Chicken Marsala

Chicken Marsala is one of those dishes that you can throw together quickly for a satisfying weeknight dinner or dress up a little bit for easy yet impressive entertaining. Provided you have chicken and mushrooms on hand, everything else you need you likely have in the pantry.

Wednesday night I was late getting home and I pulled this together in a matter of minutes. I had two boneless, skinless chicken breast that I pounded out to about 1/3-1/2 inch thickness, I then cut each piece in half. I dredged them in some seasoned flour (salt and pepper) and sauteed in butter until golden brown on both sides and just cooked through. Maybe 4 minutes per side.

I removed the chicken from the skillet (covered loosely with foil) and added another Tablespoon or so of butter to the pan along with one container of sliced cremini (baby bella) mushrooms and the leaves from 3 or 4 springs of fresh thyme. I sauteed the mushrooms for a few minutes until golden brown at the edges- seasoning with a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Next I added 1/3 cup or so of Marsala wine. (If you don't have this on hand, you can actually use any dry white wine and it still tastes delicious.) Cook over medium/slightly higher heat until the wine cooks down to about half the volume. Lastly I added 1/4 cup of chicken stock to the mix, continuing to simmer and reduce for another 5 minutes. The sauce starts to thicken with the help of the flour left over from the chicken. I finished the sauce with a small pad of butter at the very end to give it an extra silkiness and then I put the chicken pieces back into the pan to rewarm while soaking in some of the delicious sauce. I left them in there for only one minute so as to avoid making them soggy.

I cooked half a box of whole wheat rotini pasta while I was working on the sauce. After draining the pasta, I returned the pasta to the pot and hit it with a drizzle of olive oil and a generous handful of parmesan cheese. When we were ready to plate, I started with a cup or so of pasta in the bottom of a pasta bowl and then placed two chicken pieces over the top. Finally I spooned some of the additional sauce and mushrooms over the top. Serve the dish with a side salad and bon appetite!

With dinner we opened a bottle of Queen of Hearts Cabernet Savignon that John picked out at Whole Foods. I think it was $12-$15 and we thought it was quite delicious. I found a picture of the label online- I'm not actually sure if we had a 2003. We will definitely look for this one in the future.