Lighter Chicken Marsala

You may have noticed that I do not include mushrooms in any of the recipes featured on the blog. I find the flavor and texture of mushrooms completely unappealing. I've tried making friends, mushroom caps stuffed with sausage and cheese...fail, mushrooms sautéed with garlic and wine...fail. Mushrooms and I are like water and oil, it doesn't matter what you try, we will never get along. The original recipe below contained 1 cup of sliced mushrooms that are added to the pan with the wine and stock. Good friends with mushrooms? By all means add them to this dish. If you have any mushroom recipes that you think will tempt me to the other side, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Lighter Chicken Marsala

recipe slightly adapted from Cooking Light

4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ cup Marsala wine

½ cup chicken stock

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 teaspoon cornstarch

Place chicken between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound each piece to ½ inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Sprinkle both sides of chicken evenly with salt and pepper. Place flour in a shallow dish. Dredge chicken in flour, turning to coat; shake off excess flour.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 3 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm. Add the wine, stock, and lemon juice to pan; reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until mixture is reduced to 2/3 cup.

Add 1 teaspoon of cornstarch to sauce to thicken. You can add additional cornstarch in ½ teaspoon increments to the sauce to obtain desired thickness. Return chicken to pan, turning to coat well. Cover and cook 5 minutes or until chicken is done. Sprinkle with parsley.