cookies and chicken marsala

I made some cookies last Friday night. They turned out a little differently than planned, because I accidentally used baking powder rather than soda. But I kind of like the way they didn't spread. And they were soft. For my recipe, see an old post.

Matt liked them.


Thursday night I finally made chicken marsala, per my cousin Rich's recipe. There was a whole bunch of very bad-smelling steam as the alcohol cooked off. This was disconcerting, because I usually smell and savor the aromas of my meals while I cook them, in anticipation of the taste. Also, the chicken breasts I bought were gargantuan. I don't even want to know what kind of hormones that had to feed that clucker to get it so big. I thought there were four breasts in the package, but there were only 2.
So even though I complained that the meal was too ugly to photograph and that my sauce didn't thicken as it was supposed to... it actually tasted very good. So mission accomplished.

Chicken Marsala
1 bottle marsala wine
2 chicken breasts
3/4 pound mushrooms, halved
olive oil for frying
2 Tbs butter at room temp

Rich recommended washing the chicken with salt to "micro scrub" away the germs. So I did that. I wash my mushrooms because there's all kinds of peat stuck to them, and I don't want to eat peat. If you don't believe in washing mushrooms, as I know some don't, then that's your business :-)

Heat oil in a large pan on medium high heat. When it's hot, add mushrooms and chicken breasts. Brown the chicken lightly, flip and repeat. Then add the wine, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring once in a while. Or if you're me, stir constantly because you don't have a non-stick pan big enough to hold all that. When the wine turns a little sludgey and bubbles, add another 1/2 cup. Repeat process until wine is gone.

Remove from heat, and put chicken and shrooms on a platter. Put the sauce back on until it just begins to boil, take off heat and add butter. Let it melt and the sauce is supposed to thicken. (mine didn't because I probably did something wrong along the way.) Even if it doesn't thicken, it will taste good because it has butter in it. Pour sauce over the chicken and enjoy!
Thanks Rich for the recipe!