Chicken Marsala
Chicken Marsala
Serves 4
Word for word from Kristina, a good friend of mine from Brown. When I first got the recipe I thought it was Chicken Masala, which is much more common in this part of the world. But instead of exotic spices, it comes with Italian wine.
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Four chicken breasts
¼ cup white flour
Five cloves garlic
One large onion, diced
One 8-12 oz. box of sliced mushrooms or 6 mushrooms sliced (baby bellas work nicely, but any mushroom is fine)
½ stick butter
½cup olive oil
Two tsp basil (or about 8 leaves fresh basil ... yum)
One lb. pasta (fusilli, rigatoni, and farfalle are my faves, but any kind works)
One cup grated parmesan cheese
Approximately one cup Marsala wine (you can sometimes find the salted cooking Marsala and Sherry
in the oil/vinegar aisle of the market, but regular cheap Marsala and Sherry works well too)
Approximately 2/3 cup Sherry wine
Salt and pepper to taste (I like adding hot pepper flakes too!)
First
Start boiling a large pot of salted water and add pasta when water is at a rolling boil, cooking to taste.
Second
Chop your onion and garlic cloves and slice the mushrooms. Set aside. Take chicken breasts
and slice them in half lengthwise. Then with a meat tenderizer (but honestly, a coffee mug works fine)
pound the chicken until it is flat and tender. Place the flour in a small dish and dip the chicken into the flour, shaking off any excess flour before setting aside.
Third
In a large saucepan with a lid, add the olive oil and butter. Cook on medium to
medium-high heat, allowing the butter to melt into the olive oil. Add the garlic and onions,
and cook until onion begins to turn translucent. Add the chicken and cook until no longer completely pink,
but still not completely done. Stir in mushrooms and coat everything in the butter/olive oil mix.
Add half of your Marsala wine and half of your Sherry and make sure the entire mixture is coated (Add more if necessary!)
Fourth
Lower heat to low, cover pan with the lid, and simmer until chicken is completely cooked
(about 10-15 minutes). Then add the rest of the Marsala and Sherry wines and a quarter cup
of parmesan cheese and allow to further simmer for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Fifth
Place pasta on plates and top with Chicken Marsala and a generous amount of sauce. Sprinkle with additional parmesan
and add pepper and basil as well. A cherry tomato or an olive sliced in two can also be a festive garnish