Chicken marsala with succotash
May. 22nd, 2009 03:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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omnomnomTonight's dinner: chicken Marsala with succotash. Let me preface by saying that this was amazing. I can't remember the last time I had chicken Marsala, and now I have no idea why. So tasty and good! And sinboy found a $7 bottle of Marsala that tastes just like an uncomplicated ruby port, which has me in fortified wine heaven.
Succotash:
vegetables (tonight we used peas, corn, green beans, yellow squash, and carrots)
butter
water
Acquire vegetables in roughly equal quantity. Cut all the vegetables into roughly the same size pieces. You want variety, not homogeneity. Toss them in a pot. Pour in enough water to cover the bottom of the pot. Cook covered over medium to medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are just cooked, anything frozen is heated through, etc. Optionally, stir in some unsalted butter. Serve. People can salt and pepper to taste.
Chicken marsala (recipe from The America's Test Kitchen Cookbook):
1 cup flour
4 chicken breasts (we used five chicken thighs instead)
2 tbsp olive oil
2.5 oz. pancetta (two thick or three thin slices)
8 oz. white mushrooms
.5 tsp/1 small clove minced garlic (the original recipe calls for 1 tsp; I wanted none of it,sinboy wanted all of it, we compromised)
1 tsp tomato paste
1.5 cups sweet Marsala wine (ATC recommends Sweet Marsala Fine, but any will do)
1.5 tbsp juice from 1 small lemon
4 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into four pieces
2 tbsp minced fresh parsley
0) Preheat the oven to 200F and put a foil-lined pan or oven-proof plate into it to heat. Cut the pancetta into strips about 1/8" wide and 1" long. Wash and roughly chop or slice the mushrooms. Juice the lemon. Mince or press the garlic. Mince the parsley. Line a small plate with paper towel. Open the can of tomato paste.
1) Rinse the chicken and pat it dry with paper towels. Trim off fat if necessary. Salt and pepper it on both sides. Measure the flour into a fairly deep dish or bowl and coat the chicken with the flour.
2) Heat a metal (not non-stick) pan over medium-high heat for three to four minutes until very hot. Put in the oil and swirl the pan to coat it. When the oil is shimmering, shake the excess flour off the chicken and put it in the pan. (Do this in two batches if necessary; each piece of chicken should lie flat on the bottom of the pan, with no overlap.) Cook it without moving it for four minutes on each side. If you're cooking thighs instead of breasts, cook it an additional four minutes on each side. Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the chicken into the oven.
3) Return the skillet to medium-low heat and saute the pancetta bits until they're brown and crispy, about 5 minutes. As the pancetta fat melts and softens the brown bits left in the pan, scrape them up with a spoon and stir them around with the pancetta. When the pancetta is brown and crispy, use a slotted spoon to transfer it to the plate lined with paper towel. (Steal a few to nosh on.)
3.5) If you're making succotash, start it now.
4) Turn the heat to medium-high and saute the mushrooms until their liquid evaporates and they begin to brown, about 8 minutes. Put in the garlic, tomato paste, and pancetta, and saute while stirring 1 minute until the red from the tomato has pretty much disappeared. Pour in the Marsala and simmer vigorously, increasing heat if necessary. Scrape any remaining brown bits off the bottom of the pan and stir them into the liquid. Simmer about 5 minutes until significantly reduced and a little syrupy.
5) Remove the pan from the heat. Add the lemon juice and any juices that have accumulated from the chicken. Whisk in the butter 1 tbsp at a time. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and stir in the parsley.
Sauce goes on chicken and chicken goes in belly. With the amount this makes, you could easily sauce twice as much chicken, so make sure you have some good Italian bread handy to mop your plate.
(crossposted to my journal)
sinboy found a $7 bottle of Marsala that tastes just like an uncomplicated ruby port, which has me in fortified wine heaven.Succotash:
vegetables (tonight we used peas, corn, green beans, yellow squash, and carrots)
butter
water
Acquire vegetables in roughly equal quantity. Cut all the vegetables into roughly the same size pieces. You want variety, not homogeneity. Toss them in a pot. Pour in enough water to cover the bottom of the pot. Cook covered over medium to medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are just cooked, anything frozen is heated through, etc. Optionally, stir in some unsalted butter. Serve. People can salt and pepper to taste.
Chicken marsala (recipe from The America's Test Kitchen Cookbook):
1 cup flour
4 chicken breasts (we used five chicken thighs instead)
2 tbsp olive oil
2.5 oz. pancetta (two thick or three thin slices)
8 oz. white mushrooms
.5 tsp/1 small clove minced garlic (the original recipe calls for 1 tsp; I wanted none of it,
sinboy wanted all of it, we compromised)1 tsp tomato paste
1.5 cups sweet Marsala wine (ATC recommends Sweet Marsala Fine, but any will do)
1.5 tbsp juice from 1 small lemon
4 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into four pieces
2 tbsp minced fresh parsley
0) Preheat the oven to 200F and put a foil-lined pan or oven-proof plate into it to heat. Cut the pancetta into strips about 1/8" wide and 1" long. Wash and roughly chop or slice the mushrooms. Juice the lemon. Mince or press the garlic. Mince the parsley. Line a small plate with paper towel. Open the can of tomato paste.
1) Rinse the chicken and pat it dry with paper towels. Trim off fat if necessary. Salt and pepper it on both sides. Measure the flour into a fairly deep dish or bowl and coat the chicken with the flour.
2) Heat a metal (not non-stick) pan over medium-high heat for three to four minutes until very hot. Put in the oil and swirl the pan to coat it. When the oil is shimmering, shake the excess flour off the chicken and put it in the pan. (Do this in two batches if necessary; each piece of chicken should lie flat on the bottom of the pan, with no overlap.) Cook it without moving it for four minutes on each side. If you're cooking thighs instead of breasts, cook it an additional four minutes on each side. Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the chicken into the oven.
3) Return the skillet to medium-low heat and saute the pancetta bits until they're brown and crispy, about 5 minutes. As the pancetta fat melts and softens the brown bits left in the pan, scrape them up with a spoon and stir them around with the pancetta. When the pancetta is brown and crispy, use a slotted spoon to transfer it to the plate lined with paper towel. (Steal a few to nosh on.)
3.5) If you're making succotash, start it now.
4) Turn the heat to medium-high and saute the mushrooms until their liquid evaporates and they begin to brown, about 8 minutes. Put in the garlic, tomato paste, and pancetta, and saute while stirring 1 minute until the red from the tomato has pretty much disappeared. Pour in the Marsala and simmer vigorously, increasing heat if necessary. Scrape any remaining brown bits off the bottom of the pan and stir them into the liquid. Simmer about 5 minutes until significantly reduced and a little syrupy.
5) Remove the pan from the heat. Add the lemon juice and any juices that have accumulated from the chicken. Whisk in the butter 1 tbsp at a time. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and stir in the parsley.
Sauce goes on chicken and chicken goes in belly. With the amount this makes, you could easily sauce twice as much chicken, so make sure you have some good Italian bread handy to mop your plate.
(crossposted to my journal)
no subject
on 2009-05-22 10:05 am (UTC)no subject
on 2009-05-22 09:42 pm (UTC)I definitely want to make this; the only subs I can see making are going back to a teaspoon of garlic (love the stuff) and using gluten-free all-purpose flour in place of wheat-based flour. (I'm a celiac.) It should adapt beautifully into being GF.
Whenever I make a recipe that starts with pre-frying chicken, I always want to just stop after that step and gobble the chicken up while it's all brown and hot. I have to tell myself it's even better with the sauce.
no subject
on 2009-05-22 09:45 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-05-22 09:54 pm (UTC)I especially like how you added the extra cooking times for thighs so we can use thighs if we're feeling like something richer or breasts if we want it to be lighter.
Did you use boneless/skinless or bone-in/skin-on?
no subject
on 2009-05-22 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-05-22 09:42 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-05-23 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
on 2009-05-31 03:11 pm (UTC)Ways in which I fail at shopping: forgot to get parsley, and forgot to check that we had marsala. So we ended up subbing in some green onions and sweet sherry. Not ideal, but workable! We also cut some of the fat out (mostly by reducing the butter in the sauce; we did use all of the pancetta.) It was still delicious. I intend to make it again with actual parsley and marsala.
I think this would be very good with crusty roasted potatoes as a substitute for bread, but we just served it over rice, which also works well at sopping up all of the delicious sauce.
no subject
on 2009-05-31 04:14 pm (UTC)