Chicken Marsala

There is good news and there is bad news about the chicken marsala that I adapted from Tyler Florence's recipe box.  The good news is that the meal was OK, not great, not the best, but good enough.  The total output of time and energy from start to finish was two hours.  That includes the prep time, cooking, eating, and clean up.  Not so bad.  Pounding out those chicken breasts took way too long.  I need to hone my skills and produce quicker results.  According to the recipe by Tyler Florence, prep and cook time is forty minutes.  I'm going to try another approach next time I cook.  I think I'll have all the ingredients measured and ready to go and hope that cuts my time.  Maybe Tyler did not count the time it took him to gather all the ingredients and pound those chickens before he set the timer to go.

The bad news about the recipe was that the meal was just ordinary.  I will make this again as it was easy to prepare and to be honest, I changed up a number of ingredients which may have had a lot to do with the taste.  I didn't have chicken breasts so I used thighs instead.  I used bacon for the prosciutto, and mixed shitake mushrooms with the crimini.  Finally, I had a dry Marsala wine and not a sweet one.  Maybe all those changes altered the final product.  The only problem I had with the dish was it did not have enough sauce to go with all the chicken pieces so I would double the stock, wine and butter next time to increase the sauce.
Forgot to take a photo again.
The rating on this one: 7

Prep: 20 mins

Cook Time:  20 mins

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds chicken thighs
• All-purpose flour, for dredging
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 ounces bacon, thinly sliced
• 8 ounces crimini and shitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
• 1/2 cup dry Marsala wine
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions

Put the chicken breasts side by side on a cutting board and lay a piece of plastic wrap over them; pound with a flat meat mallet, until they are about 1/4-inch thick. Put some flour in a shallow platter and season with a fair amount of salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly.

Heat the oil over medium-high flame in a large skillet. When the oil is nice and hot, dredge both sides of the chicken cutlets in the seasoned flour, shaking off the excess. Slip the cutlets into the pan and fry for 5 minutes on each side until golden, turning once – do this in batches if the pieces don't fit comfortably in the pan. Remove the chicken to a large platter in a single layer to keep warm.

Lower the heat to medium and add the prosciutto to the drippings in the pan, saute for 1 minute to render out some of the fat. Now, add the mushrooms and saute until they are nicely browned and their moisture has evaporated, about 5 minutes; season with salt and pepper. Pour the Marsala in the pan and boil down for a few seconds to cook out the alcohol. Add the chicken stock and simmer for a minute to reduce the sauce slightly. Stir in the butter and return the chicken to the pan; simmer gently for 1 minute to heat the chicken through. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with chopped parsley before serving.