Our Favorite Chicken Marsala

Everything we love about classic chicken marsala with a few twists to make it even better! Our recipe, with a delicious Marsala wine and mushroom sauce, is simple and made in one pan for easy cleanup.

Chicken Marsala is a classic for a reason, and this recipe is my absolute favorite way to make it. While you’ll often see it with chicken breasts, chicken thighs make this Italian-American dish special. They stay incredibly juicy and tender, which I love! I actually use chicken thighs for most of our chicken recipes.

I love serving this chicken Marsala with a simple side salad or alongside a bed of buttered noodles. It’s also incredible with creamy polenta or fettuccine Alfredo (the ultimate comfort food combination, if you ask me!) I’m sure it will become a new favorite, and I cannot wait for you to try it.

Key Ingredients

• Chicken: Use chicken thighs (like in our photos) or chicken breasts. They work interchangeably in this recipe. Thighs will just be a bit more tender.
• Marsala Wine: I prefer dry Marsala wine for this recipe, but sweet will work if you already have it on hand. We like to buy mid-priced Marsala wine over the $5 or less options you can sometimes find in grocery stores. The mid-priced options have a bit more flavor. In general, buy something you could see someone drink. You’ll have some leftovers, so here are a couple of recipes with Marsala wine: homemade tiramisu, pesto pasta with turkey meatballs (we add the wine to the meatball mixture).
• Flour: I dredge my chicken in a little flour before cooking in olive oil. If you are gluten-free, skip the flour and simply brown your chicken in the oil instead (make sure it’s patted dry).
• Mushrooms: I use cremini mushrooms, but any variety (even wild mushrooms) will work. The mushroom and marsala combination is incredible!
• Garlic: I love garlic, so I always add a little to my pan. It wakes up all the flavors in the sauce.
• Pearl Onions: I use thawed frozen pearl onions and love them in this recipe! Frozen is my go-to, as peeling a cup’s worth of pearl onions is not something I want to spend my time doing. You can also use sliced shallots or sweet onion or leave them out.
• Broth: Our Marsala sauce is half wine and half broth. Use what you love. I especially love a simple chicken broth.
• Cherry Tomatoes: These are optional, but I love their pop of color and fresh flavor. I toss them into the sauce at the end so they keep some texture and color.

How to Make Chicken Marsala

Whether you use chicken thighs or chicken breasts, the trick to the best Chicken Marsala is pounding the chicken thin and then dredging in flour. You don’t need a lot of flour at all, just a thin coating over the chicken. To pound the chicken, I line them up on my work surface, cover them with plastic wrap or parchment paper, and then bash them with a meat mallet or rolling pin. It’s a great way to relieve some stress!

Once the chicken is added to hot oil, the flour helps the chicken brown beautifully, and the pounding you did earlier results in perfectly tender chicken.

After cooking the chicken (which takes about 10 minutes), you can move on to the sauce, which we make in the same pan (score for one-pan dishes!).

The aroma of the Marsala wine will fill your kitchen as you create a simple but flavorful sauce with mushrooms, pearl onions, garlic, chicken broth, and a little butter.

We also love adding a handful of fresh cherry tomatoes to the pan right at the end. As they warm, they burst with sweet and tangy flavor, which I think makes this classic dish even more delicious!