This is a restaurant-style chicken marsala you can make right at home with delicious baby bella mushrooms and marsala wine. It's a delicious silky mushroom sauce over thin lightly fried chicken cutlets.
Looking for more meals you'd find at an Italian restaurant? Try our Classic Italian Minestrone or Classic Linguine Alla Puttanesca.
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Italian Restaurant-Style Meals
Veal or Chicken marsala has always been one of my favorite recipes. When I go to an Italian restaurant, I always look for chicken marsala or chicken saltimbocca. Two dishes, that I never grew up eating at home. Probably because my mom knew we'd throw a fit if a mushroom was on our plate. She would usually make The BEST Chicken Piccata at home.
Marsala originates in Sicily. Although it is an Italian-American dish it is a variation of the scallopini dish that comes from Trapani, where port wine was available, also where Busiate with Pesto Trapanese was created! English settlers in Italy are thought to have influenced the creation of this dish.
Reduction sauces can be difficult. Any pan sauce can be difficult because you want to make sure the sauce thickens but doesn't separate. Learning to be patient can be really important with pan sauces like Chicken Francese so you don't jump the gun when you think it's ready. Take the time to watch the sauce and the end product should be great for your family!
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
Chicken Cutlets: Chicken can be replaced with veal if you'd like. The reason I cook with chicken at home is mainly because it is hard to get quality veal where I live. Keep in mind, veal is thinner so it may cook quicker than chicken.
Marsala wine: There are no substitutions for Marsala wine that I know of. My only recommendation is to get a true marsala wine and not the "cooking marsala" from the supermarket. The real marsala wine will be better, have more potent flavors, AND you can drink it. My rule of thumb with alcohol in my dishes is if I wouldn't drink it, I won't eat it. For a true chicken marsala, get a real marsala wine
Flour: Almond flour is a great alternative for those who are gluten-free
Lemon: Lemon balances the sauce at the end of the cooking process.
Shallots: I love shallots in this recipe because they sort of do the job of both garlic and onion.
*Please see the recipe card below for more information on the ingredients.
How to Make Chicken Marsala
Step 1: Slice the chicken cutlets in half, butterfly style, and pound them.
Step 2: Salt and pepper the chicken. Add the flour to a plate and dredge the chicken breasts in flour. Do not use egg.
Step 3: In a large saucepan, heat extra virgin olive oil to medium-high heat. Fry the chicken on both sides until golden brown. This should take about 3 minutes per side. The goal is to get a crispy brown crust. Set them aside on a cooling rack.
Step 4: Lower the heat to medium and add the mushrooms. Let them sit and brown for 3-5 minutes. Then stir and allow them to brown again for another 3-5 minutes. Once your mushrooms have some brown and black edges, add the shallots and saute until soft. There should be some little brown bits along the bottom of the pan from the chicken and the mushrooms. These burnt bits will add flavor to the sauce.
Step 5: Pour in the marsala wine and chicken broth and simmer for 8 minutes. Use a wooden spoon to scrape all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan.
Step 6: Add the chicken back to the sauce. Let the chicken simmer in the sauce for about 10 minutes or until they reach 165 degrees. Remove the chicken from the pan once they are cooked through.
Step 7: Stir in the lemon juice and taste. The lemon juice provides balance to the sauce so that it is not too sweet. If it still tastes very sweet, add another squirt of lemon juice. Then add the butter.
Step 8: Mix until the sauce lightens to a light brown color. Stir slowly until the sauce thickens. If you notice the sauce starts to separate, add a little water and stir again.
Pour the sauce over the chicken and whatever else you're serving with it, whether it be rice, Crispy Garlic Parmesan Potatoes, or Mushroom Truffle Risotto.
I love making meals like restaurant-style chicken marsala at home that remind me of sitting at a restaurant. It's never quite the same as when someone else cooks the food and washes the dishes but if you're someone looking to save some money or you have kids who won't be easily dragged to an Italian restaurant, learning how to make recipes like Spaghetti Carbonara or Bucatini Amatriciana that you would usually only order in a restaurant can be a lot of fun!
Pro-Tips
These reduction sauces can be difficult and while the texture may not always be there the first time you make it, the flavor usually is as long as you follow the recipe. So here are some tips to help the issues that have plagued me while making marsala in the past.
- The sauce doesn't thicken. This one happens a lot to people making chicken marsala. It can be because the chicken broth you are using is of poor quality and doesn't have enough natural gelatin in it. J. Kenji Lopez-Alt always recommends using gelatin in his marsala to combat this. I try to base my recipes on whether or not my mom would do something. I know she'd draw the line at gelatin. So, if you are at the stage where your sauce should be thickening and it isn't, sprinkle a ½ teaspoon of flour evenly across the top of the sauce. It should help thicken it right up. Also, when you are coating the chicken in flour make sure you are really coating them well. This will help with the overall thickening process, when you simmer them in the sauce.
- Chicken broth. Speaking of chicken broth. I use Costco organic chicken broth. It works well for me.
- Browning the mushrooms. Really let the mushrooms sit for a while. The more you stir them the more steam you will create. Then you'll have rubbery mushrooms, and no one likes that! You also don't need a lot of oil for mushrooms because they have so much liquid inside them. After you fry the chicken, you shouldn't need to add any more oil.
- If your sauce starts to separate before you pour it over the chicken, add a little water and stir it slowly again.
What to serve with Marsala?
Restaurant-style Chicken Marsala is a very functional dish because it can be served with all sorts of vegetables and starches.
- Vegetables: Serve this dish with vegetables like Sauteed Rapini with Garlic, Italian Lacinato Kale Recipe, or the BEST Garlic Parmesan Green Beans. You could always make a Caesar salad with some Traditional Caesar Dressing!
- Pasta or Potato or Rice? I love this dish served with Crispy Garlic Parmesan Potatoes or mashed potatoes but a lot of people serve it over a simple white rice or angel hair pasta.
- Appetizer: If you're serving this at a dinner party you may want to serve some simple Italian appetizers like The Best Homemade Shrimp Cocktail or Italian Stuffed Baked Clams.
- Dessert: Every restaurant-style meal deserves a restaurant-quality dessert like Rainbow Cookie Cake or Pistachio Cream Tiramisu.
Recipe FAQs
Chicken marsala can be served with rice or over potatoes. In some Italian restaurants, it will be served with angel hair pasta.
Typically, baby bella mushrooms are used in a chicken marsala sauce, but you could substitute white mushrooms or other varieties for a different flavor.
You could substitute white wine, but you will be missing the traditional marsala flavor you know in this dish. White wine will still make a good mushroom sauce with a slightly different flavor.
More Restaurant-Style Meals
Please leave a comment and star rating below in the recipe card! I love to hear what you think of our recipes. Feel free to tag us on Instagram @vindelgiudice.
📖 Recipe
Restaurant-Style Chicken Marsala
Equipment
- 1 large saucepan
Ingredients
- 3 chicken cutlets, halved and pounded
- 8 oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1 cup marsala wine
- ½ cup chicken broth
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- ¼ cup flour
- 1 tablespoon butter
Instructions
- Add the flour to a plate and coat the chicken breasts in flour. In a large saucepan, heat olive oil to medium-high heat. Fry chicken on both sides until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. The goal is to get a crispy brown crust. Set aside on a cooling rack.
- Lower the heat to medium. Add mushrooms to the pan. DON'T stir the mushrooms. Let them sit and brown for 3-5 minutes. Then stir and allow them to brown again for another 3-5 minutes. Then add the shallots and saute until soft.
- Pour in the marsala wine and chicken broth and simmer for 7 minutes until the sauce begins to thicken. Add the chicken breast into the sauce and simmer until the chicken reaches 165℉.
- Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside. Stir in the lemon juice and taste. Then add a pat of butter and mix until combined.
- Pour your sauce over the chicken and serve.
Notes
- Pounding the chicken breasts is important so that they fry evenly and don't burn on the edges while trying to get them to 165 degrees. Use a meat tenderizer if you have one but if not, cover them with saran wrap, place a tray on top of them, and pound them with your hand.
- Quality marsala wine is important here. It will define the taste of your dish. Look for it in the wine section and don't buy "cooking marsala." The rule of thumb is if you wouldn't drink it, don't put it in your food.
- Browning the mushrooms. Really let the mushrooms sit for a while. The more you stir them the more steam you will create. Then you'll have rubbery mushrooms, and no one likes that! You also don't need a lot of oil for mushrooms because they have so much liquid inside them. After you fry the chicken, you shouldn't need to add any more oil.
Vinny
Chicken Marsala is one of my favorite classic Italian meals. Give this recipe a shot to try something really delicious!