World's Best Chicken Marsala Recipe

I realize "World's Best Chicken Marsala Recipe" sounds pretty ambitious. You'll have to trust me on this. This all started maybe 8 or 9 years ago. I was searching the internet for a recipe to impress my future wife. I came upon a chicken marsala recipe that turned out to be pretty good, but it could've been better. Since that first attempt I've tinkered and tweaked until I made it my own. I've made it literally hundreds of times. I encourage everyone to try this recipe and tweak it to their liking. You'll be glad you did.

I'm a huge fan of mushrooms and garlic, which are included in most traditional chicken marsala recipes. My recipe is no different. This may be one of the reasons I tend to really like this one. The other major ingredients are obviously chicken and marsala wine. It tastes rich, but it's really very simple to make, which is a huge plus. I even make this on busy weeknights because it's pretty quick.

Cooking is not really an exact science and neither is this recipe. It's more of a guideline. I rarely measure anything, so most values given are very close estimates. Like I said, you should tweak it to your liking and really make it your own. Good luck with this. I hope it becomes one of your favorites as it has become mine.

1½ cups - Marsala Wine
2 Tbls. - Real Butter (no substitutes)
A few Tbls. - Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3/4 lbs. - Penne or Ziti Pasta
1½ lbs. - Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast
1 good handful - All Purpose Flour
4 or 5 - Garlic Cloves (minced)
8 to 10 oz. - White Mushrooms or Baby 'Bellas (sliced)
1 to 2 Tbls. - Dried Parsley
Kosher Salt and Ground Black Pepper to taste

1. Melt butter in 10" or 12" skillet over medium heat. Any type of skillet should do, so long as it's not non-stick. I usually use stainless steel or plain old cast iron.

2. When butter is melted add mushrooms and garlic. Saute until mushrooms are browned and most of the liquid is evaporated, then remove to plate.

3. While mushrooms are cooking, cut out that hideous tendon that runs the length of the chicken breast. This is optional, as many restaurants choose to leave this in. When the tendon is out, pound the chicken thin (about 1/4").

4. After chicken is pounded thin, cut each piece crosswise into thirds.

5. Dredge pieces in flour and shake off excess.

6. With the skillet still over medium heat add a couple tablespoons olive oil, then add some chicken pieces. DO NOT CROWD THE PAN! Your goal here is to brown the chicken and develop a nice crust. You'll have to do this in a few batches. You'll also want the pan to remain fairly well lubricated, so you may have to add a small amount of oil to cook each batch. Remove each batch to same plate with mushrooms and garlic.

7. When final batch is done turn down heat to low. There should be a good amount of fond in the pan at this point (fond is all that brown caramelized stuff at the bottom of the pan). Add wine to deglaze the pan. Make sure to scrape up all that fond, it's really important.

8. When you have finished scraping fond, add chicken, mushrooms, and garlic back to the pan.

9. Add a few pinches of kosher salt and several grinds of black pepper. I usually do 10 grinds with my pepper mill. Yours will likely be slightly different. Add parsley as well. Stir everything together and let simmer.

10. While everything is simmering in the pan, cook pasta according to package directions.

11. When pasta is almost done check the pan sauce for thickness. You want it to coat the back of a spoon. If it seems too thin you can blend a tablespoon or two of flour with a small amount of cold water and add it to the pan. Stir it in well to thicken.

12. Drain water from pasta. Add pan of chicken marsala to pot of drained pasta and stir to combine. That's it. You're done. Now put it on your plate.

This is quite a bit of food. If you eat huge amounts of food like me it will make two servings. Your mileage may vary. I'm sure some people could get four servings out of this.