Recipe: Chicken Marsala

Today I tried my first new recipe of the new year. My "brother" Aaron got me a Sandra Lee cook book for Christmas, so I decided to try out this recipe.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 lbs. chicken breast, bone-in, sliced in half
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
2 Tbsp. garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. bullion chicken paste (I substituted bullion powder, couldn't find the paste)
1 cup water
1 cup Marsala cooking wine
1 packet Knorrs garlic and herb sauce mix.

First you combine the flour, salt and pepper in a shallow dish. Thoroughly coat each piece of chicken.











In a large skillet, combine 1 Tbsp. of the olive oil and the butter, until it melts. Add the chicken breasts and cook for 10 minutes, turning once halfway through.




Remove the chicken breasts and set to the side. Add the other Tbsp. of olive oil and cook the onion and garlic for 4 minutes, or until the onion starts to turn translucent. Add in the water, bullion, and wine and bring to a boil.

Add back in the chicken and simmer 30-45 minutes covered. I think it would have been good to flip more frequently toward the end - it was ok for the first 30 minutes, but in the last 10 or so it started sticking.

Remove the chicken and add the Knorr's sauce mix to the pan. The instructions said to bring to a boil, but mine was pretty thick. I just heated and stirred enough to thoroughly combine.

Add sauce to chicken and serve.

Some thoughts:
I'm not sure why the chicken needed to be bone-in. I actually found that this made things more difficult. I think boneless chicken breasts would have been easier to work with.

I also think I cut the chicken breasts the wrong direction - I laid them on the counter with the widest side down and cut from one end toward me (a vertical cut, if you will). I think I was supposed to cut horizontally, to have two wide, flat pieces. This would have made the 10 minute cooking in the flour much more even.

In the end, I was surprised how it tasted - it didn't look too good, but was pretty tasty. It was a little salty, so I may cut back on that and some of the bullion, but I'd definitely make this recipe again. Though not on a weekday - it took too long.