Chicken Marsala
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy.
Chicken Marsala is an Italian-American dish of golden pan-fried chicken cutlets and mushrooms in a rich Marsala wine sauce.
Chicken Marsala is an Italian-American dish of golden pan-fried chicken cutlets and mushrooms in a rich Marsala wine sauce. It’s the most popular chicken recipe on this website, and though it’s a classic restaurant dish, it’s really easy to make at home. With just one pan, you can have it on the dinner table in 45 minutes. The recipe makes a lovely sauce that is delicious over pasta, polenta, rice, or Parmesan smashed potatoes.
If your family loves Italian food like mine does, once you master chicken Marsala, try your hand at other Italian restaurant favorites, such as chicken cacciatore, pasta e fagioli, eggplant parmesan, penne alla vodka, and lasagna.
Table of Contents
What You’ll Need To Make Chicken Marsala
Marsala is a brandy-fortified wine from Sicily that is 100% worth adding to your pantry, if only to make this dish time and again. It will keep in a cool, dry spot for months.
I buy boneless skinless chicken breasts and pound them thin myself, as opposed to using the ultra-thin sliced cutlets sold at the supermarket, since pounding tenderizes the meat. This adds an extra step but you can save time by using pre-sliced mushrooms. (Or you can skip all this hassle by using chicken tenderloins, which are naturally tender.)
How To Make Chicken Marsala
If your chicken breasts are large, like the ones in the photo above, it’s best to first cut them in half horizontally. (If you pound them without first halving them, they’ll be ginormous and oddly shaped.)
Once you’ve got four flat filets, pound them each to an even 1/4-inch thickness.
Place the flour, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a ziplock bag.
Add the chicken to the bag; seal the bag tightly and shake to coat chicken evenly. Set aside.
Heat the oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. (Use a stainless steel pan for the best browning. Nonstick will work too, but you won’t get that nice golden color on the chicken.) Place the flour-dusted chicken in the pan, shaking off any excess first.
Cook, turning once, until the chicken is golden and just barely cooked through, about 5 to 6 minutes total. Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside.
Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in the pan. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms begin to brown, 3 to 4 minutes.
Add the shallots, garlic, and ¼ teaspoon of salt.
Cook for 1 to 2 minutes more.
Add the broth, wine, heavy cream, thyme, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon of pepper; use a wooden spoon to scrape any brown bits from the pan into the liquid. Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium.
Gently boil, uncovered, until the sauce is reduced by about half, slightly thickened, and darkened in color, 10 to 15 minutes (you’re going for a thin cream sauce; it won’t start to thicken until the very end of the cooking time).
Add the chicken back to the pan, along with any juices that accumulated on the plate. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the chicken is warmed through and the sauce thickens a bit more, 2 to 3 minutes.
Sprinkle with parsley, if using, and serve.
Video Tutorial
You May Also Like
Chicken Marsala
Chicken Marsala is an Italian-American dish of golden pan-fried chicken cutlets and mushrooms in a rich Marsala wine sauce.
Ingredients
- 1½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded ¼-inch thick (see note), or chicken tenderloins
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 1 (8-oz) package pre-sliced bella or button mushrooms
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots, from 1 medium shallot
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ⅔ cup chicken broth
- ⅔ cup dry Marsala wine
- ⅔ cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Place the flour, ¾ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper in a ziplock bag. Add the chicken to the bag; seal bag tightly and shake to coat chicken evenly. Set aside.
- Heat the oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. (Use a stainless steel pan for the best browning. Nonstick will work too, but you won’t get that nice golden color on the chicken.) Place the flour-dusted chicken in the pan, shaking off any excess first, and cook, turning once, until the chicken is golden and just barely cooked through, about 5 to 6 minutes total. Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside.
- Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in the pan. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms begin to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the shallots, garlic, and ¼ teaspoon of salt; cook for 1 to 2 minutes more. Add the broth, Marsala, heavy cream, thyme, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ⅛ teaspoon of pepper; use a wooden spoon to scrape any brown bits from the pan into the liquid. Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and gently boil, uncovered, until the sauce is reduced by about half, slightly thickened, and darkened in color, 10 to 15 minutes (you’re going for a thin cream sauce; it won’t start to thicken until the very end of the cooking time). Add the chicken back to the pan, along with any juices that accumulated on the plate. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the chicken is warmed through and the sauce thickens a bit more, 2 to 3 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley, if using, and serve.
- Note: If your chicken breasts are large (like the ones in the photos that are about ¾ lb. each), it’s best to first cut them horizontally to form four flat fillets, then pound them to an even ¼-inch thickness. If you pound large chicken breasts without first halving them, they’ll be huge. Of course, you could also pound them thin first and then cut them in half vertically; the only drawback is that they’ll lose their natural shape (which, admittedly, is not a big deal!).
Pair with
Nutrition Information
Powered by 
- Calories: 537
- Fat: 32 g
- Saturated fat: 16 g
- Carbohydrates: 12 g
- Sugar: 4 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 43 g
- Sodium: 877 mg
- Cholesterol: 203 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
See more recipes:
Comments
Add a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
So delicious!!! Made exactly as written (used the first option of slicing and pounding thicker chicken breasts – I feel it comes out more tender this way). Wouldn’t change a single thing about the recipe – the flavor was amazing. My husband and I loved it! We are sensitive to gluten so I used all purpose gluten free flour for the chicken, and served alongside buttered gluten free pasta.
Hi Jenn!
Made this dish last night and my husband said it was the best chicken dish he ever had ! Even with using cutlets it was tender and juicy. A couple of questions please: I cut back on the salt and also used low sodium chicken broth; not sure if it would benefit from a little more seasoning—would it be better to use regular broth, and cut back on the actual salt additions, or low sodium broth and add the full measures of recommended salt? Also, you show the dish presented “in bulk” on a platter—with doubling sauce we found it a bit unwieldy (;and messy) to serve portions to ourselves, and am wondering also, if serving with noodles, is this dish generally served with the chicken over a bed of noodles, or best served with noodles on the side? Or should portions be served individually from the kitchen?( I have never had the dish until I made it, so I don’t know how it is traditionally presented). I want to make it easy for guests to access all the sides, etc. Lastly, if preparing the dish in batches for 6 people, is it best to try to work with 2 pans on the stove simultaneously, or make one batch and try to keep it warm in the oven, or on a “hot tray”? Thanks for your help; I’m a bit of an inexperienced cook!
Elise
So glad it was a hit! I’d probably go the route of using the regular chicken broth and reducing the added salt as you can always add more to taste when serving.
Regarding serving, I like putting the chicken/sauce on top of the noodles (it probably looks nicer as well).
And if you have the ability to use two pans simultaneously to cook this for more people, I’d do that. Hope that helps!
Just made this for dinner tonight and it was incredibly yummy!! I added 2 8oz Bella and crimini mushrooms instead of just one pack. I love mushrooms so it was perfect! I also added a few Tabasco peppers from my garden to give it some heat. Thank you for this awesome recipe!!!
Made as written last night and the results are in,delicious.The flour in bag trick was great and made clean up easier.Served buttered egg noodles on the side,thanks for the wine recommendation went with a J LOHR CA. chardonnay.Next time will try the pinot noir when the weather cools down here on planet Mars California,our sky’s are orange and the air is unhealthy today.
So glad you enjoyed!
I have made this several times and truly enjoyed it. Is there a make-ahead recommendation in order to serve it when having guests?
Hi Ginette, this dish is definitely best served right after it’s prepared. That said, if you’d like to give it a try, one reader commented that she made this ahead, stored the sauce & chicken separately, and reheated it briefly before serving. Please LMK how it goes if you try it.
I made this for my family over pasta, and they loved it! Delicious! Definitely will make again.
The only “problem” that I ran into was that I could not get the sauce to thicken at all. Eventually, I added some cornstarch and that did the trick. I am wondering, though, if you know what I could have done wrong or if there is something I could do differently next time?
Hi Kayla, Sorry you had a problem with the sauce thickening. Did you make any adjustments to the recipe or ingredient substitutions?
Hi Jenn! I omitted the shallots and the thyme, because some of my family members don’t care for them, and I used heavy whipping cream instead of heavy cream. Do you think the cream could have been the problem?
BUT, you have no need to be sorry; we absolutely LOVE the recipe, and my family keeps asking me to make it again! Thank you so much for posting!
Hi Kayla, The lack of shallots may have made a slight difference but not a big one (and the thyme and heavy whipping cream wouldn’t have caused a problem). I suspect it just needed another minute or two to thicken up.
This recipe is so delicious! I used boneless skinless chicken thighs since that is what I had, but made no other changes. Absolute perfection! Thanks for the recipe!
I will skip the stock in the future. Otherwise delish!
Another recipe that all of us really enjoyed. Doubled the sauce and mushrooms and served with angel hair and broccoli. Delicious!!
Hi Jenn! I want to try this recipe but as a novice cook I could use a tutorial before I shop for the chicken: you indicated in the general description that one “ could skip the hassle” by using chicken tenderloins”- how would the prep be different for tenderloins as opposed to “tenders” or pounding regular chicken breasts?
Many many thanks!
Elise
Hi Elise, if you buy chicken tenderloins, you can skip the step of pounding them. I believe that chicken tenders and chicken tenderloins are slightly different, so just make sure you buy a packaged labeled chicken tenderloins. Hope you enjoy!
Easily the best Chicken Marsala I have EVER tasted. Thank you Jenn! Seriously cannot eat this meal in a restaurant ever again cause it never comes close to your recipe. AMAZING!!!