Chicken Marsala 107 comments – 02. Last year, when I wrote about the preponderance of purple populating Paris, a few readers pointed out that the color orchid was named The Color of the Year by chicken marsala recipe, Pantone. Marsala is the color of the year. So if you’re interested in finding out what the color of the year is going to be for next year, keep an eye on this blog.
I’ve been utterly swamped so wanted to make something that I could pretty much prepare in advance, that I could put together at the last-minute, and didn’t involve too many dishes. Italian, as you wouldn’t find Italians in Italy serving meatballs on top of plates of spaghetti. Due to the massive influx of Italians that immigrated in America, Italian-American cooking takes cues from both cultures. So pasta and meatballs it is. I’m not sure if chicken Marsala is something you’d get in Italy, but it’s popular in America, and is even easier to make than spaghetti and meatballs. Even better, in this age of everyone wanting a dish that are fast, easy, and not too rich, chicken Marsala checks all those boxes.
And I suppose it could be frozen, but it’s so easy, and so much better when freshly made, why would anyone want to? Pounding the chicken breasts into paillards, thin pieces of meat, helps them cook quickly and evenly. And there’s more surface to absorb the burnished Marsala glaze. Putting them in a plastic bag helps makes clean up easier. Once you season the breasts, a quick dredging in flour is all that’s needed before frying them up in a big skillet. The finished dish has mushrooms, a bit of stock, and a good pour of Marsala.
The final flourish is a sprinkling of chopped parsley. In a wide skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter over high heat until the butter starts to sizzle. Scrape the mushrooms onto a plate and wipe the pan clean with a paper towel to remove any bits of garlic. If not, those bits will burn when frying the chicken. To sauté the chicken, spread the flour onto a plate and dredge half of the chicken pieces in the flour, shaking off most of the excess.
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter in the pan. Sauté the breasts, turning them over midway during cooking, until they are browned on each side. They don’t need to be completely cooked through at this point. Stir the corn starch into the stock or water until it’s completely dissolved, then mix it with the Marsala. Cook the chicken and mushrooms with the sauce over medium heat, turning the chicken pieces over occasionally, to make sure they’re well-basted in the sauce, until the chicken is cooked and the sauce has thickened, about 5 to 6 minutes.