Copycat Recipe for Carrabba's Chicken Marsala

Sorry to upset the applecart here but this recipe lacks the most important ingredients to take this to the level of Carrabba's! Firstly, the seasoning of the chicken breasts. It is imperative to use pinches of salt, pepper, a pinch of oregano, and a very light sprinkling of ground marjoram and thyme! Secondly, to GRILL (do not fry) THE CHICKEN after seasoning. Thirdly, the ADDITION OF CHOPPED PANCETTA (not prosciutto) to the first stage of the sautéed ingredients is crucial for bringing this whole recipe together! It would also be helpful to mention that using a good quality of dry Marsala such as Colombo is very important!

I LOVE this recipe. I double the sauce, but I only double the Marsala and then 1.5 the cream. Tips: you MUST use cream anything else will curdle. The lemon is a MUST it brings it all together, REDUCE your Marsala or else it tastes like Kailua and cream, and finally, always use DRY Marsala.

If you want to wow this dish, season your chicken generously before searing and cook til it's nice and golden. I used JM Exotic Foods Sicily Blend along with the salt and pepper on both sides of the chicken and it was wonderful! After sautéing, I transferred the chicken to a cookie sheet and kept it warm in a 300 degree oven. I also transferred the sautéed mushrooms to the chicken before making the sauce. Once the sauce was reduced, I brought everything back to the skillet to simmer for a minute. I used half and half and it did curdle but it completely cooked out during the reduction process. Don't be afraid to REALLY reduce the sauce, if you need more sauce, triple the liquid ingredients. I doubled the sauce for just 2 large chicken breasts and it was barely enough to really cover the chicken and mashed potatoes. This is, by far, one of the tastiest dishes I have ever made and intend to make again at least monthly!

I like chicken marsala but always felt it was just a tad shy in the flavor department. I tried a couple of recipes from here, side by side, and this one won hands down! The little splash of lemon juice really knocked this baby up a few notches to unbelievable mouth watering levels. I highly recommend folks try this one out! I also added about 1/4 cooking sherry which made the recipe really sing.

I made this recipe last night, and it was amazing what I did differently though is that the end I took my noodles and sauteed them in some of the marsala sauce and they turned out just like Carrabba's. My only recommendation in this is what I'm going to do next time is to double the marsala and do one and a half times the other ingredients because the marsala needs to have a little bit stronger presence in this recipe! Otherwise it is the legit real deal so happy I could make this for a fraction of the price of one serving at Carrabba's!