Hey. Are you fucking depressed over how shitty that chicken marsala you ordered was? Want an easy recipe to making some of your own that is fucking delicious? Well I got a badass recipe for you guys. This fucker derives from [url=http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/article.asp?docid=299]the original Cook's Illustrated recipe[/url] on chicken marsala, which is an absolutely amazing thing. This thread's recipe will be as newbie friendly as I can make it (assuming you at least know how to start up a stove) so that everyone will be able to enjoy this delicious meal.
[b]Ingredients:[/b]
* 2 pounds of Chicken
* 1.5 cups of Marsala
* 4 ounces of Pancetta
* 1 pound of sliced Mushrooms
* 2~3 tablespoons of Tomato Paste
* 3 cloves of crushed Garlic
* Cold Butter
* Lemon
* Salt and Pepper
[b]Ingredients Addendum:[/b]
* For all of you out there that aren't in the know, Marsala (and most other wines) comes in two different styles: Dry and Sweet. You want to get the sweet kind for this recipe. Also, don't go springing for the cheapest bottle. Try not to go for the "cooking wine" version of it since they're all just filled with stupid amounts of salt and other shit. Marsala hardly costs a lot anyways, like a good bottle will run you around $6 or so. You'll be using roughly half of a bottle for the recipe so keep that in mind.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/FpY0n.jpg[/img]
* Pancetta is basically an Italian bacon commonly used in recipes. There's a Trader Joe's near my house that stocks a pretty good brand that comes in exactly the size this recipe needs. I get this stuff at about $2 per pack. On the off chance that you can't get your hands on this, really any type of highly absorbent diced meat will fill the job for this recipe. For the truly don't give a shit's out there, Spam, and other luncheon meats, is a ready substitute for pancetta.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/MxNwR.jpg[/img]
* If you don't have any tomato paste, you can always make a dirty DIY version of it by mixing an equivalent amount of ketchup with some olive oil.
[b]Preparation:[/b]
* Slice the mushrooms. I feel that thick-cut slices are a lot better in this recipe than thinly-cut ones.
* Prepare the chicken however you like. Personally I prefer to cut them horizontally and pound them out a tiny bit to even them all out. Pat down your chicken to remove water on the surface. This is important if you want to sear your chicken. After that, give them a nice coating of salt and pepper for seasoning.
[b]Instructions:[/b]
* This entire thing will be played out on a pan, and you want a good pan. Don't use any of that shit non-stick pans or any variant, you don't want that. Preferably you want a heavy bottom skillet.
* Get your pan and your chicken ready. You want to heat up the pan to medium to medium-high heat with a little bit of oil. Wait for it to heat up. If the chicken sizzles when you put it in, you know you did it right. Make sure that chicken browns and gets color. Searing the meat locks all that delicious flavor inside. Remember, white chicken is the enemy. Hate the enemy, love the color. You'll probably need to do this in 2-3 batches to avoid overcrowding the pan. After you cook all the chicken, move them to a plate and cover it.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Jxu0j.png[/img]
* Once you've removed the chicken from the pan, there should be some oily/crusted stuff on the bottom. You don't want to get rid of any of that. Anyways, add the diced pancetta into the pan and lower the heat to about medium. Stir it around so that it coats the bottom, and let it crisp for a few minutes. This releases the fat in the pancetta to get mixed into the chicken fond. Remove the pancetta after you build up a good amount of liquid and set it aside.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/G2PYB.jpg[/img]
* Turn up the heat back to medium-high and add the sliced mushrooms. Saute them until they start to brown. Add in the tomato paste and crushed garlic and homogenize the mixture so that all the mushrooms are coated in red. The tomato paste is also what gives the finished product a really nice reddish tint to it as opposed to all those brown glops you see in restaurants. After that, lower the heat to medium again to caramelize the mushrooms. You'll be able to tell once the mushrooms get darker in color and they start sort of sticking to the bottom.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/ye1Th.jpg[/img] [sub]it'll look something like this! (sans onions)[/sub]
* Add the Marsala to the mix. Scrape everything up and let it simmer for a while. Add back the pancetta from before anytime you want.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/PuSm5.png[/img] [sub]fuck yeah you pour that shit in there[/sub]
* Now this next part is probably the hardest to fully get down perfectly, but it's all up to your judgment on what consistency you want your sauce. I personally prefer a thicker sauce to a thinner one so I let it simmer for a longer than usual, but if you're scared of messing up you can always do this earlier. Once the sauce is at your desired thickness, whisk in a tablespoon of butter one at a time. This will naturally thicken up the sauce and make it taste a lot more "sauce-y" (prior to this step, the marsala pretty much tasted like alcohol).
* This step isn't entirely necessary, but usually at this point the sauce is still pretty overbearingly sweet. You can reduce the overall sweetness by squeezing in half a lemon's worth of juice into it.
* Once the sauce is done, put the chicken back in. I usually cut them up beforehand, but you can put them in whole no problem if that's your thing. Top it all off with a bit of fresh parsley, and you're done!
[img]http://i.imgur.com/ZrvOL.jpg[/img]
Since I'm Asian as fuck, I usually eat this topped off on top of a bowl of rice. Enjoy!
[b]Food porn:[/b]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/gjOwY.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Ohwpq.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/CPjlX.jpg[/img]
[sub]eventual goal: provide my own photos of the process instead of jacking google images[/sub]
Is Florio any good? I usually get Holland House for marsala wine, it's always good.
[QUOTE=Rocko's;38081577]Is Florio any good? I usually get Holland House for marsala wine, it's always good.[/QUOTE]
I haven't experimented a lot with cooking wines so far, but as long as it's not a shitty cooking wine version, it should be pretty equivalent. I really like the flavor I get from Florio, but I guess I really don't have much of a comparison here.
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