In France, by contrast, to cook meant to sustain an intimate relationship with ingredients. Julia had to learn how to feel her way through a recipe even while she was following written instructions, how to leave enough space from step to step to let the food itself tell her what to do next. How should the rice smell when it came out of the oven after its long baking in milk? How would the egg whites look when they had been beaten just enough? How much nutmeg would make the dish taste right - with no taste of nutmeg?
from Julia Child, by Laura Shapiro
{Have I mentioned how much I'm enjoying this book...and how inspiring it is to read about her approach to cooking?}
I guess I could say that I've approached chicken marsala from the opposite direction. Before I made this particular recipe for the first time, I had some idea of how to make chicken marsala — sauté the chicken, sauté the mushrooms, deglaze and reduce marsala for a pan sauce...simple! — without needing written instructions. It was never horrible, but this is one of those dishes that would easy to get wrong. Now, it’s good to know that someone (specifically, the Cook's Illustrated test kitchen) has thought it through and given us some guidance on how nutmeggy it should be (metaphorically speaking).
The Cook’s Illustrated teaching moments for this recipe (maybe they would have been Julia's as well) are twofold: counter-intuitively, cook thin-sliced chicken over high (not gentle) heat, and remove the well-browned mushrooms from the pan before making the sauce so they don’t become ‘limp and spongy.’ This is what I appreciate so much about CI and America’s Test Kitchen recipes: even when they seem a little too fussy, they usually prove that a little extra attention and a little more focus on technique is sometimes all that you need. {Oh, and a better index, please … this recipe wasn't listed under ‘Chicken, Breasts’ or under ‘Marsala’ but thankfully there it was under ‘Main Dishes (poultry), Chicken.’}
Chicken Marsala
from The Cook’s Country Cookbook, from the editors at America’s Test Kitchen
for four servings
eight thin-cut, boneless, skinless chicken cutlets, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick (about 1 1/2 pounds)
salt and pepper
1/4 cup all-purpose flour {Wondra flour is also good for dredging}
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 onion, minced {shallots are also good}
8 ounces white mushrooms {or baby bellas}, trimmed and quartered {or sliced}
one garlic clove, minced
3/4 cup sweet marsala {the headnotes say that dry marsala could also be used}
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons lemon juice {see no. 21!}
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Pat the cutlets dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken in flour to coat and shake to remove any excess.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat until just smoking. Add half of the chicken and cook until golden brown, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes on each side. {from the headnotes: ‘We found that we needed a hot skillet to achieve good color quickly; when cooked over gentle heat, the cutlets spent too much time in the pan and dried out.’} Transfer to a large plate and cover with aluminum foil. Repeat with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and chicken.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the butter in the now=empty skillet over medium-high heat until foaming. Cook the onion and mushroom until browned, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Transfer the mushroom mixture to a small bowl and cover with aluminum foil to keep them warm.
Add the Marsala and broth to the again-empty skillet, bring to a boil over high heat, and cook until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low, return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the skillet, and turn the chicken to heat through, about one minute. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter. Off the heat, whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons butter, the lemon juice, parsley and mushroom mixture. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve.
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{I have a selfish reason for sharing this recipe now…I want to have it on hand for my upcoming stint as a personal chef. These ingredients (le blanc de poulet, les eschalotes, s’il vous plait, merci) will surely be easy to find, even in a French-speaking Swiss grocery store. I know my clients like chicken. I’ll just hope they like champignons…}