I don’t always have fresh fungi hiding out in the veggie drawer of my refrigerator. (And yes, you should refrigerate mushrooms to keep them fresh. Store them in a paper bag or porous container. Avoid plastic bags and sealed containers when storing mushrooms as the lack of air flow will speed up spoilage.)

Anyway, I didn’t have any mushrooms the other day when I decided to serve chicken marsala for dinner. And as everyone knows, mushrooms are an integral component of marsala. (Chicken marsala is an Italian American dish of pan-fried chicken cutlets and mushrooms in a Marsala wine sauce. The mushrooms are typically seared and tossed with the chicken.) Well, there you go. Except I didn’t have any mushrooms, and I jolly well wasn’t going to make a special trip to the grocery store for one ingredient! So, then, what to do? Well, duh, use dried mushrooms. And that’s just what I did. (And yes, I always keep 2 or 3 types of dried shrooms in my pantry.)

I also didn’t have any heavy cream. Which is also an ingredient you find in most marsala sauced recipes. (Witness one of the other chicken marsala recipes already on this site – Creamy Chicken Marsala with Egg Noodles. (Which BTW, was the basis for the recipe you find below.) My other recipe entitled Chicken Marsala, contains mushrooms but no heavy cream. But neither recipe was exactly right for this occasion, so I simply made do with what was available.

So, basically, I’ve got you covered whether you have or don’t have mushrooms on hand or do or don’t have or want to use heavy cream. And if you hate mushrooms, just leave them out. (I’m sure you figured that part out all by yourself!)  

Regardless of which recipe you use, even if it isn’t one of my recipes, you should make chicken marsala in the near future. It is just so yummy. And I would advise serving it with egg noodles.

Well, that’s all I have to say on the matter. Mr. C. is doing some errands today and has offered to stop at the store and pick up some fresh fish for tonight. And I thought simple fried rice (brown of course) would make a nice and different side dish. So, along with some kind of lemony aioli for the fish, I better do a bit of research on fried rice, because again, I am lacking some of the ingredients in the three fried rice recipes already on this site. So, wish me luck coming up with a tasty new recipe. And I’ll let you know if fried rice is a nice accompaniment to fried fish. Never a dull moment here at Chez Carr.

And as always, peace and love to all.     

⅓ c. broken dried mushroom pieces (I used dry porcini mushrooms)

½ c. boiling water

3 T. unbleached all-purpose flour

½ tsp. seasoned salt

fresh ground black pepper

1 lg. chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces

2 T. extra virgin olive oil

2 T. unsalted butter

1 shallot, thinly sliced or 2 T. finely diced onion

3 cloves garlic, finely minced

¼ tsp. dried thyme

1 c. Marsala wine

1 c. chicken broth

½ c. whole milk

2 T. cream cheese

2 c. lightly packed dry egg noodles, cooked al dente

Combine the mushroom pieces and boiling water together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Whisk the flour, seasoned salt, and black pepper together in a Ziplock bag. Toss the cubed chicken pieces in the flour mixture to coat. (Save the flour that remains in the bag.)

Heat the olive oil and butter in a large frying pan. Add the chicken and sear on all sides until lightly browned. (The chicken will not be cooked at this point.) Remove the chicken from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside in a bowl.

Add the shallot or onion and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and dried thyme. Cook for 1 minute.

Add the wine and the chicken stock to the pan. Scrape the bottom of the pan using a wooden spoon to remove any browned bits remaining in the pan. Let the liquid come to a boil.

Add the partially cooked chicken back to the pan along with the drained dry mushroom pieces. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Whisk the milk and the remaining flour together in a small bowl and stir the mixture along with the cream cheese into the pan with the chicken. When the sauce is smooth, add the al dente pasta and toss to coat.

Cook for another 1-2 minutes or until the pasta absorbs a bit of the creamy sauce. Taste and add kosher salt and more black pepper if required. Serve immediately.