Instant Pot Chicken Marsala - The One - Pot Weeknight

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Instant Pot Chicken Marsala - The One - Pot Weeknight

★★★★★ 4.6 · 80

Nate Calloway18.07.2026ZUM REZEPT

Chicken marsala is a great dish and a terrible weeknight promise — pan searing in batches, babysitting a reduction, dirtying a skillet and a saucepan. I moved the whole thing into the Instant Pot to see if I could keep the flavor and lose the second pan. I timed this on a regular Tuesday, kid at the table doing homework, and landed at 38 minutes real clock time, one pot, done.

The Five-Minute Setup That Sets Up Everything Else

Every good sear starts with dry chicken, not seasoned wet chicken pretending to be dry. I pat each breast down hard with paper towels right on the cutting board, then hit both sides with kosher salt, black pepper, and a light dredge in flour from the small bowl next to it.

The flour isn’t decoration. It’s your fond insurance — that thin coating is what browns into the sticky brown bits the Marsala will pull off the bottom of the pot later. Don’t flour the chicken more than a few minutes before it hits the heat, or it goes gummy instead of crisp.

Swap zone: chicken thighs work here too, just add a minute or two per side of sear since they’re thicker.

Butter, Sizzle, Sauté Button

Hit Sauté, let the pot actually heat up — you want the display glowing and the butter fully melted and just starting to foam, not sitting there cold and sad. That’s maybe 2 minutes on the Instant Pot’s Normal sauté setting.

Lower the floured chicken in and you should hear an immediate, aggressive sizzle around the edges. If it’s quiet, your pot isn’t hot enough yet and the chicken will steam instead of sear — pull it back out, wait, try again.

• Don’t crowd the pot: work in two batches of two breasts if your Instant Pot is a 6-quart, so each piece touches metal, not other chicken.
• 3 to 4 minutes per side is the target for real color, not full cook-through — that finishing happens under pressure later.

Mushrooms Go In While the Fond Builds

Once both sides of the chicken are genuinely golden — not pale tan, actual brown — the mushrooms go straight in on top, still on Sauté. You’ll see steam kick up immediately as their moisture hits the hot pot bottom.

Let them sit for a minute before stirring. Cremini mushrooms release a lot of water fast, and that water is doing double duty: it’s helping lift the fond and it’s the start of your sauce base. Resist the urge to add liquid yet.

The fond on the bottom of the pot at this point is basically flavor you already paid for. Scraping it up later isn’t extra work — it’s the whole point of searing first.

Marsala Deglaze: The Pot Does the Talking

Pour the Marsala in directly over the chicken and mushrooms, still on Sauté, and use your spoon to scrape the bottom while it bubbles. You’ll watch those dark brown bits lift off the metal and dissolve into the wine — that’s the deglaze doing its job.

Use a dry Marsala, not the sweet cream-sherry-adjacent stuff near the vinegar in most grocery stores; it’s usually labeled clearly on the cap. Sweet Marsala will make the final sauce taste more like dessert wine than dinner.

Let it bubble for about a minute to cook off the raw wine edge before you add broth and lock the lid — this step alone is where most of the dish’s actual flavor lives.

Seal It Up and Let Pressure Do the Work

Lid on, valve turned to Sealing, Pressure Cook set to High for 8 minutes. The display counts down like the photo shows — 00:08 and dropping — while inside, that thin Marsala-mushroom broth is doing all the finishing work on the chicken.

Eight minutes sounds short, and it is, on purpose. Chicken breast under pressure goes from perfect to shredded-and-sad fast, so I’d rather undercook by 30 seconds and rescue it than overshoot.

1. Natural release for 5 minutes, then quick release the rest — this softer landing keeps the chicken from seizing up.
2. If your breasts were especially thick (over 1 inch), add one extra minute to the cook time next round, not this one.

Cream and Slurry Turn Broth Into Sauce

After the quick release, what’s waiting under the lid is thin and brothy — good flavor, wrong texture. Back to Sauté, and in goes the heavy cream followed by the cornstarch slurry, stirred constantly.

• Watch, don’t walk away: the sauce goes from thin and pale to glossy and tan in about 2 to 3 minutes of gentle bubbling.
• Keep it at a low simmer, not a hard boil — cream sauces that boil hard can break or separate.
• No cornstarch on hand? A tablespoon of flour whisked with cold broth works as a slurry substitute, just simmer it a minute longer to cook out the raw flour taste.

You’ll know it’s done when the sauce coats the back of your spoon and holds a line when you drag a finger through it.

Plate It Before the Steam Stops

Ladle the chicken and that glossy tan sauce, mushrooms and all, straight from the inner pot onto a plate — this is a one-pot meal in the most literal sense, and the photo doesn’t lie about the dish count. Scatter fresh parsley over the top; it wakes the whole plate up visually and cuts the richness.

Serve it over egg noodles, mashed potatoes, or just crusty bread to catch the sauce. Leftovers keep for 3 days in the fridge and reheat gently on the stovetop with a splash of broth to loosen the sauce back up — tomorrow’s lunch is this over rice, no complaints from anyone.

Recipe Pin Print

Instant Pot Chicken Marsala - The One - Pot Weeknight

★★★★★ 4.6 · 80 ratings

This one-pan chicken orzo delivers real protein, browns the chicken, toasts the orzo, then finishes creamy with spinach under a golden parmesan crust.

DinnerItalian-Americaninstant pot chicken marsala

PREP TIME10 min

COOK TIME28 min

TOTAL TIME38 min

SERVINGS4

CALORIES420 kcal per serving

Ingredients

• For the Chicken
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 6 oz each), pounded to even thickness
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, for dredging
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• For the Sauce
• 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 3/4 cup dry Marsala wine
• 3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water (slurry)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, for garnish
• Salt and black pepper, to taste

Method

1

Pat and season the chicken

Pat each chicken breast dry with paper towels, season both sides with salt and pepper, then dredge lightly in flour, shaking off the excess.

2

Melt the butter

Set the Instant Pot to Sauté and add 2 tablespoons of butter; let it melt fully and start to foam before adding chicken, about 2 minutes.

3

Sear the chicken

Working in batches if needed, sear the chicken 3 to 4 minutes per side until golden brown, then remove to a plate.

4

Brown the mushrooms

Add the remaining butter and the sliced mushrooms to the pot, letting them release their liquid and pick up color for 2 to 3 minutes while scraping up any browned bits.

5

Deglaze with Marsala

Pour in the Marsala wine, scraping the pot bottom to lift all the fond, and let it bubble for about 1 minute before stirring in the chicken broth.

6

Return chicken and pressure cook

Nestle the seared chicken back into the pot, lock the lid, set the valve to Sealing, and cook on High Pressure for 8 minutes.

7

Release the pressure

Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes, then carefully turn the valve to release any remaining pressure and remove the lid.

8

Thicken the sauce

Set the pot back to Sauté, stir in the heavy cream and cornstarch slurry, and simmer gently for 2 to 3 minutes until the sauce turns glossy and coats a spoon.

9

Rest, garnish, and plate

Taste the sauce and adjust salt and pepper, then plate the chicken with sauce and mushrooms spooned over the top and finish with fresh chopped parsley.

Hi! I'm Nate

Hi, I'm Nate! Self-taught home cook, former project manager, and the dad behind The Weeknight Plate. Every recipe here is timed with an actual…

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Conclusion

This is my weeknight shortcut on a dish that traditionally takes patience and a stovetop’s worth of attention — full credit to the original for the flavor blueprint, but the Instant Pot gets you there on a Tuesday. One pot, 38 minutes on my timer, and Maya asked for seconds, which is the only review that actually matters around here.

Dinner’s handled. See you tomorrow night,

Nate 🍽️