Chicken Marsala
Quick answer
- Total time
- 40 min
- Level
- Medium
- Servings
- 2 servings
- Ingredients
- 9
About this dish
Chicken Marsala pounds chicken breast thin, dredges it in flour, and pan-sears it to a golden crust before building a sauce from Marsala wine, sliced cremini mushrooms, chicken stock, and heavy cream.
Read more
Pounding the breast to an even thickness ensures uniform heat transfer so the interior stays moist while the exterior browns quickly, and the flour coating creates the browned fond on the pan surface that becomes the sauce's flavor base. Deglazing with Marsala wine lifts that fond while the wine reduces, concentrating its sweetness, acidity, and characteristic walnut-like nuance into a deeply layered sauce. Mushrooms must be spread in a single layer and cooked until their moisture fully evaporates, otherwise they release liquid into the sauce and dilute its intensity. Heavy cream goes in at the end to give the sauce a velvety body, but the heat should be reduced before adding it to prevent the cream from breaking. Dry Marsala is essential here because sweet Marsala produces an excessively sugary sauce that masks the wine's complexity, turning a nuanced pan sauce into something that tastes more like a dessert glaze. Serve with mashed potatoes, pasta, or steamed rice and spoon the sauce generously over everything.
Ingredients
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Instructions
Read the steps as a cooking flow: prep, heat, seasoning, doneness control, and finish.
- 1Heat
Place 2 chicken breasts between sheets of plastic wrap and pound them to an even 1 cm thickness.
Use lighter taps on the thin edges so they flatten without tearing and cook at the same pace.
- 2Control
Coat both sides of the chicken lightly with 30 g flour, then shake off the excess.
The coating should only cover the surface, because a thick layer can make the sauce pasty later.
- 3Control
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium-high heat.
When the foaming slows, add the chicken and sear 3-4 minutes per side until golden, then remove it.
- 4Control
Spread 200 g sliced button mushrooms in the same pan in as even a layer as possible.
Cook over medium heat for 4-5 minutes until their moisture evaporates and the edges turn lightly brown.
- 5Control
Pour in 150 ml dry Marsala wine and scrape up the browned bits from the pan.
Boil over medium-high heat for 2 minutes, then add 150 ml chicken stock and reduce by about half.
- 6Finish
Lower the heat, stir in 80 ml heavy cream, and keep the sauce smooth without hard boiling.
Return the chicken, baste for 2 minutes until warmed through, then finish with 5 g parsley.
Practical Cooking Checks
The cues that matter most while cooking.
- Key technique
- Pounding breast to even thickness ensures the crust sets before Marsala and mushrooms reduce into the pan sauce.
- Finish cue
- When the foaming slows, add the chicken and sear 3-4 minutes per side until golden, then remove it.
Cooking decision evidence
Calculated Charim data and applicable official cooking and food safety guidance.
This recipe
40min, 9 ingredients
Category median
40min, 8 ingredients
Based on 168 recipes
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