Chicken Marsala with Mushrooms and Prosciutto

Chicken Marsala with Mushrooms Recipe, Gluten Free Pasta

I don’t generally make boneless breast of chicken recipes, as I find them a little on the dry and boring side. Sometimes, though a recipe like chicken marsala calls for it, and this is anything but humdrum.

I wanted a go to recipe that was easy, approachable and still big, fat, healthy food that could bring a little excitement to the middle of the week.

The best recipes I saw on the internet were from Serious Eats and Tyler Florence. I liked both of them, and took pointers from each.

Between prep and cooking you are investing about ten minutes of time.

The prep only involves pounding the chicken and slicing the mushrooms and can be done ahead of time.  If that’s ready to go, this dish will be finished by the time it takes to make the spaghetti.

Gluten Free Approach to Chicken Marsala with Mushrooms Recipe

Most recipes have you dredge the chicken cutlets in flour. I did not do that. It’s not necessary and the flour takes away from the nuanced flavors of the Marsala wine and butter.

I used a gluten free pasta, but this would be great with mashed potatoes or mashed cauliflower for a full low-carb dinner.

The sauce can be thin (no flour, no starchy thickener) or the sauce can be thicker from those ingredients. There are other options.

Thicken the Broth with Gelatin if you don’t have homemade stock or bone broth

Serious Eats suggests gelatin be added to any store bought chicken broth/stock. Gelatin is flavorless and a trick of many chefs. That’s how he makes his chicken marsala.

This makes sense, as ideally, the stock should be full of it’s own gelatin which would give body to the sauce. The best store bought sauce will not have the same viscosity (body) that a restaurant chicken marsala has.

I often keep chicken bone broth like this me in the freezer in small amounts. When I don’t I use the gelatin trick

How to Save Money buying Premium Quality Chicken for Chicken Marsala with Mushrooms Recipe

I can’t stress enough that the quality of your chicken is important. I wait for organic chicken or Greenwise chicken to go on sale (whole chicken) and buy several.

I cut my own chicken breasts off the bone. It’s really easy to do. I have a pair of poultry sheers and cut the chicken up the back and cut out thigh/leg combinations and breast. The breasts from a whole chicken can feed yield 2-4 servings, and works perfectly for this recipe.

Slice through each breast piece horizontally, resulting in four substantial pieces. You can freeze the leg/thighs for a different day, and separately freeze the back for broth

I used cremini mushrooms, sliced and added Irish butter to the pan to cook them. Make sure they have released their water and are golden brown before adding marsala to pan.

Prosciutto bring flavor to Chicken Marsala with Mushrooms  

Tyler Florence has an easy recipe for chicken marsala and he includes prosciutto. If you don’t have prosciutto, you could use bacon.

If you don’t eat pork or don’t want to use prosciutto, add in some shallots.

How to Pound Out the Chicken Cutlets

Take precautions with raw chicken, as you don’t want to contaminate your surfaces. I never lay cutlets on a wooden cutting board. I have a special “chicken only” color coded mat that I lay over my cutting board or on the counter. I only use my wooden cutting boards for fruits, vegetables, cheese and have devoted mats for meat and fish.

The safest thing to do is to put the chicken in plastic bag and pound it flat, so chicken pieces are flying around, contaminating the kitchen.

The one thing both recipes emphasized was frying the cutlets golden brown. You can still do that without flour, keeping the cutlets at a medium low heat. If the cutlets are cold right from the refrigerator, the low heat is especially important, so that they cook through.

Marsala Wine

Marsala wine is an inexpensive, fortified wine from Sicily. Once open, keep it refrigerated. I’ve seen recipes using it with steak and with veal, so it’s not limited to a chicken marsala with mushrooms recipe.

Never buy cooking wine. Period. It’s full of sodium and tastes terrible.

Use fresh Italian parsley at the end of the dish, and if you like a squeeze of lemon to add brightness.

Serve chicken marsala with mushrooms recipe solo, with pasta, with mashed cauliflower or mashed potatoes.

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