Every year at this time I have to make my annual pilgrimage over to AAA to see how low I can get my auto insurance. Every year, I sit down with Allison and while she is trying to figure out the best policy for me, we talk cooking and recipes. Also, every year she tells me she will give me one of her recipes or a dish she wants a recipe for, and I tell her I will be more than happy to print it.
Well, we are now getting into the holiday period again; didn’t we just have one not too long ago? Anyway, we all know what that means – lots of dinner parties. Of course, we know that Thanksgiving and Christmas are the two biggest dinners, but there are a lot of smaller ones, too, as we start gearing up for this social time of year. There are enough dinner parties that we don’t want to go crazy for each one but at the same time, if we are cooking, we might as well make something good. The key is something good doesn’t have to be something really elaborate that takes hours of prep time to create. It also doesn’t have to break the wallet.
Chicken Marsala is one of those fancy dishes that really is pretty easy to make and really delicious to eat. You also can substitute pork tenderloin for the chicken and it will just melt in your mouth. Also, as you know if you read this article a lot, I love cooking with sherry and will usually add cream. The thing is, sherry and Marsala are different and need to be used for their respective recipes. I know some people use cream to finish the Marsala sauce, but I think the touch of whole butter is enough. You can have a little cream ready and if you think the sauce is a little too strong, add 3 or 4 oz. of the cream and let it reduce to thicken. However you fine tune your dish, give chicken Marsala a try this holiday season and enjoy.
Chicken Marsala
4 skinned chicken breasts, lightly pounded to about ¼- to ½-inch even thickness
¼ C flour
3 T olive oil
6 T butter
1 shallot, fine diced
6-8 oz. mushrooms sliced (can use shitake, crimini & button mixed or your favorites)
1 t fresh sage, minced (2 leaves)
½ t thyme
1½ C chicken stock
½ C Marsala
1 lemon
1 T flat leaf parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper
Turn oven on to 180. Season the flour with salt, pepper, thyme and sage. Get the olive oil hot on medium-high in a large skillet and add 2 T butter. While the butter is foaming, dredge the chicken in the flour mix shaking off any excess. Once the butter stops foaming, add the chicken leaving a little room in between cutlets.
Cook for about 4 to 5 minutes or until golden, flip over and let cook another 4 to 5 minutes until this side is golden. Place on a platter not overlapping and put in the oven. Repeat for all of the remaining chicken, watching the temperature of the pan so it doesn’t get too hot and blacken the outside of the chicken.
Add 2 T butter to the skillet and sauté the shallots until they start to brown. Add the mushrooms and again, sauté until they give off their liquid and start to brown. Dust with just about 2 t of the flour and sauté for another minute.
Add the Marsala and let reduce about three-quarters of the way before adding the chicken stock. Let this simmer for about 5 minutes, letting it reduce and thicken. Add the chicken back to the sauce until fully cooked through and the sauce has thickened.
Plate the chicken, add the remaining butter to the sauce and let it slowly melt in. Add the parsley and season with salt and pepper as needed and spoon over the chicken.
Trained under Master Chef Anton Flory at Top Notch Resort in Stowe, Vt., Smitty is a personal chef specializing in dinner parties, cooking classes and special events. For more information and archived copies of Stir it Up, visit chefsmitty.com. Smitty welcomes your questions and comments at smitty@chefsmitty.com or (530) 412-3598.
