Chicken Marsala

This week we are graced by the presence of JD himself. We made Chicken Marsala.

This is a long time favorite Italian dish that involves a mushroom and Marsala wine reduction atop a lightly breaded, flattened chicken breast. It's buttery, tangy, salty, and hearty. 

Marsala wine is a special type of wine made from (you guessed it) Marsala, Italy. It's sweet and made from either white or red grapes. Great for cooking and pairs well with cheese or antipasto as a dessert wine. 

Recipe here and our versions below. 

Mo's Version and Comments

This alone could suffice as a perfectly awesome meal.

Yummy dish. A crowd pleaser with minimal effort! Even grandma would be proud. 

Some tips: 

-If you don't have a meat mallot just use the your bottle or a can

-Add some parmesan and other herbs and spices to season your flour. But don't go overboard and crowd the flavors of the dish. 

-When breading the chicken make a production line of plates. One plate for raw chicken, another for dredging, and another for pieces ready to fry.

-Dan used porcini mushrooms which would be great here. The recipe also suggested cremini- these were delicious too. 

Dan's Version and Comments

Normally I am overly critical of my dishes, but this dish was seriously amazing. Coating the chicken in a thin film of flour and then pan frying it gives the chicken an incredible crunch and moistness. 

On the topic of mushrooms, spare no expense. Do not be cheap with yourself, get the porcini mushrooms. The scent can be a little overpowering at first, however, the porcini has an earthy quality to it that really gives the Marsala sauce a very unique flavor. 

Some cooking tips I think are worth mentioning are: Use a fry splatter catcher, it will make your cleanup significantly easier. If you like a lot of Marsala sauce, simply double the quantity of liquid ingredients used. Make sure to top your chicken dish with some fresh parsley, which has a very refreshing flavor that cuts through the heaviness of the dish. 

Justin's Version and Comments

First off, I was very honored to join the "cavemen" of kitchencavemen as a guest in this week's blog installment. Having said that, here are my thoughts. 

Chicken marsala is best cooked with thinner cuts of chicken breast so to make it easy on myself, I purchased thinly sliced chicken breast. No need to be slicing and dicing all of the chicken breast in half. I also took the lazy man's route for the mushrooms and found some pre-store sliced ones. These are usually more expensive, but they were on sale, so I figured what the hell. I pretty much followed this recipe verbatim except for the spices added to the flour for dredging (is this the right word?) the chicken in. The recipe originally called for just salt and pepper, but as you can see in my picture, I also added red pepper flakes and garlic in hopes of adding a little spice to the dish. Unfortunately, i didn't add enough as I was unable to feel any heat when I ate it. I absolutely LOVED the prosciutto in the dish. Added a little extra fat and flavor to the dish. While cooking I noticed that the marsala wine and chicken stock took a little longer than the five minutes the recipe suggested for it to reduce to a point that I liked, but I other than that I had no real issues. I do warn people making this to make sure that they do NOT let their sauce simmer for too long because you will lose most of the sauce.

Overall, this was a great recipe. It was a pretty quick and easy meal to prepare (especially since I removed some of the more annoying steps by purchasing precut ingredients) and makes for a delightful meal to share with friends. I cooked this for my roommate and his sister and they were shocked how good it came out. Try it!

Thanks again to Dan and Mo for letting me join them!

JD