If you are reading this the odds are good that you are a woman, the odds are also good that you are a wife and/or mother. If you fit into any of these groups you probably know a lot about doing things for others. I'm not going to give you a list of examples but I do want to say that you have my respect. My wife is a wonderful person and she does many things for me , and me being the "mister wonderful" that I try to be, I try to do nice things for her.
What does all of this have to do with chicken marsala? Stick with me a little longer and I'll explain. In a couple of previous posts I told you about how we like to go to restaurants and how I like chicken parmesan and stuffed grape leaves and how I had to find recipes that let me eat these things and still maintain my diet.
Well, one of Ellen's favorite restaurant dinners is chicken marsala.
The cool thing about doing the dinner planning, shopping, and cooking is that I get to choose what we eat but if I want to do something nice for Ellen I find recipes that reproduce her favorite dinners as accurately as possible and chicken marsala is at the top of her list.
One of the restaurants that we used to frequent made an excellent chicken marsala and when we went there it was the only thing Ellen would order.
I have made chicken marsala from a box a few times in the past but when I checked the nutritional values they didn't fit into our diets, so what am I to do if I want to do something nice for my wife? I find a chicken marsala recipe that tastes great and works with our diets. I believe that I've found a recipe that does both.
although I was initially apprehensive because I didn't have a lot of experience at making sauces I quickly found that this is a very easy dinner to make.
Chicken marsala is basically chicken, mushrooms, and a marsala sauce.
Marsala is a sauce made with marsala wine, marsala wine is a fortified wine similar to Port or Sherry and is generally used in cooking although like Port it is occasionally drank as an aperitif. If you are reluctant to try cooking with wine this is a great place to start. Although we are talking about wine you generally won't find marsala in the wine section of your local grocery store. It's usually stocked in the vinegar section with balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and cooking sherry.
So, now that we've covered all of the basics of chicken marsala, let's take a look at the recipe.
Chicken Marsala
Prep time 15 min. Cook time 18 min. Serves 4
Ingredients
2 tsp olive oil
1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, four 4 oz. pieces
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup table wine, marsala variety
1-1/4 cups canned beef broth, reduced-sodium, divided
1-1/2 Tbs. cornstarch
Instructions
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and saute' until tender and releasing liquid, about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, place chicken on a plate and season both sides with thyme, salt and pepper. Move mushrooms to outer edge of skillet once cooked. Place chicken in center of skillet and saute' until golden, about 2 to 3 minutes per side.
Add wine to skillet; simmer 1 minute. Add 3/4 cup of broth and simmer uncovered until chicken is tender and cooked through, about 8 minutes.
Dissolve cornstarch in remaining 1/2 cup of broth in a small bowl; add to skillet. Simmer until sauce thickens, stirring constantly and incorporating mushrooms into the liquid, about 1 minute. Serve chicken with mushroom sauce spooned over top.
This recipe yields about 3 ounces of chicken and 1/3 cup of sauce per serving.
Chicken marsala is usually served with a spaghetti type of pasta but if you want to try something different think about serving it with rice. I prefer rice pilaf but you could use white rice, long-grain and wild rice, or even spanish rice.
If you are making this to do something special for someone, serve it with something that they would like.
Thank you for checking out this dinner and as always if you try this recipe check back here and let me know how it turned out.
Next week - Pork Piccata or Eureka.
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