Chicken Marsala Meatballs Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is a Marsala sauce made of? ›

Add olive oil to heavy hot saucepan. Add onions, garlic, mushrooms, saute until mushrooms are tender. Add flour and cook about 1 minute then deglaze pan with Marsala wine. Add beef stock and cook until thick and flavors are blended.

Flour plus fat (butter) = roux. A roux is used as a thickening agent in sauces. Sooo, with the butter from the pan and the butter the mushrooms have absorbed, plus the chicken cutlets coated in flour… This all means when the cutlets get added back to the sauce – that flour and butter combo is what thickens the sauce.

Possible substitutes would be a dry Madeira wine or a darker sherry such as Oloroso. If you don't have these then you could also use port or red vermouth.

If you're preparing a sweeter dish, she suggests reaching for sherry, Moscato, or Port as an easy swap. You could even try a potent dry red tossed in with a bit of sugar and an orange peel as a comparable substitute.

The best substitute for marsala wine is madeira, another kind of fortified wine with a similar flavour profile. Other alternatives include other fortified wines such as commandaria, sherry, vermouth, and port.

Marsala is sweet dessert wine, it is not typically used for drinking like a Chianti or Montepulciano, but cooking and marinades. Masala is a spice blend using in Indian cooking. It contains all brown spices: cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, and cumin.

Should you use sweet or dry Marsala in your Chicken Marsala recipe? It doesn't make a huge difference, and either option will produce delicious results, but I would go for dry because the sweet Marsala has a bit too much sugar for such a savory dish.

Deglaze the pan by pouring in the marsala, and cook for about 2 minutes. Increase heat to medium, stir in beef broth and port, and cook until sauce starts to reduce and thicken to your preference, 10 to 12 minutes.

Combine a cup of white grape juice with balsamic vinegar to mimic the acidity and depth of Marsala. Mix fruit juices such as cherry or cranberry with a splash of sherry vinegar for a robust flavor.

Can I use regular wine instead of Marsala? ›

Sherry or Port are better substitutions for Marsala. Reed wine plus a little balsamic vinegar might be better than just red wine alone. The brief answer is no. The two wines are made from different things and marsala wine is a LOT sweeter than most reds.

Chicken is a white meat that lends itself to a lighter wine. Marsala sauce is luxuriously thick at its best, with subtle but complex notes of spice. Nothing here is pushing us towards something as bold as a cabernet sauvignon, but a pinot grigio isn't going to be able to compete either.

The best Marsala wines come from the region of Italy where the wine gets its name, the area surrounding the city of Marsala. Unlike sherry and port, Marsala has a unique complexity that sets it apart, and since it is made in both dry and sweet varieties, it the perfect choice for cooking, from sweet to savory meals.

It's the key flavouring in the sauce – depth of flavour, complexity, warmth and touch of sweetness. Use dry marsala rather than sweet marsala which is more commonly used in desserts. Sub with port wine, sherry, or madeira. For non alcoholic version, better to make Chicken with Creamy Mushroom Sauce!

Savory, rich, and just a little bit sweet, Marsala sauce is most commonly used in the U.S. for chicken Marsala, but it works great as a standalone sauce for almost any meat or pasta.

Very much like Port wines, Marsala is a fortified wine. It is produced initially in Italy and ranges from dry to sweet dessert wine.

Marsala wine is a fortified wine produced near the town of Marsala on the island of Sicily, Italy. Marsala wine is made with local white grape varietals including Grillo, Inzolia, Catarratto, and Damaschino (although it can also be blended with red grapes.)

Taste and Flavor Profile

Overall, Marsala wine can exhibit nutty and sugary aromas and flavors of honey and toffee, walnut, vanilla, stewed fruit like apricot as well as dried fruit, licorice, and tobacco. It is typically low in tannins (except for rubino) and low in acidity.