I’m going to make chicken marsala for a dinner party on a Sunday. To save time I was going to dredge the chicken in flour the night before and keep in the fridge sealed over night, then pan fry in morning. Do you think the chicken will be OK?..Thank you
The chicken will be OK, but I think the dredging will be soggy unless you brown it and cool it before storing in the fridge.
I have never had a problem with precooking meat and refrigerating it to finish the next day. Whatever bacteria may develop will be killed in the final cooking, much the same as leftovers. You do use leftovers the next day, don’t you?
Actually, the night before, you should be soaking your chicken overnight in buttermilk.
Trust me !
And if ya’ want the best, you should do the breading as fresh as ya’ can, ya’ think ?
For western fried chicken I agree, but for chicken masala soaking in buttermilk is not necessary.
I came across this on a trusted recipe site. If dredging in flour, do so just before placing in a hot skillet. If doing a crumb coating, it can be dipped & coated & refrigerated, uncovered, for a few hours.
Meat of any type will always leak juices. If using just flour, it will become gummy. It only takes 2 minutes (or less) to place seasoned flour in a plastic bag & add the chicken pieces & shake & add to pan.
Granted, it only takes a few minutes to dredge chicken flour, but, for some reason, the OP wants to do it the night before and asked if it would be safe to do so. Chicken for masala will be cooked in a sauce, so it will not remain crispy no matter when you dredge it.
Chicken Marsala is one of those dishes where you need to have all of your items prepped and ready to go before you start cooking it at all, because it comes together pretty quickly. I don’t see any point in trying to flour them the day before, how is that really saving any time?
Just make an assembly line of the seasoned flour, chopped mushrooms, chopped shallots, chopped fresh parsley, butter, some extra flour for thickening the sauce, olive oil, chicken broth and marsala wine. Also keep an extra plate on hand for the chicken to rest after you initially cook it and remove it from the pan to prepare the sauce.
Dredge the chicken in the seasoned flour and place it into a preheated pan with olive oil to lightly brown it on both sides, then remove it and set aside.
To the same pan add the shallots and mushrooms and butter. Once they soften up and get some color, add your wine and stock and a little bit of flour to thicken it up. Let it come to a bubble and simmer a bit before you determine if you need to add more flour. Add your chicken back to the pan to finish cooking and throw in the fresh parsley shortly before it’s all done.