Adventures in the Kitchen - Chicken Marsala a la Oswald

Yesterday was a frustrating day from a to-do list standpoint.  For every baby step forward, I landed two large steps back.  For example, I finally collected all the winter outwear accessories (gloves, scarves, hats), and put it into the attic, an activity which took about 15 minutes in total.  Unfortunately, while that was happening, Ben spilled carrot juice all over the kitchen (sticky!) and Caroline pulled the screen door completely off its track in the kitchen (dramatic!).  By dinnertime, the house was trashed, I was officially over my limit, and I was facing bedtime by myself since Scott had a board meeting.

In order to salvage my day, I thought I'd try to make an extra delicious dinner (which coincidently required cooking with copious amounts of wine) in order to enjoy the 45 minutes Scott would be home for the day.  Fortunately, the neighbors came home from school and the kids played outside for a while, or else we would have been eating frozen chicken nuggets.

Last night's cooking goal was to make a Chicken Marsala dinner that rivaled our local Anthony's Italian Restaurant.  I consulted a few different sources for a recipe, but didn't hit upon anything that I liked or resembled Anthony's version.  So, I made up the following recipe on the fly. It was delicious.

Chicken Marsala a la Oswald

Ingredients:
Chicken breast - sliced thin and tenderized (I pounded with mallet)
1 to 1.5 cups Marsala wine (dry)
2T - 3T Olive oil
2T Butter
8 oz Mushrooms, halved
Bunch of asparagus, chopped into bite-sized pieces; tips left intact
Can of artichokes, drained
3T capers!! (or more if you love them)
Salt
Pepper
Garlic bread (optional)

1) Heat 2T of olive oil and 2T of butter to large skillet or dutch oven.
2) Salt and pepper chicken, then brown chicken for 30 seconds to 1 minute per side. Reserve chicken on side.
3) Saute mushrooms until soft; if mushrooms absorb all liquid add 1T more olive oil. 
4) After mushrooms are ready, add wine, artichokes, and capers.  Reduce wine by about half.  The goal is to have some remaining liquid to pour over chicken at end -- so don't cook it down completely.
5) Add chicken and asparagus to vegetables; saute for a few minutes per side until chicken is completely cooked.  If you don't like asparagus crisp, then put it in with artichokes in previous step.
6) Serve and enjoy with garlic bread!