Easy Chicken Marsala Recipe {30-Minute Meal} - Little Broken (2024)

FAQs

What is traditionally served with Chicken Marsala? ›

Should you use sweet or dry Marsala in your Chicken Marsala recipe? It doesn't make a huge difference, and either option will produce delicious results, but I would go for dry because the sweet Marsala has a bit too much sugar for such a savory dish.

Dry White Wines

One popular wine pairing for Chicken Marsala is Pinot Grigio. This dry white wine from Northern Italy has a light body and bright acidity that helps to cut through the rich sauce of the dish. The fruity flavors of Pinot Grigio also complement the earthy flavors of the mushrooms in the sauce.

The best substitute for marsala wine is madeira, another kind of fortified wine with a similar flavour profile. Other alternatives include other fortified wines such as commandaria, sherry, vermouth, and port.

Marsala Sauce:

4-5 cloves garlic, minced. 3/4 cup dry Marsala wine. 1 1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth (or stock) 3/4 cup heavy cream (thickened cream, evaporated milk or half and half may also be used)**

Flour plus fat (butter) = roux. A roux is used as a thickening agent in sauces. Sooo, with the butter from the pan and the butter the mushrooms have absorbed, plus the chicken cutlets coated in flour… This all means when the cutlets get added back to the sauce – that flour and butter combo is what thickens the sauce.

However, when we tried both styles in recipes for chicken Marsala, mushroom stuffing, and zabaglione, tasters preferred the dry style in all instances. Though both were acceptable, tasters found that dry Marsala offered more depth of flavor, while sweet Marsala added sweetness and some flavor but wasn't as complex.

Chicken Marsala typically uses dry Marsala wine. Dry Marsala is a fortified wine that adds a rich, slightly sweet flavor to the dish without being overly sweet. It's important to use dry Marsala rather than sweet Marsala, as the latter can make the dish too sweet and overpower the other flavors.

For cooking savory dishes like this one, use a secco (dry), fine (aged one year) ambra or oro Marsala. This impressive dish leans on the wine's flavor profile, giving it a deep and nutty richness. Even better, it comes together quickly, which makes it just as suitable for busy weeknights as weekend entertaining.

Possible substitutes would be a dry Madeira wine or a darker sherry such as Oloroso. If you don't have these then you could also use port or red vermouth.

What is the best Marsala wine for making Chicken Marsala? ›

Combine a cup of white grape juice with balsamic vinegar to mimic the acidity and depth of Marsala. Mix fruit juices such as cherry or cranberry with a splash of sherry vinegar for a robust flavor.

If you're preparing a sweeter dish, she suggests reaching for sherry, Moscato, or Port as an easy swap. You could even try a potent dry red tossed in with a bit of sugar and an orange peel as a comparable substitute.

If you don't have Marsala wine on hand, you have a few options: substitute a dry Madeira wine or add two teaspoons of brandy to a 1/2-cup measure, then fill the remainder of the measuring cup with dry white wine. Don't want to use alcohol in your Chicken Marsala? No problem. You can use chicken broth instead.

Marsala tends to have a nutty, brown sugar flavor with notes of dried fruit and can be lightly sweet (dry) to very sweet.

Chicken Marsala is a succulent dish that features thinly sliced pieces of pan-fried chicken breast and mushrooms in a reduced wine sauce. Its name comes from the fortified Italian wine used to give the dish its trademark deep, nutty, and slightly sweet flavor.

Marsala is sweet dessert wine, it is not typically used for drinking like a Chianti or Montepulciano, but cooking and marinades. Masala is a spice blend using in Indian cooking. It contains all brown spices: cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, and cumin.

Marsala Wine (Potassium Metabisulfite), Mushrooms, Water, Tomato Puree (Water, Tomato Paste), Butter, Modified Food Starch, Contains Less Than 2% Of: Salt, Garlic, Sugar, Spices, Soy Lecithin, Citric Acid.