Chicken Marsala

Chicken Marsala has been one of our favorite meals for a long time, but a friend who is a culinary school graduate taught me this great technique for making the portion sizes smaller and making the pieces cook more evenly. I used to just cook a whole chicken breast for each of us (one for Boy and Girl to share) and then be frustrated when we had so much half-eaten chicken left over. I think that when they are in smaller, flat pieces like this, they’re called a paillard, but I’m not positive about that. Anyway, I love this technique and use it every time I’m frying chicken and even sometimes when I’m marinating it to throw on the grill. Now I can actually feed my whole family (two adults, one 9-yr old and one 11-yr old) with one chicken breast – definitely a much more reasonable portion size!

Chicken Marsala

3 boneless (split) skinless chicken breasts
1 medium sized shallot
1/2 pound white button mushrooms, sliced
1 cup marsala wine (NOT “cooking wine”, which is salty and chemical-y tasting)
2 cups good quality chicken stock
dry, unseasoned bread crumbs (about 2 – 3 cups)
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
salt, to taste
pepper (optional) to taste
1 tsp. chopped fresh (or 1/2 tsp. dried) rosemary
1 stick butter (you won’t need it all)
1/2 cup olive oil (you won’t need it all)

Get everything ready: Put flour, egg/milk (whisked together) and breadcrumbs each in a separate bowl. Preheat oven (to 250 degrees) or warming drawer (medium-high).

Cut each piece of chicken (with the “grain”) into 3 or 4 “chicken fingers”.

Gently pound each “finger” with the flat side of a meat tenderizing mallet, until it is a uniform thickness.

Repeat cutting and pounding for remaining chicken breasts. Gently sprinkle each chicken “paillard” with salt and pepper, if desired.

Lightly coat each piece of chicken with flour, then dip in egg/milk mixture to coat, then roll in breadcrumbs until completely covered.

Repeat with remaining pieces of chicken.

Finely chop the shallot.

Heat 2 Tbsp. butter and 2 Tbsp. olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until bubbly.

All shallots and saute until softened.

Add mushrooms and cook until softened.

Pour cooked mushrooms and shallots out into a bowl and set aside, reserving as much of the oil/butter in the pan as you can. Add more butter and oil to the pan until you have enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Heat over medium-high until melted and bubbly.

Add crumb-coated chicken to skillet and fry, being careful not to crowd the pieces. Adjust heat and add more butter/oil, as necessary. Watch pieces carefully; turn them over and cook the other sides. Remove chicken from pan as pieces are completely cooked and set aside on a large platter.

Repeat with remaining pieces of chicken until all pieces are cooked through and crumb coating is browned on both sides. Place platter of cooked chicken in heated oven or warming drawer. Lower heat on pan.

Add marsala slowly and carefully to pan (it may sizzle, bubble and splatter!), stirring gently to scrape browned bits off bottom. Slowly raise hit and simmer until wine has reduced and thickened.

Slowly add chicken stock, continuing to simmer, stirring, until sauce is thickened.

When sauce has thickened to ALMOST serving consistency, add mushroom/shallot mixture back to pan, sprinkle in rosemary and stir to combine. Pour over warm chicken on platter and serve.