Creamy Chicken Marsala - The Recipe Critic (2024)

FAQs

What is creamy Marsala sauce made of? ›

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)**

Most tasters found sweet Marsala more palatable when sampled straight. However, when we tried both styles in recipes for chicken Marsala, mushroom stuffing, and zabaglione, tasters preferred the dry style in all instances.

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.

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.

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.

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.

You could even try a potent dry red tossed in with a bit of sugar and an orange peel as a comparable substitute. “As long as the wine has a little bit of sugar and falls in the 15% to 20% alcohol range, it's going to work in the dish,” Ziata says.

Just buy a cheap wine and make sure it's not sweet. You're generally better of with a white but you can use red too. You don't need to use “good” wine, but don't buy cooking wine. We always have something open so it's not a problem.

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.

What is a substitute for Marsala wine in chicken Marsala? ›

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.

The sauce is made with Marsala wine which is a dry and sweet wine which has a 15-20% alcohol content but don't worry, all of the alcohol will cook out of the sauce. The wine creates a nutty and rich caramelized sauce for the chicken.

For a too-thin sauce, try adding a slurry (equal parts flour and water, whisked together) or beurre manie (equal parts softened butter and flour, kneaded together to form a paste)—both are ideal thickeners for rich and creamy sauces, such as steak sauce recipes.

When the Marsala sauce has begun to boil, reduce the heat to medium and simmer it. The liquid should reduce by half and thicken. If the Chicken Marsala sauce is not thick enough, you can combine 1 teaspoon of cornstarch (or arrowroot starch for gluten-free version) with 1 teaspoon of the sauce in a small bowl.

Add olive oil to heavy hot saucepan. Add onions, garlic, mushrooms, saute until mushrooms are tender. Add flour and cook about 1 minute then deglaze pan with Marsala wine. Add beef stock and cook until thick and flavors are blended.

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

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.

On the palate, a true Marsala will have flavors of dried apricot, honey, nuts, tobacco, brown sugar, vanilla, and tamarind.