Chicken Marsala with Creamy Mushroom Sauce (GF)

Creamy Chicken Marsala is an authentic Italian food recipe the whole family enjoys eating for dinner. My easy-to-follow recipe tastes better than most Italian restaurants.

I love creating twists on classic recipes like traditional Chicken Marsala. After some experimenting, I turned my classic Chicken Marsala recipe into a Creamy Chicken Marsala recipe that the whole family loves.

The rich marsala wine cream sauce gives this savory dish a rich flavor you don’t get with the classic chicken marsala you can order at an Italian restaurant. And while it has so much flavor it seems decadent, it’s actually very light.

Best of all, this delicious recipe is so easy to make that it can be served as a weeknight meal over pasta, wild rice or mashed potatoes.

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon whole milk
• ⅔ cup gluten free all purpose flour
• Sea salt, garlic and black pepper – to taste
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 5 thin-sliced boneless skinless chicken breast fillets – (chicken cutlets)
• 1 pound baby bella mushrooms – sliced
• 4 shallots – roughly chopped
• 6 garlic cloves – minced
• 1 cup marsala cooking wine
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 ½ cups heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
• ¼ cup fresh parsley – chopped
• ¼ cup fresh grated parmesan – for topping, optional

Equipment

• Measuring cups and spoons
• Knife
• Cutting Board
• Frying pan
• Spatula
• Small mixing bowl
• Plate
• Casserole pan
• Mixing spoon

By the Numbers: How to Make Chicken Marsala

Follow these simple steps to learn how to make this classic Italian-American dish in your own kitchen.

Step 1: Season and Coat Chicken Breast Filets.

Preheat your oven on the lowest setting (170° F on my oven).

While the oven is pre-heating, beat 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of whole milk together in a small mixing bowl.

Measure out ⅔ cup of gluten free all purpose flour and place on a shallow plate. Season to taste with sea salt, ground black pepper and garlic powder.

Dip each of the 5 chicken breast fillets in the beaten egg mixture, then dredge them in the flour mixture.

Step 2: Brown Chicken Breasts.

Heat 4 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium heat and cook each of the floured chicken breast fillets in batches in the hot pan until they’re cooked through and have a nice golden brown color.

Step 3: Place Chicken in Casserole Dish.

Once your chicken breast fillets are browned and cooked through, transfer them to a casserole dish in a single layer and keep warm in the preheated oven.

Step 4: Make Marsala Mushroom Sauce.

Once all of the chicken breast fillets are in the oven, melt 2 more tablespoons of butter in the same skillet you cooked the chicken breast filets in. You can leave all of the leftover browned bits from the chicken in the pan for extra flavor.

Then add 1 pound of sliced mushrooms, 4 chopped shallots and 6 cloves of minced garlic to the skillet.

Saute mushrooms over low heat until the juices start to release (about 5 minutes). Add 1 cup marsala wine and 1 cup chicken broth to the mushrooms and bring to a boil.

Then turn heat down to medium-low and simmer until the juice is reduced by half to create your marsala reduction (around 15 minutes).

Step 5: Add Cream & Lemon Juice.

Stir in lemon juice and heavy whipping cream and bring to a simmer. Simmer over medium-low for about 5 minutes to combine all of the flavors.

Step 6: Pour Sauce Over Chicken.

Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder, to taste. Then pour the creamy mushroom sauce over the chicken in the baking dish, then sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Step 7: Serve Creamy Marsala Chicken.

Serve your creamy chicken marsala over gluten free pasta, wild rice or your family’s favorite side dish.

Tips for Making the Best Creamy Chicken Marsala

1. What is the best substitute for marsala wine?

The best option is Madeira wine. However, I find that Madeira wine isn’t any easier to locate than marsala wine.

Since most people have access to white wine, you can use that as a substitute. To try and more closely match the flavor of marsala cooking wine, add ½ cup of brandy, ½ tablespoon of brown sugar and a pinch of sea salt to each cup of white wine.

If you still need more substitution ideas, Bake It with Love has a great list of suggestions.

2. Where to get dry marsala wine?

You can usually find marsala cooking wine at the grocery store. It’s often kept with the vinegar like balsamic vinegar and red wine vinegar. You want to look for the “dry” type.

3. Sweet vs dry marsala wine.

Dry marsala wine is the type you want to use for this and other savory recipes. It’s the cooking type you find at the grocery store.

Sweet marsala wine, on the other hand, is more suited for making desserts like tiramisu. If that’s all you have, you can use it to make chicken marsala, it will just come out tasting a little sweeter.

4. Is there a dairy free option?

The first thing you’ll want to do to make dairy free chicken marsala that’s still creamy is to substitute extra virgin olive oil for the butter.

To keep a creamy marsala sauce, try cashew milk instead of whole milk and heavy cream. If you don’t want a creamy sauce, substitute more chicken stock instead.

5. Best tasting chicken to use?

You can use any chicken breasts you have on hand for this recipe. I prefer to buy the ones already prepared into cutlets.

If you want to shop online (my preference), Perdue Farms is a great place to order thin-sliced chicken cutlets from. They often have good deals on bulk orders like this big chicken bundle.

If you don’t mind making your own cutlets from whole chicken breasts, I love the ones from Butcher Box. They regularly put chicken breasts into their monthly boxes, and they taste so great in this recipe! If you’re a member, try it!

6. What are chicken cutlets?

A chicken cutlet is a piece of meat that has been cut from a large chicken breast. They’re typically thinner than a whole breast.

If all you have are whole chicken breasts, you can make your own cutlets. They will cook much more evenly than entire breasts.

7. How to make chicken breast cutlets?

You’ll want to start with boneless skinless chicken breasts. Slice them in half so that you have two thin slices of boneless chicken breasts, aka chicken cutlets.

Another option is to pound out the meat so you have a thin, tender chicken breast that you can slice in half lengthwise so you have two pieces.

8. Is chicken marsala the same as chicken madeira?

While they’re very similar, there are 2 primary differences between Chicken Madeira and Chicken Marsala.

Unlike Chicken Marsala, Chicken Madeira uses:

1. A special type of Italian fortified wine called Madeira instead of Marsala.
2. Beef stock rather than chicken stock.

9. What to serve with chicken marsala?

Chicken Marsala is delicious served over angel hair pasta, mashed potatoes, zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash. Since this chicken marsala is creamy, it’s also great with crusty bread on the side (or try my gluten free bread recipe).

Oh, and if you like spaghetti squash, be sure to try my Spaghetti Squash Lasagna recipe next time you’re craving Italian food.

10. Can this recipe be made in a slow cooker?

I love easy recipes too, and you can definitely make creamy chicken marsala in the slow cooker even though it doesn’t take a ton of time on the stovetop. The biggest challenge I have with making this recipe in the slow cooker is that the chicken often wants to shred rather than stay in pieces.

If you want to give it a try, I recommend still browning the chicken before adding it to your slow cooker if you want to keep all of the same flavors. Then, just add everything to the crockpot and cook on low for about 6 hours, then serve.

11. Is this like the Chicken Marsala at Olive Garden?

No, they don’t serve their marsala chicken in a cream sauce. If you want your chicken marsala to taste more like a copycat Olive Garden version, skip the heavy whipping cream and replace it with more chicken stock to make a more classic chicken marsala.

12. What to do with leftovers?

You can place plastic wrap right over the casserole pan and put it in the fridge. Or you can transfer the chicken marsala to an airtight container in the fridge.

I recommend reheating in the oven at 325˚ F until everything reaches 165˚ F. Then you can serve as usual.

More Gluten Free Dinner Recipes