked up the sauce and tasted of little but the marsala. The simple solution was to remove them from the pan, reduce the sauce, and, just before serving, return the mushrooms to the sauce along with a knob of butter for richness and a little lemon juice and parsley to freshen the whole dish. This great-tasting chicken marsala is well balanced and easy to make.

Ingredients

• 8 chicken cutlets (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 small onion, chopped fine
• 8 ounces white mushrooms, quartered
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 3/4 cup sweet marsala wine
• 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

Details

Servings 4

Preparation

Step 1

Pat the cutlets dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Dredge the cutlets in the flour to coat and shake to remove excess. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat until just smoking. Add 4 cutlets and cook until golden brown, 2 to 2½minutes on each side. Transfer to a large plate and tent with foil. Repeat with the remaining oil and cutlets.

2. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in the now empty skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the onion and mushrooms until browned, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Transfer the mushroom mixture to a medium bowl and tent with foil.

3. Add the marsala and broth to the empty skillet, bring to a boil over high heat, and cook until reduced to ½ cup, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low, return the chicken and accumulated juices to the skillet, and turn the chicken to heat through, about
1 minute. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter. Off the heat, whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons butter, lemon juice, parsley and mushroom mixture. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Serve.

Where things can go wrong:To ensure even cooking, make sure to purchase cutlets between ¼ and ½ inch thick, or cut your own from boneless, skinless chicken breasts.