Easy Chicken Madeira Recipe with Secret Sauce (2024)

FAQs

What is Madeira sauce made of? ›

Madeira sauce typically includes the following key ingredients: Madeira Wine: This fortified wine lends a distinct flavor and depth to the sauce. Beef or Veal Stock: The base of the sauce, providing a rich and savory foundation. Shallots: These mild, sweet onions add a subtle yet essential flavor to the sauce.

The original demi-glace was actually made with Madeira wine in very complex recipes. Nowadays, these thick, syrupy sauces are half brown stock and half Espagnole sauce, reduced by half, and widely used to flavor other preparations with their concentrated and rich flavor.

Add more spice. If you've taste tested your sauce and you think it is too sweet, try adding more spice. Any spice that is bitter, sour or salty will do the trick.

Juicy chicken is smothered in a rich mushroom sauce, which gets its depth of flavor from combining beef broth and sweet Madeira wine.

Approximately 85% of Madeira is produced with the red grape, Negra Mole. The four major white grape varieties used for Madeira production are (from sweetest to driest) Malvasia, Bual, Verdelho, and Sercial. These varieties also lend their names to Madeira labelling, as discussed below.

Madeira Substitute

Like Madeira, Marsala comes in dry and sweet varieties — but the ones typically used for cooking tend toward dryness. Unless your recipe specifically calls for a sweet Madeira, opt for a dry substitute. Other acceptable alternatives are dark sherry, port, or red vermouth.

What's the difference between chicken Madeira and Chicken Marsala? The difference lies in the broth and the wine used. In this chicken madeira recipe, you use beef broth and Madeira wine. The marsala version of the dish is usually made with chicken stock and with Marsala wine.

The initial winemaking steps of Madeira are similar to other wines: grapes are harvested, crushed, pressed, and then fermented. The fermentation process is stopped by the addition of natural grape spirit in order to obtain an ethanol content of 18–19%.

Demi-glace is an incredibly rich, thick sauce that's made from reducing brown (veal or beef, traditionally) stock and red wine or Espagnole sauce down to an almost syrup consistency. It's commonly used as a stand-alone sauce in classic dishes or as a base for other sauces.

While Madeira wine has a very unique flavor, you can get pretty close with a dry port, Marsala, dry vermouth, or dry sherry.

What spice takes away sweetness? ›

How to Make Food Less Sweet. Add an acid or seasonings such as vinegar or citrus juice; chopped fresh herbs; a dash of cayenne pepper; or, for sweet dishes, a bit of liqueur or espresso powder.

Use one tablespoon cornstarch mixed with one tablespoon cold water (aka a cornstarch slurry) for each cup of medium-thick sauce. Thoroughly mix the cornstarch and water together, then pour into your sauce. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly.

You can use all Madeira Wine brands for cooking. However, Madeira has dry and sweet varieties; the types usually used in cooking are dry. It is suitable for red and white meat but will produce a darker sauce. We also recommend a Reserve wine aged for at least five years or three years.

Our Madeira is a rich, smooth and nutty after-dinner wine that belies the complex method of preparation that goes into making it. Its blend of ancient port, rich Zinfandel and fine brandy gives it a sweet hazelnut burnt-caramel flavor that is both intriguing and haunting.

There are differences between different varieties, both in Marsala and Madeira. The taste depends on the grapes used, sweetness, aging, and the producer. In general, Madeira has a more varied taste. The flavors of both are very much distinguishable.

In fact, Madeira wine tastes little like Port or Sherry—as its palate is uniquely blessed by powerful acidity, which amplifies every flavor and dramatically frames the wine's honeyed richness, making it seem both less alcoholic and less sweet, and leaving the mouth refreshed.

Madeira wine is produced almost exclusively from white grapes. The preferred varieties are Malvasia, Sercial, Verdelho, and Bual de Madeira. Listrão, Tinta Negra Mole, and Negra are commonly used for inexpensive Madeira wines (Stevenson, 2005).

Madeira wine is available in varying levels of sweetness: seco (dry), meio seco (medium dry), meio doce (medium sweet), and doce (sweet). Most Madeiras have at least some sweet notes thanks to the maderization process. All Madeira is subjected to heat to develop its signature caramel notes and extend its shelf life.

Madeira is a fortified wine available in a range of dry to sweet styles. It gets its name from the island of Madeira, a small, beautiful rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Madeira's unique taste comes from repeatedly heating the wine.