Chicken Marsala
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy.
Chicken Marsala is an Italian-American dish of golden pan-fried chicken cutlets and mushrooms in a rich Marsala wine sauce.
Chicken Marsala is an Italian-American dish of golden pan-fried chicken cutlets and mushrooms in a rich Marsala wine sauce. It’s the most popular chicken recipe on this website, and though it’s a classic restaurant dish, it’s really easy to make at home. With just one pan, you can have it on the dinner table in 45 minutes. The recipe makes a lovely sauce that is delicious over pasta, polenta, rice, or Parmesan smashed potatoes.
If your family loves Italian food like mine does, once you master chicken Marsala, try your hand at other Italian restaurant favorites, such as chicken cacciatore, pasta fagioli, eggplant parmesan, penne alla vodka, and lasagna.
What You’ll Need To Make Chicken Marsala
Marsala is a brandy-fortified wine from Sicily that is 100% worth adding to your pantry, if only to make this dish time and again. It will keep in a cool, dry spot for months.
I buy boneless skinless chicken breasts and pound them thin myself, as opposed to using the ultra-thin sliced cutlets sold at the supermarket, since pounding tenderizes the meat. This adds an extra step but you can save time by using pre-sliced mushrooms. (Or you can skip all this hassle by using chicken tenderloins, which are naturally tender.)
How To Make Chicken Marsala
If your chicken breasts are large, like the ones in the photo above, it’s best to first cut them in half horizontally. (If you pound them without first halving them, they’ll be ginormous and oddly shaped.)
Once you’ve got four flat filets, pound them each to an even 1/4-inch thickness.
Place the flour, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a ziplock bag.
Add the chicken to the bag; seal the bag tightly and shake to coat chicken evenly. Set aside.
Heat the oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. (Use a stainless steel pan for the best browning. Nonstick will work too, but you won’t get that nice golden color on the chicken.) Place the flour-dusted chicken in the pan, shaking off any excess first.
Cook, turning once, until the chicken is golden and just barely cooked through, about 5 to 6 minutes total. Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside.
Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in the pan. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms begin to brown, 3 to 4 minutes.
Add the shallots, garlic, and ¼ teaspoon of salt.
Cook for 1 to 2 minutes more.
Add the broth, wine, heavy cream, thyme, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon of pepper; use a wooden spoon to scrape any brown bits from the pan into the liquid. Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium.
Gently boil, uncovered, until the sauce is reduced by about half, slightly thickened, and darkened in color, 10 to 15 minutes (you’re going for a thin cream sauce; it won’t start to thicken until the very end of the cooking time).
Add the chicken back to the pan, along with any juices that accumulated on the plate. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the chicken is warmed through and the sauce thickens a bit more, 2 to 3 minutes.
Sprinkle with parsley, if using, and serve.
Video Tutorial
You May Also Like
Chicken Marsala
Ingredients
- 1½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded ¼-in (6-mm) thick (see note), or chicken tenderloins
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 1 (8-oz) package pre-sliced bella or button mushrooms
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots, from 1 medium shallot
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ⅔ cup chicken broth
- ⅔ cup dry Marsala wine
- ⅔ cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Place the flour, ¾ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper in a ziplock bag. Add the chicken to the bag; seal bag tightly and shake to coat chicken evenly. Set aside.
- Heat the oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. (Use a stainless steel pan for the best browning. Nonstick will work too, but you won’t get that nice golden color on the chicken.) Place the flour-dusted chicken in the pan, shaking off any excess first, and cook, turning once, until the chicken is golden and just barely cooked through, about 5 to 6 minutes total. Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside.
- Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in the pan. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms begin to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the shallots, garlic, and ¼ teaspoon of salt; cook for 1 to 2 minutes more. Add the broth, Marsala, heavy cream, thyme, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ⅛ teaspoon of pepper; use a wooden spoon to scrape any brown bits from the pan into the liquid. Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and gently boil, uncovered, until the sauce is reduced by about half, slightly thickened, and darkened in color, 10 to 15 minutes (you’re going for a thin cream sauce; it won’t start to thicken until the very end of the cooking time). Add the chicken back to the pan, along with any juices that accumulated on the plate. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the chicken is warmed through and the sauce thickens a bit more, 2 to 3 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley, if using, and serve.
Notes
Pair with
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
See more recipes:
Add a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Great recipe, true restaurant quality.
I tried a couple of other recipes over time, but always seemed to come back to yours, Now I just automatically use your recipe. Have used rice and even pasta as a side, but my favorite way to eat this is with mashed potatoes and steamed fresh green beans. The sauce is soooo good. Thank you for many wonderful meals, I make it at least once a month.
VERY GOOD!! Easy recipe, but packs a lot of flavor. Looks beautiful too! I made this for 20 people. I made it a few hours ahead but based on how good the leftovers were the next day, it could be made a day in advance. I cooked the chicken, put it on a baking sheet covered with foil and refrigerated. I also made the mushrooms and sauce ahead, covered and refrigerated. Put them together and left them out for about 30 min. to take the chill off. Then heated in the oven until warmed through for serving. Worked perfectly! The chicken was so tender and the mushrooms sauce was terrific. I couldn’t find dry Marsala wine, so I had to use sweet. To counteract the sweetness, I replaced about 1/3 of the Marsala with dry Sherry. Tasted so good. Can’t wait to make again! Thanks so much for a wonderful recipe!
This is good to know. I’m planning on making this for a dinner party and was wondering about preparing in advance. Thanks for taking the time to share.
I’ve made this twice and it turned out excellent both times. It is an easy recipe to make too.
This was absolutely delicious. Times, measurements, directions were all bang on. Everyone in our home raved. “Gourmet”! Will definitely be making this again in the near future! Thank you for an incredible recipe!
I doubled this recipe when I made it, and followed it to a T. However, it came out EXTREMELY sweet and watery. I had to reduce the sauce for a good hour or more. Not sure what happened. I don’t know if it had to do with doubling the recipe, but I don’t see why that would make a difference. In retrospect, I also feel as though Chicken Marsala should not have included the heavy cream. It certainly changed the dish drastically from other recipes I have used. It took me about 3 hours to cook, which was ridiculous and took up the entire night. My father said it tastes like coffee.
So delicious! I have now made 3 recipes from your site and they are all delicious, easy to follow and well written. Thank you so much.
I absolutely LOVE this recipe! Thank you so much! Since I have sweet Italian Marsala on-hand I use that with a mix of dry Spanish Sherry (half and half), then use evaporated goat’s milk to replace the heavy cream and I also used a bigger portion of fresh thyme and it always turns out sublime! I served it once with truffled risotto and another time with Cacio e Pepe and chickpea pasta, and another time with just asparagus. ALL have turned out EXCELLENT! Next time I want to try it with my coconut milk cream instead of evaporated goat’s milk and see how it turns out. I usually use that for my butter chicken and you can’t taste any coconut at all so I’m hoping the same will happen. I enjoy challenging myself with healthier replacements in recipes for my healthier lifestyle.
Note: The first time I let too much of the sauce reduce and it became thicker than I wanted so the following times after reducing for a bit I put a lid on to reserve more sauce and it worked out well. 🙂 Buon appetito!
Amazing! The recipe was easy to follow and the outcome, delicious!
Delicious! I used without mushrooms and it still came out great.