Chicken Marsala with Mashed Cauliflower

Want a quick meal for a weeknight dinner that tastes like you slaved over it all day?

This one is PERFECT!

From start to finish the whole meal should take less than 40 minutes

and that includes getting the table set.

Ingredients for the Mashed Cauliflower are:

1 head cauliflower

1/4 cup milk (or less depending on how wet your cauliflower is)

1 TBS butter

garlic powder*

parsley*

black pepper*

* to taste

Ingredients for the Chicken Marsala:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

3/4 cup Marsala wine

1/4 cup water

2 cups sliced mushrooms

2 Tbs butter or coconut oil

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

2 TBS parsley

1/2 tsp rosemary

salt and black pepper

Get the cauliflower cooking.

Chop up the head of cauliflower removing the green pieces and most of the stem

and then place in a steamer over a pot of boiling water.

You can boil it directly if you want I just find that by steaming it

I avoid it soaking up extra water and creating a very running mash later on.

Now onto the chicken.

You can pound this out if you want but I learned a trick a while back

that is a whole lot faster and less messy.

Place one chicken boob on the cutting board and

using a very good meat cutting knife

(I use these serrated ones I got ~~suckered into buying~~

from a sales booth at the NEX one Saturday-

they were supposed to magically cut tomatoes with no sharpening...

I have never heard the end of it from my husband but I am happy to announce

they are dynamite when it comes to splitting chicken breasts!)

Anyway, I place my hand on top of the breast

(fingers together and up to avoid any accidents!!)

and then cut through the breast all the way through the middle

so you end up with two halves of each breast that are thinner.

Place the now thin breasts on a cutting board or shallow pan

and sprinkle evenly with a thin coating of whole wheat flour

and a touch of salt and black pepper and set aside for a few minutes.

Once the chicken is ready (and you have washed your nasty chicken hands of course!)

warm up a medium to large size saute pan and place 2 Tbs of butter in there to melt.

Now as I noted you can replace the butter with coconut oil if you are trying to be super strict here but I have made it both ways and the butter does a better job coating the mushrooms instead of just soaking into them so I would choose butter if you twisted my arm for which is better

(but REAL butter none of that 1 step away from plastic stuff

that likes to masquerade as a healthier choice).

Throw the mushrooms in there and saute them until they are soft and browned fully

(about 10 minutes).

Once they are cooked through pull them out of the pan and set aside.

In the same warm pan place your flour coated chicken and cook about 4 minutes on each side or until the meat temp reaches 165 degrees and then pull it out and place in a serving dish.

While the chicken rests place the mushrooms back in the pan and pour the 3/4 cup of Marsala wine and 1/4 cup of water over them carefully and sprinkle with rosemary and thyme.

Now you can buy Marsala cooking wine in the grocery store and use that instead of regular wine just beware that it will generally have added salt so I chose not to use it if I have a bottle of plain Marsala around.

Let the sauce simmer together for 5-10 minutes

and then pour it all over the chicken in your serving dish and serve.

While the sauce is simmering you can throw together your mashed cauliflower.

Once its soft enough to stick a fork easily through it remove the cauliflower form the heat.

Strain any excess water from it, using a colander or cheesecloth and then treat it just like you would potatoes. I use my Vitamix because as you know- I am addicted to it and why not, but you could easily mash these by hand or use a hand mixer.

Add the milk and butter to the cauliflower pieces and blend or mash to your desired consistency and then add your preferred seasonings. I really like parsley and cauliflower together so I always use that and usually add some fresh ground pepper and garlic powder (of course feel free to add minced garlic instead if you prefer a more dense flavor!) also have fun experimenting!

Replacing the milk with Greek yogurt will give you creamy think mash and

adding a dash of Parmesan cheese would be great also. It's your kitchen- you are in charge here so have fun and don't be afraid to try new things!