Chicken Marsala

This recipe was largely stolen from a Tyler Florence recipe, and was very easy to make. I was generally happy with the outcome, but might do some things differently in the future. In particular, in this recipe, the chicken is only in the sauce for a brief period of time, not allowing much of the Marsala flavor to penetrate the chicken. In the recipe below, instead of removing the chicken, perhaps I'd simply add the bacon and mushrooms when I flip the chicken (I cooked it for about 5-minutes per side), and then continue from there. It would mean that the chicken was in the pan for as long as the Marsala was, and hopefully this would mean deeper flavor distribution.

On another note, this was our new braiser's first run, and I was generally happy with it. At first, when I was cooking the chicken, I was afraid it would burn the chicken too much or be horrible to clean. This ended up being a non-issue. The wine helped to quickly dissolve any cooked on residue (further flavoring the sauce) far better than it has on any other pan I've used.

Our beautiful new braiser (thanks Priscilla & Paul)

The chicken cooking

Looks pretty good, eh?

After cooking the bacon and mushrooms, add in the wine

At the end, the chicken gets added back in

And served over pasta (in our new pasta bowl, thanks to Kim and Evan)

Chicken Marsala

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
1/4-1/2 c flour
salt & pepper
1/4 c olive oil
2 strips of bacon, cut into small pieces
1/2 lb mushrooms, halved
1/2 c dry Marsala wine
1/2 c chicken stock
2 tbsp butter
1/4-1/2 c heavy cream

Directions:

• Pound chicken breasts flat with mallet ("meat hammer")
• On a plate, season flour with salt and peppper
• Heat oil in a large skillet, over medium-high heat
  
• Dredge chicken in flour and fry until done, about 5-min per side, depending on size (and flatness) of chicken
• Remove chicken from pan
• Add bacon to pan & saute briefly over medium heat
• Add mushrooms & saute until mostly cooked, about 5 minutes
• Add Marsala wine & bring to boil, add chicken broth. Salt and pepper to taste
  
• Simmer for a minute or more to reduce sauce
• Add butter & cream, return chicken to pan & heat for another minute
• Serve over pasta or mashed potatoes