I made Chicken Marsala for the first time ever tonight. It came out incredibly. I’ve been cooking for about a year now, after a long layoff. I mean I used to cook, I really did. In fact, when I was a kid, my brother and I would cook for the family once a week.
But then I just…stopped cooking. I don’t know why. Every few years I would pick it up again for a little while, but sooner or later I would stop again. So about one year ago, just as I was entering the second year of running my blog and my media startup, I decided to give it another shot.
And you know what? Turns out I love cooking. I’ve made a bunch of different things over the past year. And a lot of it has been really good stuff. The highlights so far, or the Hall of Fame, would be my Chicken Parmesan, in first place. Second place would be my Chicken Francese. Third place would be my Collard Greens with Bacon and Onion. Fourth place would be Pad Kee Mao. That was some dope shit, Thai noodles with chicken and peppers and onions in a super spicy sauce.
And I guess fifth place would probably be my Chicken with Peppers in Red sauce, Italian style. Plus tonight’s meal. Because this Chicken Marsala was really, really, really freaking damn good. I mean it was like restaurant quality, I kid you not.
You may have noticed an interesting pattern in the best dishes I’ve made. They’re mostly Italian or Italian-American. But the thing is, I’m not Italian. I’m Jewish. My family is originally from Russia and Eastern Europe, several generations ago. But when you grow up in New York, good Italian food is everywhere. I grew up on the upper west side in the 80’s, and the options were: Italian, Chinese, Pizza, and Diner. I love them all, but Italian was my favorite. I include pizza in that category.
So I guess it’s no surprise that I make a lot of Italian dishes. Plus, honestly, at this point Italian food is like a global cuisine, it really is. It’s transcended Italy and become the world’s food. Few countries can claim this, so kudos to Italy.
So I made this Chicken Marsala, and when I was cooking, I was kind of stressing out in the beginning. Whenever I use a recipe, I stress. But then I decided to just wing it. I glanced at the recipe on Pinterest a few times, and then I just improvised.
Salt and pepper the chicken breast. Check. Dredge in flour. Check. Saute in olive oil. Check. And etc. When the chicken breast was nice and tender, I removed it from the pan and stored it on a plate. Then I used the same pan to saute mushrooms and minced garlic.
OMFG! Can I just tell you? The smell of fresh mushrooms sauteed with garlic, two kinds of mushrooms actually, cremini and white button, and they’re sauteing in olive oil, and the smell is just…incredible. It’s like you’ve died and gone to umami heaven.
When the mushrooms were done, I removed them to a bowl and made the stock. Chicken stock, red wine, soy sauce, sugar, tarragon, sage, salt, pepper, flour, corn starch, add a little water, taste, sample, add more chicken stock, a little more red wine, a pinch more sugar, one more round of salt and pepper, then add the mushrooms, let simmer down for about 20 minutes on low heat, e Voila! You have yourself one freaking incredible, thick, rich, decadent Italian-American de-freaking-licious sauce.
Add the chicken breast back in, let simmer another five minutes, stir liberally and coat the chicken breast in sauce and mushrooms, and boom! You’re done.
When I finally sat down to eat it was about 9:30pm. I served the chicken with a “Power Greens” mix of red and green chards, baby kale and baby spinach. And like I said, this chicken was amazing. It brought me back to old-time Italian restaurants in NYC when I was growing up. Red sauce joints. One of my favorites was Poletti’s, on 83rd and Broadway. It was a vast space, and it was very dark in there. They lit your table by candlelight. And the menu was the classic Italian-American fare, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Chicken Parmesan, Lasagna. I favored the Chicken Parmesan, served with a side of linguine marinara. It was just pure heaven. I only had their Chicken Marsala a few times, but it was fantastic. It’s more of an adult dish, though, with the wine sauce and all, and I was only ten.
Another incredible Italian-American place on the upper west that my grandfather loved, so we went there a lot, was Scaletta, on 77th and Columbus. They’re still there today. They serve incredible Italian comfort food, including a mean Chicken Francese, which is in my top five! So I like them.
After I finished the Chicken Marsala tonight, I pushed my chair away from the kitchen table and stared up at the ceiling. I was in the famous food coma. And it felt great. My mind flitted to Italian food, and even more so to Italian-American food and the restaurants of my youth. I told myself I needed to keep cooking, because even though it’s work, the payoff is so worth it. Maybe I’ll make another Italian-American dish next. Or maybe I’ll do Japanese, which I also love. Who knows? All I know is, I’m going to keep cooking, because it makes me feel good. And I like to feel good, I really do.
