Easy Chicken Marsala Recipe (2024)

Chicken Marsala is easy to make at home and just as good as any Italian restaurant!

Tender chicken breasts are simmered in a creamy mushroom marsala sauce for a meal that’s easy enough for a weeknight dinner.

A 30-Minute Meal

Chicken Marsala is from Sicily, with chicken breasts simmered in Marsala wine. The wine tenderizes the chicken and creates a delicious savory mushroom sauce.

Quick and Easy: Ready in 30 minutes, ideal for a busy weeknight but elegant enough for guests.
Restaurant Quality: Skip the hefty restaurant bill or wait at Olive Garden; this dish is easy to make at home.
Simple Ingredients: Requires only a few simple ingredients, with chicken, mushrooms, and Marsala wine.

Ingredients for Chicken Marsala

Chicken Breasts: Use 4 small boneless skinless breasts, about 5-6 oz each. Pound them to an even thickness for quick cooking.
Flour: Flour is used to give the chicken a crisp crust as well as to thicken the sauce.
Chicken Broth: Chicken broth or stock adds flavor to the sauce.
Shallot/Onion: Shallot is added for flavor, you can use ¼ cup of onion in place.
Mushrooms: Mushrooms add a lot of flavor to the sauce, you can use white or brown mushrooms. Brown has a deeper more earthy flavor.
Marsala Wine: Marsala wine is a fortified wine originating from Sicily. When shopping, choose dry Marsala – not sweet Marsala. Not only does it flavor the sauce, but it also has a bit of acidity to help tenderize the chicken.

Substitutions for Marsala Wine

Marsala provides the key flavor in this dish, so replacing will change the flavor but it will still be delicious.

Replace marsala with a dry Madeira, dry sherry, or even a dry white wine. As with any dish calling for wine, choose a wine you’d drink instead of a ‘cooking wine’.

If you’d like to skip the wine, I recommend a dish that doesn’t rely on it for so much of the flavor. Try creamy chicken and mushrooms.

How to Make Chicken Marsala

Pound chicken to an even thickness and brown it in a skillet. Set aside per the recipe below.
Cook the onion and mushrooms in butter until tender. Add the remaining sauce ingredients and simmer until thickened.
Return chicken to the pan and cook through. Serve over pasta.

Variation

Cream is not traditional in a marsala sauce, but it can be added if you’d like. Replace ⅓ cup of chicken broth with the same amount of heavy cream.

What to Serve with Chicken Marsala

Chicken marsala is great over any kind of pasta of course! Chicken Marsala tastes fantastic on spaghetti or sturdy pasta shapes like penne, rotini, or bowtie. Here are other favorites to serve on the side.

Egg Noodles

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The BEST Mashed Potatoes Recipe

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Homemade Focaccia Bread

Garlic Drop Biscuits

Storing Leftovers

Keep leftover chicken marsala in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat on the stovetop.

Chicken marsala can be frozen for up to 6 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, and reheat the chicken and sauce on the stovetop before combining them again over freshly made pasta.

Did you make this Chicken Marsala Recipe? Be sure to leave a rating and comment below!

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Easy Chicken Marsala Recipe

Easy Chicken Marsala is more delicious than any version from an Italian restaurant, and budget-friendly, too!

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ReviewPrint

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Equipment

Frying Pan

Meat Tenderizer

Ingredients

▢ 4 small boneless skinless chicken breasts 5-6 oz each
▢ ½ cup all purpose flour
▢ 4 tablespoons olive oil
▢ ¾ teaspoon salt
▢ ½ teaspoon black pepper

Sauce

▢ ¾ cup chicken stock or chicken broth
▢ 2 tablespoons butter
▢ ¼ teaspoon thyme or 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
▢ 1 small shallot diced (or onion)
▢ 8 ounces mushrooms white or brown, sliced
▢ 1 ½ tablespoons flour
▢ ½ cup dry Marsala wine
▢ 2 tablespoons parsley or chives for garnish

Instructions

Cover the chicken breasts with plastic wrap and use the flat side of a meat mallet to pound to ¼-inch thick. Season with salt and pepper and dredge in flour.
In a large skillet, preheat the olive oil over medium high heat. Cook the chicken in batches, 3-4 minutes per side or until cooked through. Transfer the chicken to a plate.

For the Sauce:

In the same pan, add 2 tablespoons butter, thyme, and shallot and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until juices are released, about 5 minutes. Stir in 1 ½ tablespoons flour and cook for 1 minute more.
Pour in the Marsala wine and stock or broth and simmer until thick and bubbly, about 3 minutes.
Add chicken back into the pan and simmer for 2-3 minutes or until heated through.
Garnish and serve over pasta.

Video

Notes

Marsala: Choose dry marsala wine for this recipe. Sweet marsala wine will make the final dish too sweet.

Chicken breasts: If they’re very large, they can be cut in half horizontally. Replace chicken breasts with 8 thin chicken cutlets.

Sauce: A creamier chicken Marsala can be made by switching out one-third cup of chicken broth for the same amount of heavy cream or half & half.

Leftovers: Keep leftover chicken marsala refrigerated for up to 3 days. Reheat on the stovetop.

4.99 from 139 votes

Nutrition Information

Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.

Course Chicken, Dinner, Entree, Main Course, Slow Cooker

Cuisine American, Italian

© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.

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About the author

Holly is a wine and cheese lover, recipe creator, shopping enthusiast and self appointed foodie. Her greatest passion is creating in the kitchen and making deliciously comforting recipes for the everyday home cook!
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