Classic Italian - Veal/Chicken Scaloppini a la Marsala
Nov 11, 04:38 pm in Food
Ever been to an Italian restaurant and had Veal Scaloppini a la Marsala? Tender pieces of veal in a rich Marsala wine sauce. Tastes great looks great. The best things is that it’s dead easy to do at home and it comes out looking great as well. It’s a great dish when you’re having friends over and don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen. Plus you’ll probably impress them as well.
I usually use chicken breast instead of veal but its the same workflow for both types of meat.
First mix some cracked black pepper with wheat flour in a dish. Trim of the chicken breast and get rid of any skin on them. If the fillets are really big try cutting them in half making two thinner fillets. You can try to gentle pound them to flatten them a bit as well. Pad the fillets dry with kitchen paper.
Next turn over the meat in the flour mix so that the fillets are completly coated in flour. Shake of any excess flour. I usually don’t add any salt to the mix as it draws out the juices from the meat making the flour coating soggy.
Heat up butter and olive oil in a thick bottom pan at medium to high heat. You want to use quite a lot of butter and oil it as it will form the base of the sauce. When the fat is piping hot and the butter bubbles have settled start frying your fillets. Also sprinkle some coarse sea salt, such as Maldon, over the fillets. The fillets should turn golden quite rapidly. After a 3-4 minutes or when the fillets starts to turn brownish turn over the fillets and fry the other side. When there is still some time to go pour a generous amount of Marsala wine directly in to the pan. The wine will mix with the butter and start boiling quite lively. Turn over the fillets several times so that they are totally covered in sauce. Also scrape and stir at the bottom of the pan so that any flour stuck to it is mixed with the boiling butter, oil and wine mix. Of course the flour and the fat is what makes the sauce go thick. Let the sauce continue to boil until the color of the sauce turns to a caramel colour and the texture is smooth and thick. You should almost not be able to pour the sauce from the pan.
Transfer the fillets directly to some waiting plates and scrape the remaining sauce over them. You’re done!
If you’ve used chicken the fillets will have a slight crust and be juicy and tender in the middle. Usually we only have some baby spinach salad with it but I guess you could use pasta or rice as well for a slightly more filling meal.
The dish all in all should take no more than 15 minutes to prepare so it’s really quick and easy. Another tip is to cut the fried fillets in small pieces with the sauce and use in a chicken sallad with some avocado and red onion.
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