Chicken Marsala...oh so good!!!

This recipe originated on the Food Network. The show was called "All in Good Taste" and aired between 1996-2000 on cable TV. I loved that show. It was a great resource for some wonderful recipes. I tried this one right after I watched it. It's so good and I've served it many, many times. It is easy and everyone raved about the flavor. This recipe turns you from a cook into a "Chef"! Serve with garlic smashed potatoes, favorite veggie, and a light salad. A quick, easy, and wonderful dinner!
This recipe has just a few ingredients. My kind of recipe...Boneless chicken breasts, tomato paste, Marsala cooking wine, butter, olive oil, onion and salt and pepper to taste. A few ingredients, but a wonderful quick dinner dish. Everyone will think you are a pro!
Let's Make Chicken Marsala...
I have used this recipe for several years. I've done a little updating though on the recipe. I love the Marsala sauce and this recipe didn't have a lot. So, I went on a quest to make a better sauce. I checked out several recipes and this is what I came up with. I added chicken stock and heavy cream to the recipe. I also fried the onions, garlic and mushrooms separate from the chicken. Once I cooked the chicken, I set it aside and made the sauce. Viola' it turned out better than before.
First, pound out your chicken. If you have never done it before, watch the video below to see how it's done. You will need a meat mallet, or a saucepan, or whatever you have available that you can pound the chicken breasts to 1/3" to 1/2" thick. If you have purchased large chicken breasts, slice them in half horizontally to get two cutlets, (this will also make it easier to pound them to the thickness that is needed) otherwise you will have one very large cutlet.

Now to Flatten Chicken Breasts...
Even after all those years of cooking, I'm still learning different techniques. I love that we now have videos to show us exactly how to achieve certain results.  It makes cooking so much easier.  Also, the right pans and tools make cooking a snap. When making Chicken Marsala, you need to flatten the chicken breasts.  Here's a short video showing how to do it... This method is also used for Chicken Piccata and Turkey Piccata..
How to thin Chicken Breasts VIDEO
Next...
Once the chicken breasts are flattened to the thickness required, salt and pepper the cutlets and dredge in flour. Then place the butter and olive oil in a frying pan and fry chicken until golden brown. Place the cutlets on a plate and cover with foil to keep warm...make sure you vent the chicken while it's resting.
Add more butter and olive oil to your frying pan and add the mushrooms and cook until browned (about 5 minutes). Add chopped onions and garlic and cook for another 3-5 minutes or until fragrant. Add the Marsala wine and tomato sauce mixture and cook down. Then add the chicken stock scrapping the bottom of the frying pan to get all the yummy bits incorporated with the mushroom mixture. At this point add the heavy cream in a steady stream and once again keep stirring. Lower the heat to keep the mixture at a simmer reducing it a bit. Keep cooking until it's slightly thickened. At this point taste test the sauce to see if it needs salt or pepper.
Add the chicken back into the mushroom sauce and cook on low until chicken is completely heated through. Now it's time to serve... I love Chicken Marsala with mashed potatoes, but I have also had it with pasta. My favorite??? Mashed potatoes.

Chicken Marsala Recipe...
Ingredients:
  • 6 small skinless, boneless chicken breasts or 3 large chicken breasts (cut in half horizontally)
  • Flour
  • Salt & Pepper
  • 2 T. butter
  • 1 T. olive oil
Mushroom Sauce:
  • 8 ounces fresh mushrooms (white button and cremini work well)
  • 1 small onion (chopped)
  • 2 garlic cloves (minced)
  • 2 T. butter
  • 1 T. olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp. tomato paste (opt)
  • 3/4 cup Marsala cooking wine 
  • 3/4 cup chicken stock
  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
  • Salt & pepper to taste
  • Parsley garnish
Directions:
  1. Flatten chicken breasts between two sheets of  plastic wrap.  (Check out the video above on how to flatten chicken breasts)
  2. Salt and pepper each chicken cutlet
  3. Dredge the chicken breasts in flour. Shake off the excess flour.
  4. Add the olive oil and butter to frying pan.
  5. Fry chicken until golden brown on both sides.
  6. Place chicken on a plate and cover with aluminum foil leaving a little opening for moisture to escape.
  7. Dissolve tomato paste in the Marsala wine.
  8. Heat butter and olive oil in a skillet and saute' mushrooms until golden brown.
  9. Add onions and garlic and cook until onions are soft and fragrant.
  10. Add the Marsala wine and tomato paste mixture to the mushroom mixture and cook for another 5 minutes.
  11. Then turn up the heat and add the chicken stock and cook for about another 5 minutes
  12. Turn down the heat a little and add the heavy cream in a steady stream and when it comes to a slight boil and is slightly thickened turn the heat down to low.. 
  13. Return chicken cutlets to the frying pan and spread the sauce over the chicken cutlets. Cook on low to reheat the chicken cutlets.
  14. Serve



One Final Thought...
One of my favorite dinners...Chicken Marsala, garlic mashed potatoes, or baby reds and fried green beans with parmesan or a great salad. Always a show stopper and so dang easy!
That's it for today...Enjoy!

Always remember..."Life's short...eat dessert first!"...words to live by! 

Decorated Cookies For All Occasions

Yup, summer is just around the corner...or is it? Here it is the middle of April and it's snowing again. At some point it's got to stop, right? In the meantime I'm thinking of summer sweets and these cookies fit the bill. There's nothing better than a great sugar cookie that's decorated to the tee for special occasions like holidays, birthdays, graduations and just every day. My watermelon cookies were frosted with buttercream frosting. I've included the Rolled Sugar Cookie recipe and both Buttercream Frosting and Royal Icing recipes in this post. 

Recipes included in this Post...
Rolled Sugar Cookies
Buttercream Frosting
Royal Icing

Summer is almost here...I say almost as I look out the window and see snow, snow, snow. But, it's April and summer is not too far away. I've said many times in many of my other posts that I was a cake decorator in a previous life. I also loved decorating cookies. It's so much fun to design your own cookies, or use other decorator's ideas. Many years ago I came across a wonderful sugar (cut-out) cookie recipe. I found it on All Recipes.com. The contributor was Jill Saunders. After making this recipe many times, I threw away all my other sugar cookies recipes. This one is the BEST!
I've used decorator icing on cookies along with just plain old buttercream.  Some decorator icings get really hard and I'm not a fan of hard icing. For Christmas sugar cut out cookies I use a thinner buttercream frosting, more like an icing. It doesn't harden up, it just gets a nice shell on the top and keeps the icing on the inside soft. It actually keeps some moisture in the cookies which makes a softer sugar cookie.
You can make sugar cookies any time of the year. They are great for special occasions, holidays, picnics, graduations or just for the fun of it. I made some cookies for my granddaughter's graduation along with cake pops and cupcakes. It was a very fun project. I added different kinds of candies and some flower pots filled with Dum Dums. You could say it was a sugar extravaganza!!!

Let's Make Some Watermelon Sugar Cookies...
Here are the ingredients you'll need for the cookies and the frosting. I bet that most people have these ingredients right in their pantry. A simple recipe with very simple ingredients, but a big, big taste.

Cookie Ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, flour, baking powder and salt. 
Buttercream Frosting Ingredients: shortening, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla (optional: you can use almond extract also)
Use room temperature butter and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and sugar and vanilla to the creamed butter and mix again until combined.
Add flour, baking powder and salt to butter mixture and beat until combined and a smooth texture.
Place cookie dough on a piece of plastic wrap and press into a disk or rectangle. Wrap securely. Place in the refrigerator for about an hour.
Remove dough from refrigerator and roll out to about 1/4"-1/2" thickness on a floured surface. I used a scallop round cutter, but you can just use a biscuit cutter if you would like. After cutting out the circles, cut them in half.
Place cookies on a cookies sheet covered with parchment paper and bake at 400℉ for 6-8 minutes.
For this batch I cut the recipe in half. This recipe makes a lot of cookies. The half recipe made 48 cut out watermelon cookies.

Let's Make The Buttercream Frosting
Buttercream is the easiest frosting to make. Once again, place the shortening and room temperature butter in your mixing bowl and start whipping it until it is light in color. Add the powdered sugar a cup at a time. Then add vanilla or whatever extract you would like to use. It will be pretty thick at this point. Start adding milk a little at a time until you reach the consistency that you desire. For cookies, my buttercream is about medium. You will be piping this frosting, not spreading so you want it not to thin or not to thick.

I put about 1/2-3/4 cup of frosting in two bowls and left about 1/2 cup of white buttercream in the mixing bowl. Add a few drops of pink coloring in one of the bowls and a few drops of leaf green and 1 or 2 drops of yellow together in the other bowl of frosting. With a spoon mix until the color is incorporated in the frosting.
Now the fun part. I used star tips for the piping. It's the easiest way to decorate cookies. Pipe the green frosting around the edge. Fill in the center with pink. I used a Wilton #7 tip for the white frosting. Then I topped each with mini chocolate chips for the seeds.
And that's it! These cookies are so easy and with the buttercream and the great sugar cookie recipe you have not only created beautiful cookies, but great tasting cookies. Some cookies look good but don't taste very good. These cookies are the best...your family will love them!

The Best Rolled Sugar Cookie Recipe...
Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 cups butter, softened                        
  • 2 cups white sugar                                     
  • 4 eggs                                                           
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract                                                                  
  • 5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsps. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
Directions:
  1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
  2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.  Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
  3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely before frosting.
For my watermelon cookies, I used a biscuit cutter to cut the circles and then cut them in half.  I then used a star decorating tip to put the frosting on each cookies. The seeds on the watermelon cookies are mini chocolate chips.

Buttercream Frosting Recipe...
Buttercream frosting is made to be used with decorating tips. It's consistency is medium, but not stiff. This frosting needs to be covered between uses so it doesn't dry out. The frosting will set up at a medium pace. This frosting is used to also decorate cakes.
   Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:
  • 4 C. powdered sugar
  • 1/2 C. stick margarine or butter
  • 1/2 C. Crisco shortening
  • 1 tsp. clear extract of your choice
  • 1 T.- 5 T. milk
Directions:
  1. Place butter or margarine and Crisco shortening in a mixing bowl with a paddle attachment and mix until light in color.
  2. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time.
  3. Add milk 1 T. at a time until you have reached the desired consistency. Start with one tablespoon and add additional tablespoons as needed.  Remember you can always add milk, but you can't take it away if the frosting becomes to thin.
  4. Add clear extract of your choice and beat until you have the consistency of a thick whipped cream. It should be flexible, not stiff.
There Are Many Ways to Frost Your Beautiful Cookies...

You can flood the cookies with thinner icing that makes them smooth and shiny. You can use a little bit thicker icing and then put seasonal sprinkles on the cookies, or you can use a buttercream frosting like I did for these cookies and pipe your decorations on them. There are many ways of finishing off your cookies. You don't have to be a professional to get uwwws and awwws...for your beautiful cookies.

Working with Royal Icing on your decorated cookies Video...
I've also included a few video tutorials on how to work with royal icing on cookies.  This icing is very thin, but sets up pretty fast.  It also has a semi-gloss to it. So it gives a very smooth finish.
DIY - How to decorate cookies-VIDEO
After watching this video, please check out her website. It's loaded with everything a decorated cookie enthusiast would want. 

How to Flood Cookies (Video)...
This video is how to make and use Royal Icing for both piping and flooding...
How to flood cookies-VIDEO

Royal Icing Recipe...
Royal Icing is a thin consistency. It is used to flood cookies when decorating. This frosting dries relatively fast and needs to be kept covered in between uses so it doesn't dry out. It dries to a satin finish.
                  
Royal Icing Ingredients:
  • 1/2 pound powdered sugar (sifted)
  • 2 1/2  tablespoons meringue powder
  • 3 tablespoons water and more if needed
  • 1/2 teaspoon clear extract (your choice)

Instructions:   

  1. Combine the sugar and meringue powder in a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or you can use a regular mixer. 
  2. Mix on low speed until well combined. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the water.
  3. Next, add a clear extract (of your choice) to make your frosting take on different flavors.
  4. If your mixture isn’t thin enough, add more water…1 tablespoon at a time.
  5. Mix on medium-low speed for 5 minutes.
  6. Color icing with desired food colors by blending a drop of coloring into the icing. Gradually blend additional drops until you achieve the desired color.
  7. Immediately cover the icing with plastic wrap covering the surface of the icing. This icing dries fast, so plastic wrap will keep it pliable. Store in your fridge for up to 10 days.

    This recipe makes will make 1 cup of icing, enough for 12 cookies. If you are going to be making a lot of colors and cookies you will want to double, triple, etc. this recipe.


    Cookie Cutter Companies on the internet...
    You can find cookies cutters just about anywhere. But if you are looking for a certain cookie cutter the companies below have a wide variety of cookie cutters that are very reasonably priced. I've used all three to purchase cookie cutters that I need. I give all three companies 5 stars for their efficiency and great customer service...just click on the logo and you will be redirected to their websites.
    Decorated Cookie Pinterest Pins...
    There are so many decorated cookies to make. I love making different cookies for different seasons or events. The recipe that I use to make sugar cookies truly is the best. These cookies also freeze well. I used butter cream icing for the watermelon cookies, but most of these cookies use the flooding method with royal icing.  Either way, you'll love the way they turn out.

    Below are a bunch of samples from the internet for decorated cookies. Just click on each picture to be redirected to each website.
    Christmas, Valentine's Day
    St. Patrick's Day, 4th of July
    Mother's Day, Father's Day
    Easter
    Halloween, Thanksgiving
    Spring, Summer
    Autumn, Winter
    Graduations
    Baby Showers
    Birthdays


    One Final Thought...
    So many beautiful cookies. I love checking designs out to get new ideas for myself. Maybe one of these cookies will work for you for a birthday, a holiday or a graduation. Have fun with this post!

    Always remember..."Life's short...eat dessert first!"...words to live by! 
    Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)