Fontina Stuffed Chicken Marsala - I've taken the classic recipe of Chicken Marsala to another level by stuffing it full of creamy Fontina cheese.
I make Chicken Marsala ALL THE TIME. So when a friend sent me a private message on Facebook the other day asking if I had a recipe for Chicken Marsala, my first reaction was "of course I do". Like a diligent little blogger, I headed right over to grab her the URL so she didn't have to search for it and......"what the what?", no Chicken Marsala recipe! Seriously? How is this possible? In an effort to right my wrong, I immediately jotted down "Chicken Marsala" on my working list of meals for this week. While I was out grabbing chicken and mushrooms, a little block of my favorite cheese was calling to me! Really, it called my name. I heard it. Okay, I think I heard it. Fine, I didn't hear it but if Fontina cheese could talk, it totally would have called my name. Originally when I grabbed the cheese, I hadn't had a plan for it but it didn't take me more than a few minutes to realize that it goes so well with mushrooms and it melts so beautifully that it had to go in the marsala! I mean, it would almost be an injustice not to put it in the marsala. Because I was stuffing the chicken, there are a few things I had to do differently than I would with regular marsala. First, I had to buy big thick breasts (get your mind out of the gutter, we're talking chicken here, people). Place your chicken on a cutting board and very carefully you want to slice it, but not all the way through, just enough to create a "pocket" for the cheese. Usually, with marsala, I would cook the chicken all the way through on the stovetop, but since these breasts are so thick, I actually browned them on the stovetop and then popped them on a baking sheet in the oven to finish cooking. While the chicken is finishing up in the oven, I put the skillet back on the burner to cook the mushrooms and create the sauce. Once the chicken is cooked through, I place them back in the pan with the sauce to coat and then I serve over pasta. Some people put cream in their marsala but I don't bother with all that. I do always drop a tablespoon of butter in at the end to give it a nice finish but that's all it needs. Trust me on this. One last thing to trust me on, get yourself into a liquor store and buy real marsala wine, not the stuff in the grocery store. I used to use those and man, does the real stuff make a difference. Plus, when you're in the liquor store you can grab yourself a bottle of wine to drink with dinner, that's what I did.
Your support of clicking thru to visit our advertisers and/or purchasing items through our affiliate links, located throughout this blog post, helps to keep this page going and is very much appreciated.
Printable Recipe Card
Fontina Stuffed Chicken Marsala
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts boneless
- 4 oz fontina cheese
- ½ C flour all purpose
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 T olive oil
- 6 oz baby bella mushrooms
- ¾ C marsala wine
- ¼ C vegetable stock or chicken
- ¼ C freshly chopped parsley
- 1 T butter
- 12 oz angel hair pasta prepared
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Place flour in a shallow bowl and season with salt and pepper.
- Slice a "pocket" into each chicken breast. Place 1 oz of cheese into each piece of chicken. Roll each piece of chicken in the seasoned flour to coat.
- Heat olive oil in a large non stick skillet, over medium/high heat. Add chicken and brown on both sides (about 4 minutes per side). Transfer chicken to baking sheet and finish cooking in oven (about 10 minutes).
- While chicken is in oven, return skillet back to heat and add mushrooms. Cook just 3-5 minutes, stirring often, until browned. Pour in the marsala wine to deglaze the pan, stirring up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Cook 5-6 minutes to reduce. Add in the stock, parsley and butter.
- Add chicken back to pan, reduce to medium heat and cook 5 more minutes.
- Place chicken over cooked pasta and spoon mushrooms and sauce over the top.
Linda (Meal Planning Maven) says
Oh my Christine...this dish is stunning!
foodyschmoody says
Thank you Linda! I was very pleased w/ the outcome.
Lily Lau says
I'll follow your real marsala wine advice, hahah! 😉 Thank you for this lovely share, Christine!
peter @feedyoursoultoo says
Truly love the combination of the fontina and marsala.
foodyschmoody says
Thank you Peter! Yes the fontina and marsala definitely match up well! I'm not sure I can go back to w/out the cheese 🙂
Nicole Neverman says
Wow! I love everything about this dish! It looks absolutely AMAZING!
foodyschmoody says
Thank you Nicole!
April J Harris says
I love cooking with Marsala wine - it adds such a wonderful flavour - but I agree, it needs to be the real thing! Love this recipe - the Fontina is a great addition. This is such a lovely main course. Thank you for sharing it with us at the Hearth and Soul hop. Pinning and will tweet too 🙂
Juliet says
Hi this is an awesome recipe.Could you please tell me which brand of Marsalis wine you use. I didn't see a label that looks like the one in the picture.
Thanks Juliet
foodyschmoody says
The brand I used is called Taylor. I bought it at the local liquor store. It was very inexpensive. There are grocery store non alcohol marsala flavored "wines" but I think the real thing is much better. Thanks for giving the recipe a try!
juliet says
Thank you for your quick reply. I am sure this is going to take this recipe to galactical awesomeness.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Juliet
foodyschmoody says
Thanks! I hope you'll report back after you try it and let me know what you think, either here or on any of my social media pages? I would love to hear back!