This one-skillet paleo chicken marsala is loaded with flavor! Juicy chicken, a creamy mushroom sauce and crispy, savory bacon make this a recipe you’ll want in your dinner rotation! It’s dairy-free, gluten-free, Paleo, and Whole30 compliant.
Another one-pot chicken recipe that’s going to be a favorite! Chicken marsala is one of those meals that for SOME reason, I haven’t had since pre-paleo.
Not because it isn’t delicious enough to want to re-create, but because I had some sort of mental block about doing it the “right” way, yet making it paleo.
Well, surprise! It’s actually totally possible to make it both paleo and totally YUM – tasting the way chicken marsala should taste. Oh, and because I had some on hand and just couldn’t resist – I added bacon for some extra flavor – hope you don’t mind!
I began with thin-sliced chicken breasts, seasoned and very lightly coated in tapioca flour to keep ’em juicy. I cooked the bacon, then fried the chicken in some of the leftover bacon fat – one of the reasons I can’t resist cooking with bacon.
After setting aside the chicken, I made the sauce – super simple. Some sautéed onion, mushrooms, and garlic, with bone broth, coconut milk, and balsamic vinegar. I also added a bit more tapioca with my liquids for extra thickness, and a little bit of mustard and nutritional yeast for flavor.
I find that when using coconut milk, the mustard and nutritional yeast help cut the coconut flavor, but these two are entirely optional in the recipe.
After the sauce cooked a bit, I added the chicken back in to further thicken the sauce (the tapioca coating from the chicken does this!) and allowed it to simmer just a few minutes.
I hate overcooked chicken, so I’m careful not to keep it simmering too long. Even with the coating and that creamy sauce chicken breasts have the tendency to dry out. For the last minute, I crumbled the cooked bacon back into the skillet – definitely don’t want to forget this step!
And here it is – with some fresh herbs thrown on for extra color (or skip) – your one-skillet chicken marsala is ready for YOU! And your family, of course, don’t want to forget the others 😉
It’s dairy-free, paleo, gluten-free, Whole30 compliant and relatively low in carbs too – with 12g per serving. I hope you’re ready for an easy, super tasty paleo dinner that will surely make its way into your dinner rotation! Leftovers save very well too – it’s win-win here.
Okay, grab a big skillet and all your ingredients because it’s time to cook – let’s go!
Chicken Marsala with Bacon {Paleo, Whole30, Keto}
Chicken Marsala with Bacon {Paleo, Whole30, Keto}
This one-skillet paleo chicken marsala is loaded with flavor! Juicy chicken, a creamy mushroom sauce and crispy, savory bacon make this a recipe you’ll want over and over! It’s dairy-free, gluten-free, Paleo, and Whole30 compliant.
Ingredients
- 6 slices nitrate free bacon
- 3 Tbsp rendered bacon fat divided
- 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts thin sliced
- Sea salt and black pepper
- 3 Tbsp + 1 tsp tapioca flour or arrowroot starch, divided
- 1 medium onion diced
- 8 oz baby Bella mushrooms or preferred mushrooms, sliced
- 3-4 cloves garlic minced
- Pinch sea salt and black pepper
- 1 cup chicken bone broth
- 1 1/2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar or preferred vinegar
- 2/3 cup coconut milk full fat, blended
- 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast optional
- 2 tsp stone ground mustard optional
- Fresh herbs for garnish
Instructions
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In a large deep skillet, cook bacon on med-high heat until crisp, then remove and drain on paper towels.
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Reserve bacon fat in a container, then wipe the skillet of burnt bits.
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Return skillet to medium-high heat and add 2 Tbsp bacon fat (or preferred cooking fat. Place 3 Tbsp tapioca on a plate or in a very shallow bowl. Sprinkle chicken with sea salt and pepper on both sides. Coat chicken in the tapioca and shake off excess, then add to the hot skillet. Allow one side to turn golden brown (about 3-4 mins) then flip. Repeat with all chicken, working in batches if necessary. You might need to add more cooking fat if frying the chicken in batches.
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Once chicken is done, set aside and lower the heat to medium. Add the remaining 1 Tbsp bacon fat, then add the onions and cook until translucent. Add the mushrooms and garlic, another pinch of salt and pepper, and continue to cook another 3-5 minutes to soften. Mix the 1 tsp tapioca into the broth, then add broth to the skillet, along with the vinegar, coconut milk, mustard, and nutritional yeast.
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Stir and bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer and add the chicken back in, simmering for 3-4 minutes to thicken the sauce. For the last minute, crumble the cooked bacon into the skillet to heat through.
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Serve over cauli rice, veggie noodles or with roasted potatoes. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Notes: To lower the carb count for a keto diet, you can omit the tapioca starch OR only very lightly coat each piece of chicken, using about 1 1/2 Tbsp total.
Nutrition
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Want More Paleo One-Pot Recipes? Try One of These!
“Honey” Mustard Chicken in the Instant Pot
General Tso’s Chicken in the Instant Pot
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Can you possibly sub Almond milk for the Coconut milk or would it mess with the texture and everything?
All of your recipes are so delicious, can’t wait to try this one.
Ok, I rarely cook but I have been thinking about going paleo so what the heck.
Nitrite free bacon – check. I feel so healthy already
Thin sliced chicken? What does that mean? Cut like a bagel? Like pancetta?
What in blazes is tapioca? It comes in flour?
How do I keep raw chicken in check? Clorox anyone?
Coconut comes in cans? Turns out yes, and is solid! Ok, thinned out with stirring.
Sea salt? Hmm – wait, what was in that silent auction basket? Himalayan salt! Bonus!
Used lots of dishes
How brown is golden brown. And how dry is that?
Do you wash mushrooms?
Wow, bacon splatters!
Smacked a garlic with the flat of a knife – then went across the room to get it
No wine? For me , not the recipe
Ok, came out ok – a little bland but nice earthy taste. Did I measure the salt and pepper? Nope real men don’t ask directions or measure.
Served with brown rice. The more I ate it the more I liked it. Not tell anyone I can cook!
Chicken Marsala has always been one of my favorite dinners! I haven’t had it in while so this recipe will have to change that! Delicious!
We thoroughly enjoyed this recipe. I couldn’t really taste the coconut & the chicken was very soft & tender. Best thing too I have enough for my lunch tomorrow yummy ?.
Chicken Marsala is one of my go-to dishes. I’ve used the recipe from cooking with engineers which is very simple and delicious, and I’ve used a recipe attached to the Florio Marsala bottle that we like just a bit better. and This one is very good thanks for sharing.
I used chicken thighs instead and the chicken alone with arrowroot flour was crispy and great to eat without the sauce. Didn’t have any bacon for this dish and it was still tasty. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Sounds good, glad you enjoyed!
Fantastic – whole family loved!
I made this dish without the bacon (didn’t have any). The chicken itself was already delicious and crispy from the arrowroot flour. With the sauce, it was good. It kind of reminded me of another Whole30 sauce in a chicken dish. Taste is similar maybe because it used the coconut milk as base.
Glad it worked out. I know what you mean about the coconut milk, I’m always trying to cover that up with other flavors!
This dish looks delicious and attractive. I will try to make it. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Fantastic dinner recipe! Great flavor!
I meal prepped this last Sunday for my lunches this past week. Just ate the last of it this morning for breakfast. It turned out absolutely fantastic, and held up really well over the course of the week. Thank you for this recipe!
This is such a tasty recipe. I didn’t add the mushrooms since my husband won’t eat any vegetables. But this dish is flavorful and wonderful. I will make this again and again.
I love different recipes, they look great, they’re good hands.
New here, hope you are doing well, can anyone help me with community rules?
Delicious! This is definitely a keeper. My family loved it. Flavors are great.
All I can say is, WOW! I have been eating Paleo lately and this recipe is amazing. Since I am the only one in my household that eats Paleo, this made four meals for me. The dish reheats perfectly. I found myself looking forward to lunch since I was craving this dish! I think the next time I make this I am going to double the mushrooms. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
I do not use bacon. I use thinly sliced bacon. It was also quite delicious
This was excellent! My whole family loved it!
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Jokes aside, brilliant writing, loved your new approach, I love people who think outside the box.
Excellent! Will make again; I can always count on your recipes
Thank you for a super recipe.
I love your blog so many amazing recipes.
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I made this on the fly after reading your recipe and made it AIP compliant too by omitting pepper, mustard powder and nutritional yeast.
I did make it with too much broth so the sauce was quite runny and there was a lot left over but OMG the flavours, yum! I used a fermented coconut balsamic vinegar (which is AIP compliant and literally just fermented coconut and salt, brand is Niulife for those interested) and it gives it that nice tart taste that a white wine usually would. I didnt coat the chicken in tapioca, i just added it to the broth and juices in the pan and whisked it to thicken up. as I said, I made it on the fly lol
I served it with mashed sweet potatoes and it was so so yummy!! I’m going to add left over roast chicken to the remaining sauce to get an additional meal or two from it. Thank you for this great recipe!
Oh, I also added 100% coconut cream not milk and it still tasted fabulous!
Imagine being so lazy that you spend all day long in bed, ME = D
This was sooo good. This will be a staple I. My house. Amazing, easy and delicious!
My husband and I are doing our second round of Whole 30. Much easier this time around in general, but dishes like this make it SO MUCH BETTER!!!! This is one dish that we will continue to make even after we are done with Whole 30. So delicious and decadent. This is date night or company worthy!!!!!
Hwy girl!
What else can I add to take place of the mushrooms. I love mushrooms but not the kids. What about Kale? I have plenty in the garden!
This was a wonderful dish. I eat Paleo for all my meals except breakfast and my husband eats trash, lol. I made this dish tonight and he liked it, he says there was too much garlic, but I thought it was wonderful. I will use less garlic next time for him. I Did modified this recipe by using the entire package of bacon and only 1/3 cup coconut milk.
Can you substitute the coconut milk for almond milk?
goood posst
This dish frequents our menu at home. It’s a winner for the whole family. Today I reheated some at work and 3 coworkers came in and asked for the recipe because it smelled so good!!
I really enjoyed this recipe! Admittedly, I was a little skeptical that the marsala flavor could be achieved without actually using marsala wine, but it was pretty spot on! Easy to make, very flavorful and the bonus is that it reheats very well for leftovers/meal prep. Thank you!
This recipe was amazing! It was so full of flavor and really simple to make. This will definitely be a repeat recipe for my family
I have made this a few times, most recently, I omitted the vinegar. I just felt like the vinegar is always just so strong. I decided to stir it in after if needed, and I loved it without.
Also, to make low carb I omitted the tapioca flour. I used chicken broth concentrate and omitted the water to make a cup. Also, I reduced the coconut milk mixture way down before combining everything. I did have to remove the chicken to do this, to not over cook. By removing the broth liquid and reducing the coconut mixture, it make just enough sauce to wet everything and not have tons pooling around everything. I even served on cauliflower rice and there was still plenty of sauciness. I don’t love things thickened with alternatives anyway, seems glaze like and just not what I am used to. This method made the sauce tasty without that effect or need to thicken with starch, as I am doing keto.
It was a welcome delight among our very limited possibilities these days. Will be making regularly.
We sprinkled bacon on to serve. Leftovers, we kept the bacon separate because in the past it has become soggy. Works well to sprinkle on before serving.
Also, someone asked about omitting garlic, I did omit that as well, due to a sensitivity . . still delicious. I subbed some granulated onion powder.
That’s awesome, looks delicious.