Pork Marsala

Pork tenderloin takes to the Marsala treatment just as well as chicken does, and the lean medallions cook faster. Sliced thin, seared on both sides, then braised in a Marsala wine and chicken broth sauce with buttery mushrooms, the pork stays tender and picks up all that rich, nutty wine flavor.

The mushrooms get sautéed first in butter and set aside. This step browns them properly and concentrates their flavor before they go back into the sauce. Mushrooms cooked in liquid turn gray and flabby; mushrooms browned in butter first add a deep, earthy backbone to the finished dish.

Deglazing the pan with chicken stock after searing the pork is where the sauce really comes together. All those browned bits (fond) on the bottom of the pan dissolve into the liquid, giving the sauce a complex, meaty depth that you can’t get from wine alone.

Pro Tips

• Slice the tenderloin into ¼-inch medallions and sear them in small batches. Crowding the pan drops the temperature and steams the meat instead of browning it.
• Use dry Marsala, not sweet. Sweet Marsala makes the sauce cloying and unbalanced.
• Cover the pan during the 20-minute simmer. The trapped steam keeps the thin pork slices moist.
• Serve over plain steamed rice to soak up every drop of that sauce.

Variations

• Add a splash of heavy cream to the sauce at the end for a richer, restaurant-style finish.
• Use a mix of cremini and shiitake mushrooms for a more complex, woodsy flavor.
• Swap the pork for chicken cutlets pounded to ¼-inch thickness for a classic chicken Marsala.