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Chicken Marsala is a delicious chicken dish consisting of flour-coated chicken, flattened breasts that are braised in a mixture of Marsala (wine), butter, olive oil, mushrooms, and spices. While the traditional dish doesn’t have a cream sauce, I find that in order to make this more family friendly you have to dilute the strong wine taste. Thus my recipe has a thickened mushroom cream sauce – and it’s divine! (this recipe has been updated with new photos and directions!).
Chicken Marsala
This is one of the most popular Italian-American dishes out there, due to not only the simplicity of the recipe, but how delicious it is. Everyone loves a good chicken breast recipe and when you can pair it with angel hair or spaghetti pasta you now have a family friendly meal that the kids and adults will love! Serve this dish with my roasted Brussels sprouts, my Lemon Parmesan Swiss Chard recipe or even my roasted carrots for the perfect meal.
Chicken Marsala Ingredients
- Chicken breasts, pounded until flattened
- Sliced mushrooms, normal white button mushrooms are fine
- Onion or shallots , shallots are very nice in this if you can find them
- Heavy cream
- Minced garlic
- Chicken broth – use your favorite type
- Marsala wine – use the dry Marsala, not the sweet for this dish
- Various spices – salt, pepper, oregano
Marsala Wine Substitutes
Marsala is a fortified wine from Sicily with a deep, complex flavor. When you are cooking with it you want to use the DRY Marsala, not the sweet. If you really don’t have any of the substitutions below, you can always use a dry white wine, this will still be an excellent recipe, just not with a Marsala sauce however.
- dry white wine mixed with 2 tbsp of brandy to equal the recipe amount
- dry red vermouth
- port or a dark sherry
- Madeira wine
Chicken Marsala Tips & Tricks
- You can slice your chicken breasts in half rather than pounding them, however I find that the thinner the cutlets the more they dry out. Pounding them is the preferred method as you can leave them a good 1/2 of an inch thick,resulting in juicy chicken.
- You can’t take large chicken breast and pound them properly, so if you are starting with very thick chicken breasts, those will have to be sliced in half.
- You can double the ingredients for more sauce if desired.
More Delicious Chicken Breast Recipes
If you are feeling decadent, try this on my garlic mashed potatoes for a amazing taste combination!
Happy cooking!
Love,
Karlynn
Chicken Marsala
Ingredients
Flour Coating
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 4 skinless chicken breasts or 2 large, sliced in half
Marsala Wine Sauce
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup minced onion or shallot
- 2 cups sliced mushrooms
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1 cup dry Marsala wine
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Place the ingredients for the flour coating in a medium sized bowl and whisk together until combined.
- If you haven't already, pound your chicken breasts with a meat mallet until they are about 3/4 of an inch thick. Alternatively if you want them faster, slice the chicken breasts in half, creating thin cutlets.
- Dredge the chicken through the flour.
- Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. In order to keep that golden color, make sure you cook on a medium heat so the butter doesn't burn.
- Fry the chicken for 2-3 minutes on each side, until golden brown and JUST cooked through, then remove from the pan and place on a plate to keep warm.
- Using the same butter in the skillet over medium heat, add in the shallots/onions and mushrooms. Fry until both are softened and the mushrooms have shrunk. Once this is done, add the minced garlic and fry until browned and fragrant.
- Take the Marsala and add it into the pan slowly, deglazing the pan by scraping all those tasty bits off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon or spatula.
- Add in the chicken stock and the heavy cream. Simmer on low heat, stirring, until the sauce reduces.
- Add the chicken back into the pan and simmer for 3-4 minutes , until the chicken is heated through and the sauce is thickened to your liking, It will not be super thick, this is a thinner cream sauce.
- Serve over angel hair pasta like so and pour yourself a glass of lovely wine to pair with it.
Notes
Nutrition
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Sonia Kuczynski says
This is the most delicious Chicken Marsala ever and better than the original sauce, it is creamy and Fancy enough for Guests and Even Valentine Dinner for Hubby.
I used Cremini Mushrooms as they are better and have less Water and just go so well with the sauce
I used Pino Grigio Dry Wine and Brandy for the Sauce and used Linguine Noodles.
Five Stars is not enough for this Dish. .
Sherry says
Oh I do like Marsala as a sauce. It has such a marvellous flavour!
Deena says
You said you can substitute marsala wine with dry red vermouth…red vermouth is is sweet. The white vermouth it is the dry vermouth.