Chicken Marsala Fettuccine

This Chicken Marsala Fettuccine dish is a healthier, lighter twist on the Italian favorite. It's rich, creamy, and the perfect meal for date nights in. Have this flavorful pasta on the table in less than 1 hour.

Jump to:

• 📋 About the Recipe
• 🛒 Ingredients
• ⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations
• 📓 Instructions
• ❄️ How to Store
• 🔍 Recipe FAQs
• 💭 One More Tip
• 🍴 Related Recipes
• Chicken Marsala Fettuccine
• Reviews

📋 About the Recipe

• So much better than Olive Garden. I'll admit I haven't ordered the Olive Garden Chicken Marsala in a long time, but that's because I learned a long time ago that making it at home was not only more delicious, but healthier too. Skip the globs of butter, cream, and excess fat and try this healthier chicken marsala instead!
• Made with just 10 ingredients. It may seem complicated to make a pasta dish with a sauce from scratch, but it really only requires 10 simple ingredients you can easily pick up at the grocery store.
• Made without cream or cheese. I don't focus on avoiding any ingredients in my diet, but if you avoid eating pasta dishes because you assume they contain butter, milk, or cream, this chicken pasta dish is for you! It's made without parmesan cheese, heavy cream, or butter.

If you love delicious pasta dishes, you'll love this One Pot Lemon Ricotta Pasta, Pink Sauce Pasta, and this Mediterranean Garlic and Olive Oil Pasta.

🛒 Ingredients

A few notes about the ingredients:

1. Chicken - For this dish, you'll need 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, about 2 pounds total.
2. Flour - Dredging the chicken in flour not only gives it a nice, deep golden crust, but it also helps thicken the marsala wine sauce and helps replace the need for any heavy cream or cheese.
3. Mushrooms - For the best, rich flavored sauce, I recommend using earthy mushrooms like sliced baby bella mushrooms. If those aren't available, any brown variety of mushrooms will work too. White button mushrooms will even do, but will have a lighter, less mature flavor.
4. Marsala wine - This Italian wine is sweet and dry and reduces into a flavorful, smooth sauce that's ideal for savory pastas and chicken dishes.

⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations

1. Marsala wine substitutes: Substitute with madeira wine or sherry. If you don't have these options or prefer to cook without alcohol, use a mixture of red wine vinegar and grape juice. This mixture is a good balance of acidic and sweet. It won't be a perfect flavor substitute, but it's the best option in a pinch.
2. Fettuccine substitutions: Any long pasta will work. Try linguine, spaghetti, even angel hair pasta.
3. Broth/stock: I find chicken broth compliments the protein well, but if needed, replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock or beef stock. Either will work fine.

📓 Instructions

1. Butterfly the chicken. Slice chicken breasts in half lengthwise, yielding 6 thin chicken cutlets.
2. Make the flour mixture. In a shallow bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and black pepper. Reserve 1 tablespoon of this mixture and set aside.

3. Prep. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, coat both sides of the chicken cutlets in the flour mixture, then place them on the hot, oiled skillet.
4. Cook. Cook the chicken for 5 to 7 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. Flip and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes. The chicken does not need to be cooked all the way through - just browned on both sides.

5. Sauté mushrooms, onions and shallots. Once the chicken is browned on both sides, remove it from the skillet and place it on a clean plate. Into the same skillet, add an additional tablespoon of olive oil, then add in the mushrooms, onions and shallots. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until the juices the mushrooms give off have fully evaporated.
6. Add garlic. Stir in the garlic and the reserved flour mixture until well combined.

7. Add marsala wine. Add in the wine, then allow it to cook down for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until there is barely any wine left in the pan.

8. Cook the pasta al dente. While the wine reduces, boil the fettuccine pasta in a separate pot of salter water according to package directions. Before draining the pasta, reserve ½ cup of the pasta water.
9. Add chicken broth and browned chicken. Once the wine has reduced, add in the chicken broth, chicken cutlets, as well as any drippings remaining on the plate. Make sure the chicken is covered in the broth and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through to 165 degrees F and the sauce has thickened.
10. Slice the chicken. Remove the chicken to a cutting board. Allow it to rest for 5 minutes, then slice into thin strips.

11. Finish the sauce. Season the sauce with Italian seasoning and pour in ¼ cup of the reserved pasta water. Allow the sauce to reduce to your desired thickness, about 3 more minutes, or at least thick enough to coat the pasta and chicken.
12. Stir in the fettuccine. When the sauce is done reducing, stir in the cooked fettuccine pasta and serve topped with the chicken, extra sauce, and fresh parsley.

❄️ How to Store

To store: This chicken and pasta dish will keep for 4 to 5 days when stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

To freeze: Freezing this dish is not recommended - the pasta will become overly mushy and undesirable in texture.

To reheat: Reheat leftover chicken marsala fettuccine in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second bursts until warmed through.

🔍 Recipe FAQs

💭 One More Tip

If you're serving a crowd, easily increase the servings of this recipe by doubling the sauce and fettuccine and adding additional chicken breasts.

If you choose to do this, you will need to brown the chicken in batches so the pieces aren't overlapping. Additionally, it may take a bit longer to reduce the sauce.

As a general rule of thumb, the more sauce you're reducing the longer it will take.

🍴 Related Recipes

Share your cooking with me! If you make this recipe, I'd love to know! Tag @yourhomemadehealthy on Instagram or leave a comment with a rating and some feedback at the bottom of this page!

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