Martha's Chicken Marsala

So this weekend my family came in town to visit and we had a wonderful time. We celebrated my dad's 60th birthday, so we had a lot of extended family and friends over at our house throughout the weekend. As much as I love having company over, and love love love my parents, it is always a little bit of a relief to have the house back to ourselves when everyone leaves. Since my husband was such a good sport about the whole family weekend deal, I decided I wanted to cook him something delicious tonight (well isn't cooking something delicious always my goal...?).

Anyway... one of our absolute favorite restaurants is Bella's in South Tampa. It is a chic and funky Italian restaurant with the best food, and my aunt's best friend owns it so we go often. They have this amazing chicken marsala there so I scoured the web to see if I could find something similar. The chicken marsala I have made in the past had a beef broth base but this one is more creamy, so I found this recipe on MarthaStewart.com and hoped it would come out close to Bella's. Success! It was SO delicious and easy, too! Brett loved it and said it really did taste like Bella's. The fresh sage smelled so good - I love using fresh herbs. I paired this with a side of roasted garlic red potatoes which is also similar to what we get at Bella's. This meal is great, I highly recommend it!
Some of my alterations - I forgot to put salt and pepper on the chicken.. didn't seem to make a difference. Also, I used baby bella mushrooms because they were on sale and I also omitted the shallot. I prefer leaner meat so I used chicken cutlets instead of breasts, which also cuts down on the cook time. The total time for this recipe took about 30 minutes from start to finish.

Creamy Chicken Marsala

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (6 to 8 ounces each) (I used cutlets)
  
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 10 ounces cremini mushrooms, trimmed and thinly sliced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage, plus more for garnish
• 1/2 cup sweet Marsala wine
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Place flour in a shallow bowl; season generously with salt and pepper. Dredge each piece of chicken in flour, shaking off excess.
2. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium. Add chicken, and cook until golden on the outside and opaque throughout, 8 to 10 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate, and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm (reserve skillet).
3. Add mushrooms, shallot, sage, and 1/4 cup water to skillet; season with salt and pepper. Cook, tossing frequently, until mushrooms are tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Add wine and cream; simmer over medium-high until slightly thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in butter; season with salt and pepper.
4. Top chicken with mushroom sauce, and garnish with sage.

Side Dish














Garlic Roasted Red Potatoes

Ingredients
4 red potatoes, sliced
3 tbsps of bottled minced garlic
salt and pepper
3 tbsps olive oil

Directions
Toss sliced potatoes in the garlic and olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper (I used very little salt). Bake in shallow pan at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until potatoes are browned.