Quick Chicken Marsalla a la James

So, last night I decided I wanted to move away from the soups and stews and move to something a little different. I like to at least try to use ingredients that I don’t have to shop for and purchase. This reads, “whatever is in the house” with hopefully only a quick bodega run in between to replace the sprouting garlic or get another can of stock. I never seem to have enough stock, no matter how promiscuous I am with jars in friends’ freezers. It’s one of those mysteries that’s up there with where does the other sock go and why are hotdogs ill-matched in count to their buns per package.

So, having of course eaten chicken marsalla, but never making it (plus figuring if I have to look it up on the internet I should hang up my knives) I assembled the following ingredients.

• 1 small package of shitake mushrooms. I think any wild mushrooms (heck even canned mushrooms) would have worked great, and I think next time I’m going to up the quantity of mushrooms considerably.
• About a ¼ bottle of an inexpensive white wine. The wine guy told me that the $6.99 Pinot I was standing in front of was quite good for the buck. Since I know very little about wine other than when I have drank enough, I trusted him.
• 2 defrosted skinless chicken breasts, butterflied. I wouldn’t suggest pounding them out flat as you actually want the breast to sustain some cooking time while the sauce comes together
• 1 shallot, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced. (When in doubt, useth more garlic. Spiticus 2:49)
• About a cup of chicken stock or broth
• Kosher salt and ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons of butter. If mixing meat and dairy is an issue for you, I think a slurry of cornstarch and water could do the trick as well, though you’d lose out on the creaminess.
• About 3 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. You might need a little more or less depending on the veggies and chicken absorbency, so keep more nearby and adjust.
• Juice of ½ lemon

Now, I had intended to flour the breasts ahead of time. I got absentminded and that didn’t happen. If you want you can flour the chicken first, seasoning the flour with a little kosher salt and ground black pepper. Judging by the fact that I think it came out quite nicely without this step, I would say its pretty non-essential. I did however manage to remember to salt and pepper them.

Brown the butterflied chicken breasts in a little olive oil. Remove from pan and set aside on a dish. Now in the remaining oil toss in the garlic and shallot and brown.

Once the aromatics brown, dump in the wine (I’d say about a fourth of a bottle or 1 cup. I’m not sure I did it by eye), and scrape up the happy brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Turn the heat down to about medium low (4 on a gas stove) and let a lot of the alcohol and liquid cook out. This shouldn’t take more than minutes I would say.

Add the stock and the mushrooms and salt and pepper the sauce a bit. I let it cook down, uncovered, for about 10 minutes at this point. I then squeezed the juice of half a lemon into the pan, cooked. Quick stir, then back into the pan with the chicken breasts, nestling them into the sauce, and cover. After probably 15 minutes (maybe a bit less), pull a piece of chicken out and test for doneness just by cutting down the middle. You’re looking for white and juicy. I removed the chicken again to the dish, added the butter (or cornstarch-water) and gave it a stir another 5 minutes.

I like to put a piece of chicken atop a little mound of rice and then ladle some sauce over it.

Mangia!
James