You know we love Italian comfort food (who doesn’t!?) and this classic chicken Marsala recipe is near the top of our family’s list of faves. Creamy, slightly sweet Marsala wine sauce, succulent pan-fried chicken cutlets, meaty mushrooms — everyone will rush to the table when you say “dinner’s ready!”
This chicken Marsala recipe is definitely good enough for company — literally everyone loves this dish — but it’s also an easy, 30-minute weeknight dinner. Serve it restaurant-style over pasta, Creamy Polenta, or with your favorite bread to soak up all the delicious, creamy mushroom-wine sauce.
What Is Chicken Marsala?
Chicken Marsala is a classic Italian recipe that’s at least a few hundred years old. “Marsala” refers to the Marsala wine (which gives Marsala sauce its unique flavor), a Sicilian fortified wine with a sweet, nutty flavor. Meaty mushrooms and a splash of cream make this classic, cozy chicken dinner extra delicious. Once you’ve mastered chicken Marsala, move on to hearty, cozy Chicken Cacciatore and creamy Chicken Florentine. After that, you could basically open an Italian restaurant (or at least have won the hearts of your friends forever.)
Chicken Marsala Ingredients
Chicken breasts: You’ll need to filet the chicken breasts into cutlets (or you can buy pre-made chicken cutlets). Fileting the chicken breasts is simple enough to DIY, and one of our favorite tricks for cutting chicken breasts horizontally into cutlets is giving the meat a little time in the freezer before we cut it. A super sharp knife and a semi-frozen chicken breast will make splitting them in half a total breeze. Use this trick for our Chicken Paillard or Chicken Piccata recipes, too!
Mushrooms: It’s OK to use whatever grocery store mushrooms you prefer! White button or cremini mushrooms will both work well here.
Marsala wine: If this is your first time making chicken Marsala,don’t stress. Marsala is super easy to find! While you could go to a fancy wine shop and hunt down a nice bottle of Sicilian Marsala, you can usually find Marsala at the grocery store.
Heavy cream: A creamy sauce is the key to a great chicken Marsala, and there’s no good sub for heavy cream here. Just go for it!
Shallots: Sweet, subtle shallots make this sauce flavorful and delicate.
Fresh garlic: Never cook Italian food without garlic.
Fresh thyme: Earthy and fragrant, fresh thyme elevates the dish in a simple, lovely way.
Chives: When we make a dinner that’s as creamy as chicken Marsala, we always try to include some fresh herbs, too, so that things don’t ONLY feel heavy.
Plus, the staples: Flour, butter, olive oil, stock, salt, pepper.
How To Make Chicken Marsala
Prep the chicken breasts. Cut the chicken breasts into cutlets (or grab store-bought cutlets). Then, you’ll need a meat mallet or rolling pin to pound the chicken cutlets towards thin tenderness. Honestly, this is pretty fun to do. If your kids are big enough to help out, this is a great job for them. Just remind everyone to wash hands thoroughly after handling raw meat.
Dredge the chicken cutlets in flour.
Pan-fry the chicken cutlets in butter and olive oil until they’re getting a bit golden brown. Things are already beginning to smell really good, and it’s only going to get better!
Sauté the mushrooms with shallots, then add the garlic and thyme. Now it’s smelling really, really good in your kitchen.
Marsala sauce time! Pour in the stock, Marsala wine and cream and simmer the Marsala sauce for about 10 minutes.
Bring it all together! Add the chicken, and simmer everything so the sauce can thicken and the chicken can cook through.
Serve!
A note on leftovers: Leftovers will keep in the fridge for at least 3 days (and be totally delicious gently re-warmed in a pan) but we don’t recommend freezing chicken Marsala. Cream sauces and freezers usually don’t get along very well.
Tips For Making The Best Chicken Marsala Sauce
That classic, mushroom-dotted, creamy chicken Marsala sauce (similar to our Chicken Fricassee or Pork Chops with Mushroom Cream Sauce) is one of the many reasons we love this recipe.
As you add cream or stock to the pan, take time to really scrape up any little bits of mushroom or shallot that have stuck to the bottom of the skillet.
Use the best chicken stock you can! Homemade, if you’ve got it.
Give the Marsala sauce time. Don’t cut down on the slow simmer times we call for, you need to give the cream sauce time to reduce and thicken, it’s just impossible to hurry it along. All that wine-y, mushroomy goodness will be worth the (short) wait.
What To Serve With Chicken Marsala
Enjoy it on its own with a Big Green Salad, if you need to keep dinner low-carb.
Our very favorite thing to serve with chicken marsala is pasta—twirl the noodles around your fork with a bite of tender, Marsala-sauced chicken and maybe catch a mushroom in there, too! Homemade Pappardelle would be delicious with chicken marsala but any dried pasta you love (long shapes, like spaghetti or fettuccine are nice) will be lovely, too.
It’s also lovely served over a bed of Creamy Polenta.
If you’re hoping to keep things a little more low-carb, that’s easy enough to do. If you’re really wanting to be ambitious, try it with our Cauliflower Gnocchi!
More Easy Chicken Recipes
Need Even More Chicken Dinner Ideas?
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