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This easy Chicken Marsala recipe is made in the Instant Pot and is one of the best meals. Perfectly tender chicken thighs with cremini mushrooms cooked in a sweet marsala wine mixture and served with pasta or mashed potatoes.
Looking for more Instant Pot recipes? Make my Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes, Instant Pot Spaghetti, or Instant Pot Short Ribs!
I’m not lying when I say this could be my FAVORITE dish to make in the Instant Pot. (And if you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can make it really easily on the stove. Read on 🙂 .) The sauce is creamy with the best flavors from the mushrooms and marsala wine and the chicken cooks perfectly in the instant pot.
This is the type of meal I would happily serve to dinner guests, and it’s just a bonus that’s it’s so simple to make.
What is chicken marsala?
Chicken marsala is an American-Italian dish made with chicken, mushrooms, and sweet marsala wine. It makes for a fast and easy weeknight meal but it's fancy enough for a special occasion.
How to make Chicken Marsala:
Lightly coat the chicken pieces in salt, pepper, and flour. Put a little oil in your instant pot and turn it to SAUTE. Brown chicken on both sides for about 3-4 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate and sauté the mushrooms, onions, and garlic.
Add chicken broth and chicken thighs back to the instant pot. Cook on the POULTRY setting for 10 minutes with a 12 minute natural release.
When the chicken is finished cooking in the instant pot, remove it to a plate and add the marsala wine to the instant pot. Sauté for a few minutes, add the cream, and you have created your yummy chicken marsala sauce.
Serve the chicken and sauce over noodles or mashed potatoes!
Which marsala wine is best for chicken marsala?
This chicken marsala sauce is made up of chicken broth, onions, garlic, mushrooms, green onions, marsala wine, and heavy cream. You can find real marsala wine in the wine section of the grocery store, or you can buy cooking marsala wine that is usually found in the baking isle. I used the cooking wine because it's a little less potent and I knew my kids would like it better. But you can use the real deal as well!
Substitutions for marsala wine:
Marsala wine has a unique flavor, and given that it is the star of this dish, any substitutions won't taste quite the same. If you're concerned about adding alcohol to this dish just know that the alcohol gets burned of as it boils, in step 7.
I've read that the following substitutes can be used for marsala wine (but I haven't tried them myself):
- ¼ cup of white grape juice + 1 tablespoon vanilla extract + 2 tablespoons of sherry vinegar1
- ⅓ cup grape juice with a teaspoon of brandy
- dry sherry
Recipe Variations:
- Stove Top: Use the same method but brown the chicken in a skillet until completely cooked through. Remove the chicken to a plate while you make the sauce in the skillet. Add a little oil to the skillet and cook the mushrooms, green onion and garlic for 2 minutes. Add the marsala wine and bring to a boil for 3 minutes. Add the chicken broth and cream and cook for a few more minutes, until thickened. Spoon sauce over chicken, to serve.
- Chicken Breasts: I HIGHLY recommend using chicken thighs for this recipe because they cook so much better in the instant pot than chicken breasts do. If you must use chicken breasts, you can. Cook time is the same.
What to Serve with Chicken Marsala:
- Mashed Potatoes
- Best Homemade Rolls
- Brussels Sprouts Salad
- Classic Wedge Salad
- Artisan No Knead Bread
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Recipe
Instant Pot Chicken Marsala
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 large skinless chicken thighs (About 3 pounds), bone in or boneless
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour , for dredging
- salt and pepper
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil , separated
- 8 ounces fresh cremini mushrooms , thickly sliced
- 3 green onions , chopped
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 1/3 cup sweet Marsala wine
- 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Select SAUTE on the Instant Pot, and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the instant pot.
- Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper, and dredge them in flour. Add chicken thighs to the hot oil and cook them for 3-4 minutes on each side, until golden brown.
- Remove the chicken thighs to a plate. Add the last tablespoon of olive oil to the instant pot along with the mushrooms, green onions, and garlic. Saute for 2 minutes and then press CANCEL.
- Add the chicken broth to pot, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Place the chicken thighs on top. Close the lid and turn the pressure valve to “sealing”.
- Cook on Manual/Pressure setting and cook for 10 minutes on high pressure. When the timer beeps, allow the pressure to naturally release for 12 minutes, before opening the lid.
- Press cancel and remove the thighs to a plate. Cover them with tinfoil to keep warm.
- Turn instant pot to SAUTE setting and add the marsala wine to the mushroom mixture. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 3 minutes.
- Stir in the heavy whipping cream and cook for an additional 5 minutes or until the mixture is slightly thickened.
- Spoon the sauce over chicken. Serve warm with mashed potatoes or egg noodles.
Notes
Nutrition
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I originally shared this recipe August 2018. Updated February 2022.
I love this its the best we eat it twice a month.
Hi Lauren, Liz’s friend/old prof here. I have made this recipe so many times and love the tender chicken and absolutely delicious sauce. It’s a fave! Hope you are doing well.
Hi Carol, I’ve heard so many great things about you :). Thanks for commenting and supporting TBFS!
This was NOT for me and I love Chicken Marsala. I did not like the chicken thighs at all. I used boneless, skinless thighs and trimmed fat from them before cooking. The dish was oily.
I know others have said the thighs were better, but next time I will use breasts that I pound even thinner.
The sauce was just ok, it didn’t have that Marsala flavor. This dish may need more time to marry the flavors and may be one that lends itself better to stovetop instead of the InstantPot
Do you think I could substitute the cream with Greek yogurt?
I made it for our weekly Sunday family dinner (via Zoom), and hub loved it! It was sooooo good!
Easy to follow recipe but BLAND. My family didn’t like this at all. We felt it lacked flavor. No one even finished it. Mind you I’ve got two hungry guys in my house who are big eaters and always want 2nds. They didn’t eat it. Definitely one for the No pile.
I’ve tried many Marsala recipes, but this is by far my favorite! I agree, thighs turn out better than breasts.
When making the gravy, I use some Kitchen Bouquet to brown it up a little and add flavor.
This was great. Everyone loved it. Usually I have leftovers for lunch the next day but there was nothing left. I will be making it again soon.
So so easy! And, wow… delicious. I followed a few others’ suggestions and did 1/2 c of both marsala and cream. I also added in about 3 tbs of italian seasoning to the flour. Pretty much one of my fave IP recipes!!
i added Potatoes as i sliced up some small yukon potatoes 4 ways and put them with the mushrooms and onions and came out fantastic.
This was delicious! I subbed out coconut milk since my son is trying to avoid dairy and it came out great. I should have read the recipe more carefully – it took longer to cook than I’d anticipated (Instant Pot does not always equal quick!) But it is a great recipe and I will be adding it to my rotation for nights when I’m not in a hurry!
Umm, coconut milk is not dairy.
Coconut milk is a replacement for dairy in recipes. It comes from a coconut, not an animal.
As punny as it will sound: That’s what she said. Sub “out” meaning used it INSTEAD of the indicated dairy Heavy Cream.