The Ark's Chicken Marsala
Submitted by alz97
The Ark’s chicken Marsala: pan-seared chicken breast with garlic and button mushrooms in a Burgundy and demi-glace sauce, finished with butter for restaurant gloss.
YIELD
2 servingsPREP
10 minCOOK
8 minREADY
20 minThis version of chicken Marsala comes from The Ark, a fine-dining Pacific Northwest restaurant celebrated for elevating familiar dishes with proper technique. A pounded chicken breast gets a quick flour dredge, browns hard in margarine for three minutes, then meets garlic, sliced button mushrooms, and Burgundy in the pan.
The demi-glace is what makes this restaurant-grade rather than home-grade. A spoonful of this concentrated stock reduction gives the pan sauce body, depth, and a glossy sheen that water-based broths can never replicate.
If demi-glace is hard to find or too pricey, the recipe offers an honest substitution: double the wine, dissolve a half teaspoon of cornstarch into it before adding to the pan, and bump the butter to a tablespoon and a half. The result is thinner but still silky.
The finishing butter is mounted in cold (or close to it) at the very end. That’s the trick that gives a French pan sauce its lacquer-like polish without breaking.
Chef Tips
- Pound the chicken to an even ½-inch thickness. Even thickness means even cooking.
- Add garlic only after flipping the chicken. Garlic burns in seconds in hot fat and ruins a sauce.
- Don’t move the chicken once it hits the pan. Let it sear undisturbed for the full three minutes to get a proper golden crust.
- Use real Marsala wine for the most traditional flavor. Burgundy gives a drier, sharper sauce, which is what the original calls for.
Variations
- Substitute boneless skinless thighs for breasts for a more forgiving, juicier version.
- Swap button mushrooms for sliced cremini or shiitake for deeper umami.
- Stir in a splash of cream right before serving for a richer, paler sauce.
Ingredients
Directions
Use a meat cleaver to tenederize and flatten the chicken breast.
Dredge in the flour.
Heat margarine over medium-high heat in a medium saucepan.
When margarine is melted, place chicken in pan and cook until inside is golden brown, about 3 minutes.
Add the garlic tot he pan and turn the chicken over.
Continue to cook chicken 1 minute, then add mushrooms and wine.
Cook until wine is reduced by half.
Remove chicken from pan once it is cooked through and place on serving plate.
Add the demi-glace and butter to the sauté pan and stir to melt butter.
Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve.
Note:
If you don’t want to go to the expense of demi-glace, you caqn use twice as much burgundy, dissolve ½ teaspoon cornstarch in wine before adding to pan and increase the butter to 1½ tablespoons.
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