TABELIA

AUTHENTIC RECIPE

Pollo alla MarsalaChicken Marsala

Chicken Marsala
Difficulty★★☆☆☆ Prep15 min Cook25 min servings4

An elegant dish originating in Sicily, using its fortified Marsala wine. Chicken, or veal, is finished in a Marsala and mushroom sauce. The wine’s sweetness and astringency blend into butter to create a restaurant-quality sauce.

Recipe developed and reviewed by the Tabelia Editorial TeamUpdated
100/ 100

AUTHENTICITY SCORE

Authenticity Score

This is the standard recipe, exactly as it’s made where it comes from — the highest Authenticity Score possible. Substituting ingredients changes this score; the app shows exactly how, ingredient by ingredient.

Ingredients (4 servings)

  • Chicken breast or boneless thighsButterfly breasts horizontally to an even thickness; use thighs as they are.600 g (4 pieces)
  • Dry Marsala wineUse secco, dry; sweet Marsala makes it too sweet.150 ml
  • Button mushroomsCut into 4 pieces each.200 g
  • ButterFor emulsifying the sauce.50 g
  • Plain flourDust the meat to promote browning and thicken the sauce.50 g
  • Chicken brothFor adjusting the amount of sauce liquid.80 ml
  • Chopped flat-leaf parsley1 sprig

Method

13 min

Cut the mushrooms

  • 1 Cut 200g mushrooms into 4 pieces each.
25 min

Flour the chicken

  • 1 Season 600g chicken with salt and pepper.
  • 2 Coat all over with 50g flour and shake off the excess.
311 min

Brown the chicken

  • 1 Melt 25g butter in a frying pan over medium heat.
  • 2 Add the chicken and cook each side for 4–5 minutes until golden, then remove.

Ready when

Remove once both sides are golden.

45 min

Cook mushrooms and Marsala

  • 1 Sauté the mushrooms in the same pan for 3 minutes.
  • 2 Pour in 150ml Marsala and reduce over high heat for 1 minute to cook off the alcohol.

Ready when

Proceed when the alcohol has evaporated.

512 min

Return the chicken and finish the sauce

  • 1 Add 80ml chicken broth and return the chicken.
  • 2 Simmer over low heat for 8–10 minutes until the chicken is fully cooked.
  • 3 Add the remaining 25g butter and emulsify the sauce.

Ready when

It is ready when the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened.

61 min

Adjust with parsley and broth

  • 1 Scatter with parsley.
  • 2 If there is too little sauce, add a little broth to adjust.
A view of Marsala
MarsalaItaly Photo: Mboesch · CC BY-SA 3.0 (resized; display cropped)

About this dish

Marsala is a port in Trapani province in western Sicily. In the late 18th century, the British merchant John Woodhouse entered the port to escape a storm and added alcohol to local wine to create a fortified wine that would keep. Started by an Englishman and fully absorbed into Italian food culture, Marsala carries that history.

The sauce for pollo alla Marsala combines the wine’s distinctive sweetness and astringency with butter. Adding butter at the end to emulsify it, monte al burro, is also used in French cooking. Add small pieces of cold butter while moving the pan; excessive heat separates it into water and fat. At a moderate temperature, melting and emulsifying the butter gives the sauce body and shine.

Marsala comes dry, secco, or sweet, dolce. Use dry wine for cooking; sweet Marsala makes the whole dish excessively sweet.

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