A Guide to the Perfect Chicken Marsala Recipe - Tired Texan BBQ (2024)

FAQs

What is the best wine for making Chicken Marsala? ›

For cooking savory dishes like this one, use a secco (dry), fine (aged one year) ambra or oro Marsala. This impressive dish leans on the wine's flavor profile, giving it a deep and nutty richness. Even better, it comes together quickly, which makes it just as suitable for busy weeknights as weekend entertaining.

Should you use sweet or dry Marsala in your Chicken Marsala recipe? It doesn't make a huge difference, and either option will produce delicious results, but I would go for dry because the sweet Marsala has a bit too much sugar for such a savory dish.

Chicken Marsala typically uses dry Marsala wine. Dry Marsala is a fortified wine that adds a rich, slightly sweet flavor to the dish without being overly sweet. It's important to use dry Marsala rather than sweet Marsala, as the latter can make the dish too sweet and overpower the other flavors.

Combine a cup of white grape juice with balsamic vinegar to mimic the acidity and depth of Marsala. Mix fruit juices such as cherry or cranberry with a splash of sherry vinegar for a robust flavor.

You could even try a potent dry red tossed in with a bit of sugar and an orange peel as a comparable substitute. “As long as the wine has a little bit of sugar and falls in the 15% to 20% alcohol range, it's going to work in the dish,” Ziata says.

Marsala Substitutes for every quarter cup needed: Substitute the following: ¼ cup of dry white wine. 1 teaspoon of brandy.

A Guide to Buying Marsala

It is sweet, even at its driest. If you intend to bake with it, the dolce (sweet) is generally recommended, while the secco (dry) is best for savory cooking. Either makes for a successful dessert or cheese pairing.

Flour plus fat (butter) = roux. A roux is used as a thickening agent in sauces. Sooo, with the butter from the pan and the butter the mushrooms have absorbed, plus the chicken cutlets coated in flour… This all means when the cutlets get added back to the sauce – that flour and butter combo is what thickens the sauce.

The best substitute for marsala wine is madeira, another kind of fortified wine with a similar flavour profile. Other alternatives include other fortified wines such as commandaria, sherry, vermouth, and port.

What is the difference between Chicken Marsala and chicken francese? ›

Chicken Francese shares the same basic preparation as Chicken Marsala, but foregoes the Marsala wine and mushrooms in favor of a white wine and lemon-butter sauce.

For a balanced meal, pair it with starchy sides like Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes or Italian pasta such as Fettuccine. Add color with vegetables like Steamed Asparagus or Roasted Brussels Sprouts, and don't forget bread like Garlic Knots or Cheesy Garlic Bread to mop up the sauce.

Medium-Bodied Red Wines

One great choice is Chianti. This is amake of red wine that is produced in the Chianti region of Tuscany, Italy. It is a dry and medium-bodied wine that is often paired with Italian cuisine, including dishes like Chicken Marsala.

While both chicken piccata and chicken Marsala are cooked in the same way, there are a few key differences between the two dishes. Chicken piccata isn't creamy. It's cooked with white wine, chicken broth, capers, and lemon juice. It's tangy and bright instead of rich and creamy.

Cooking Marsala is found as either sweet or dry. Sweet is usually used for desserts like Sabayons, and dry is found in dishes like Chicken Marsala. I serve a version of Chicken Marsala at the restaurant where I work and we mix the sweet and dry 50/50. The results are very tasty and more complex than using dry alone.

We talk a lot about “drinking wine” here, but there is a product called “cooking wine” which starts with wine made from grapes and/or grape concentrate, with added salt and preservatives like potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite to give it a longer shelf life (yes, cooking wine comes with an expiration date, ...

Marsala wines range in sweetness based on residual sugar after fortification and are labeled accordingly: secco (dry), semisecco (semi-dry), and dolce (sweet).