Hen of the Woods Chicken Marsala

You'd be hard pressed to find Chicken Marsala on a menu in Italy, but it's pretty ubiquitous here in America. It's become an iconic Italian-American dish that uses Marsala from Sicily, thinly sliced meat (scaloppine), and mushrooms (most frequently flavorless button mushrooms). This weekend in the Catskills I was fortunate to find a few more pounds of Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosa). In Italy, this species is known as signorina, or "the unmarried woman. For me it's one of the best wild mushrooms around. I was in the mood for something simple and classic and ended up with this rustic Chicken Marsala. There are a million ways to do it, but I went with a Marsala sauce enriched with heavy cream, a rich chicken stock, Mangalitsa lard, herbs, lots of garlic and dark meat instead of breast meat - all cooked in a wood fired oven and served over a bed of fettuccine. Full video of the process below.

Ingredients

1 lb of wild hen of the woods (maitake, sliced into thin medium sized pieces)

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 cup of hot broth

1/2 Marsala

1/4 cup heavy cream

Finely minced onion

3 cloves of garlic finely minced

Fresh thyme (approx 1 tsp)

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (for garnish)

2 tbsp pork lard or butter

Salt and Pepper to taste

All purpose flour

Olive oil or canola oil

Directions

I like to prepare this dish in a wood fired outdoor oven but it can easily be prepared on the stove top as well.

Using a mallet, pound the pieces of chicken until they are nice and thin. Lightly season with salt and pepper.
Dredge each piece in a bowl of flour, shake off excess, and set aside in a tray while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Finely mince one whole medium onion and the garlic, and set aside.
Remove the thyme leaves from their stems, and set aside.
Bring a heavy skillet (I like to use cast iron) up to medium high heat. Add a thin layer of oil to the pan.
Begin pan frying the chicken until they start to turn golden and crispy. Continue cooking until all pieces are cooked, setting aside the finished ones if they don’t all fit in the pan. You’ll want the meat to be mostly cooked through at this point.
Wipe out the pan and pour off any excess oil.
Bring the pan back up to medium high heat and add the lard (or butter).
Add the onions, garlic, sliced mushrooms, and thyme to the pan, and saute for a few minutes, stirring frequently so they begin to cook down.
Add the Marsala, and bring the liquid to a vigorous simmer, cooking it down and reducing it for a few more minutes.
Add the hot broth and the heavy cream and continue cooking down for another 5 - 10 minutes until the sauce is creamy and the mushrooms are fully tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Transfer the chicken back into the pan and continue simmering for another 5 minutes before removing from the heat. It should be really fragrant at this point with the herbs and Marsala.
Serve as is, or over a bed of your favorite pasta. Enjoy!