Friday, August 6, 2010

MARSALA CHICKEN


Our favorite Italian Restaurant on Preston Street serves a mouth watering Veal Marsala accompanied with beautiful buttery capellini, however, the young men in our house don't eat red meat and veal is most definitely out of the question. Personally, on a certain level I admire and even agree with their views on the use of veal, but from a culinary side, milk feed veal is a lovely meat and as I'm writing this post the veal scallopini I had  2 weeks ago, is still a vivid, delicious, memory.
That being said, in preparing meals , one can almost always substitute any meat for another without loosing the main components in a recipe. In this case it was the Marsala Sauce.
One day, I would just love to learn how to make all those delicious sauces that I have had in some of my favorite French Restaurants...but today's post is Italian, and while we are substituting chicken for veal, I wish you can have a taste of this sauce as it is just heavenly, (if I may say so myself).
It is a fool proof recipe that lends itself easily to pasta (like linguine) or even a lovely mashed potato like my boys like to have it.

Marsala-which comes from the island of Sicily- is a fortified wine, meaning it is infused with spirits. It has a rich, smoky flavor. I used Marsal. You could also use dry sherry.
The entire meal took 35 minutes, another great substitute is to use skinless, boneless, chicken thighs as they are more tender and tastier that chicken breasts, the choice is yours.

CHICKEN MARSALA
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. dried marjoram, crushed
1/8 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms ( you could use drained canned mushrooms)
1/4 cup sliced green onion
3 T butter/margarine
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup dry Marsala or dry sherry
Hot cooked pasta, such as capellini or linguine(optional)

1.In a shallow bowl, stir together flour, marjoram,salt, and pepper. Place each chicken piece between two pieces of plastic wrap. Using the flat side of a meat mallet, pound chicken lightly to about 1/4 inch thick. Remove plastic wrap. Lightly coat chicken pieces on both sides with the flour mixture, shake off excess.

2.Ina large skillet, cook mushrooms and green onion in 1 tablespoon of hot butter over medium-high heat for 4-6 minutes or until tender, remove from skillet. In the same skillet, cook chicken in remaining 2 tablespoons hot butter for the same time turning once.

3.Remove skillet from heat. Return mushrooms and green onion to skillet. Carefully add broth and Marsala to skillet. Bring mixture to boiling, reduce heat, simmer, uncovered for 2 more minutes stirring occasionally. Season sauce to taste with additional salt and pepper.  To serve , spoon mushroom mixture over chicken.

1 comment:

barb said...

the chicken looks good. Like you I also prefer veal marsala. Wish I was there for supper.
Barb