Chicken Marsala

Yep, you either love mushrooms or you hate them.  Is anyone truly ambivalent when it comes to these little suckers?  I happen to love them.  I'd take mushroom pizza over pepperoni ANY day.  It's a given then that Chicken Marsala is right up there on my favorite dinners.  And luckily it's pretty darned easy to whip up.

Confession time: I didn't make this tonight.  I didn't even make this recently.  Someone asked how I was still even cooking with my moving plans in full swing.  I'm not.  I do however have quite a few photos of recipes I never got around to posting ever so thought I'd post them while I'm not doing much cooking.  I have plenty of canned items to use up but work is actually killing me right now.  The whole two week notice, short timers thing?  Yeah not so much.  Of course, I chose to wait to give notice so that my last day fell after a major project go-live.  At the time it seemed like the right thing to do.  But now, during the days leading up to the go-live, when I eat a bite of lunch with each quick hit of the mute button on a conference  call or I wake up at 2:00am with a stomachache because I'm thinking about the go-live in my sleep?  Have to admit, I wonder what on earth I was thinking.

I cried on the drive over to pick up Brooklyn from doggie daycare tonight.  Not because of any identifiable reason, but just because I was just emotionally spent from the day and the stress and knowing I still had so much moving stuff to do in my free time.  The sun had just set over the mountains and the sky was the most vibrantly beautiful orange I've seen since I've been in Vegas.  I wondered why I'd never truly noticed the sunset here before.  My emotional slightly crazy, slightly whiny self asked God why days have to so long and hard sometimes and beautiful things like sunsets are so quick and seemingly fleeting.   What I realized after my car ride prayer time was that days can be hard and draining but then they are over, but sunsets are a constant enduring recurrence we can count on.  It was just a slight perspective change but sometimes that's what is needed.  Maybe some chicken marsala helps too..I wish I did have this for dinner tonight. 

CHICKEN MARSALA

Ingredients
4 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts
All-purpose flour for dredging
Enough extra-virgin olive oil to coat bottom of pan (about 1/4 cup)
4 oz bacon, diced
8 ounces crimini or porcini mushrooms sliced
1/2 cup sweet Marsala wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoon unsalted butter

Directions

1. Lay the chicken breasts on a plastic wrap covered cutting board and lay another piece of plastic wrap over them; pound with a flat meat mallet, until they are about 1/4-inch thick. 
2. Add some flour in a shallow dish and season with a fair amount of salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. 
3. Heat the oil over medium-high flame in a large skillet. When the oil is nice and hot, dredge both sides of the chicken cutlets in the seasoned flour, shaking off the excess. 
4. Place the chicken in the pan and fry for 5 minutes on each side until golden, turning once – do this in batches if all of the pieces don't fit in the pan. Remove the chicken to a large platter to keep warm. 
5. Lower the heat to medium and add the bacon to the drippings in the pan, saute for 2-3 mins to render out most of the fat. 
6. Add mushrooms and cook until browned and their moisture has evaporated, about 5 minutes; season with salt and pepper. 
7. Pour the Marsala in the pan and boil down for a few seconds to cook out the alcohol. Add the chicken stock and simmer for a minute to reduce the sauce slightly. Stir in the butter and return the chicken to the pan; simmer gently for 1 minute to heat the chicken through. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with chopped parsley before serving.