Chicken Marsala a la Cooking Light

One thing I love about Cooking Light magazine is they offer so many recipes of classic, fattening dishes in new, lighter, and healthier recipes. One great example of this is their Chicken Piccata recipe which is still a favorite of mine. But today, we are talking about Chicken Marsala. This recipe calls for some of the butter to be refined. I am not sure if that is in part to save some calories or if its a traditional way of preparing Marsala, so if you skip this step, please do at your own risk.

Place 3 Tbsp. butter in a glass bowl and microwave for 45 seconds or until melted. Let stand for 1 minute. Skim foam from surface, discard. Pour melted butter through a fine sieve over a small bowl, discard milk solids. Set refined butter aside.

Heat a large non stick skillet over medium-high heat and coat with cooking spray. Add mushrooms, garlic and shallots and cook until moisture evaporates, about 3 minutes. Remove mushroom mixture from pan, set aside.

Place each chicken breast between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and pound with a meat mallet until 1/4 inch thickness. Sprinkle both sides of each breast with 1/8 tsp. salt and 1/8 tsp. pepper. Place flour in a shallow dish and lightly dredge chicken breasts in flour.

Add clarified butter to pan over medium high heat. Add chicken and cook 3 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. Remove chicken from pan.

Return mushroom mixture to pan; add broth and Marsala, scraping pan to loosen brown bits. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for 5 minutes or until liquid is reduced down to about 1 cup.

Add peas; cook for 1 minute.

Add remaining butter, half and half, remaining salt and pepper and stir until butter is melted. Return chicken to pan and cook until thoroughly heated through. Serve chicken and sauce over pasta.