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This Chicken Madeira copycat from Cheesecake Factory is so easy to make right at home. Chicken, asparagus, cheese, mushrooms, not to mention the incredible sauce that tops it all!
Featured with this recipe
- Ingredients in Chicken Madeira
- What is Madeira?
- Step by Step to Perfect Chicken Madeira
- A chicken with any other name… still tastes great!
- What to Serve with Chicken Madeira
- Variations on this recipe
- How to Store Leftovers
- Frequently Asked Questions
- More Delicious Chicken Recipes
- How to Make Chicken Madeira
- Chicken Madeira Recipe
If you have ever been to Cheesecake Factory, you know that their menu is HUGE! I can never decide on what to get because everything looks so good. My fall-back menu item of choice is always the Chicken Madeira. One time while eating it at the restaurant, I thought to myself, “I can duplicate this!” When I opened my cupboard I didn’t have any Madeira cooking wine on hand and I didn’t feel like going to the store to get some, so I improvised. The second time I made this recipe I did it with the Madeira wine and to be honest, I liked it better with my balsamic/beef broth creation better! Of course you can do it “right” and use wine instead of beef broth. It is completely up to you.
Ingredients in Chicken Madeira
It may sound or look complicated, but this is one of those dishes that comes together so easily but packs such a wow factor that your guests will be amazed! Add it to the list of new recipes to try for Valentine’s Day, Sunday dinner or any special occasion. Here’s all you need for this Cheesecake Factory copycat recipe:
- Chicken breasts – four chicken breasts, boneless and skinless. You can use chicken cutlets, or even thicker cuts and pound them down to thinner for quicker cooking.
Chicken Marinade:
- Balsamic vinegar – about three quarter cup, rich balsamic vinegar. This is also a substitute for a cup madeira wine (don’t worry about the alcohol, it evaporates during the cooking process). However, madeira sauce can also be made with balsamic vinegar.
- Olive oil – half a cup of extra virgin olive oil, or regular olive oil.
- Brown sugar – two teaspoons, or more if you like the sauce a bit sweeter.
- Salt and Pepper – to taste
For the Sauce:
- Butter – three tablespoons unsalted butter
- Fresh mushrooms – two cups fresh cremini mushrooms, sliced
- Balsamic vinegar – one more cup of rich, balsamic vinegar for the sauce. Again, you can use Madeira wine for this sauce if you like.
- Beef Broth – one cup beef broth or stock, or about eight ounces
- Brown sugar – two tablespoons, more or less depending on how sweet you like this recipe.
- Black Pepper – to taste
Toppings:
- Asparagus spears – fresh spears are so delicious on top of this rich chicken dish
- Provolone cheese – a slice or two of provolone cheese. It’s got a tangy bite to it that elevates the chicken.
- Mozzarella cheese – If you don’t want to buy a whole package of each type of cheese, here’s a tip: go to the deli section of your grocery store to purchase the cheeses. They will give you 4 slices of each cheese. It’s less expensive this way.
What is Madeira?
Madeira wine is a wine whose taste comes from the repeated reheating of the wine, creating a unique taste. It’s a fortified wine available in a variety of sweet styles Other favorites are sherry dry port or a dry sherry. However, when it comes to this popular copycat Madeira Chicken recipe, there are options if you don’t happen to have any Madeira wine on hand. In the case of this recipe, the madeira sauce can be made with a beef broth and balsamic vinegar combination.
Step by Step to Perfect Chicken Madeira
It doesn’t take very many steps to make this beautiful dish. Here’s all you need to do:
- First, place chicken breasts between two pieces of Saran wrap of wax paper and pound until about half an inch thick.
- Next, place chicken in a Ziplock bag and put the bag in a large bowl. Combine the marinade ingredients and pour into the bag along with the chicken. Squeeze out all of the air in the bag and refrigerate and marinate for up to two hours.
- About 20 minute before the chicken is done marinating, heat oil over medium high heat in the bottom of the pan. Use a large skillet sauté your diced mushrooms for a couple minutes.
- Add the remaining sauce ingredients into the pot with the mushroom mixture, bring to a boil on the stovetop and reduce to a simmer. Cook uncovered for about a half hour until the sauce thickens and reduces. It should be a dark brown color when it’s done. Make sure to scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan, they give the dish lots of yummy flavor.
- While the sauce is simmering, transfer the marinated chicken to a lightly greased glass baking dish and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
- While chicken is baking sauté the asparagus spears over medium heat in some butter or oil until bright green and crisp-tender. Add a couple of garlic cloves or a teaspoon of diced garlic for extra flavor.
- Remove chicken from the oven (or grill) and layer on one slice of provolone cheese, a few asparagus spears, then one slice mozzarella cheese on each piece of chicken.
- Set the oven to broil and broil to melt for about 3 minutes or until it turns to melty cheese and browns a little.
- Right before serving, spoon some of the sauce over each piece of chicken. Serve with mashed potatoes.
A chicken with any other name… still tastes great!
When I posted this recipe before (back in 2008) I actually named this dish “Balsamic Asparagus Chicken” but I decided to re-name it “Chicken Madeira” because that was the taste I was going for and what I was trying to duplicate (even though technically it doesn’t have any Madeira in it). You are going to love this recipe. It is so fancy looking, but actually REALLY easy to make! Guests will definitely be impressed!
What to Serve with Chicken Madeira
The flavor of this Chicken Madeira recipe includes the deep, earthy flavors of wine and balsamic vinegar, along with the tenderness of the chicken and bright crunch from the asparagus. It pairs well with any starch: rice, mashed potatoes, baked potato, noodles, etc.
Variations on this recipe
The beauty of making this dish at home as opposed to eating Chicken Madeira at Cheesecake Factory is you can swap out ingredients, add variations, basically you become the chef and can do whatever you like!
- Modify the type of protein you use. For example, you can switch out the chicken for a nice filet or pork cutlet or other type of meat. To ensure even cooking just make sure it’s about a half to quarter inch thickness.
- Try different cheeses for different flavors.
- Add a splash of heavy cream into the sauce for a lighter color but equally rich and creamy sauce.
- Replace any veggies you don’t like for some that you do. Leave off the asparagus and add fresh green beans. Or swap out mushrooms for green peppers and onions.
How to Store Leftovers
Keep any leftover Chicken Maderia tightly covered and placed in the fridge or freezer until you want to serve again. To reheat, pop a plate in the microwave until it’s warmed through.
Frequently Asked Questions
They are fairly similar dishes, featuring juicy chicken and mushrooms, but made with different wines. Both wine flavors are dry, however Marsala wine isn’t as sweet as Madeira.
Original Madeira sauce is made with Madeira wine, but you can substitute it with brown beef stock and balsamic vinegar for a very similar woodsy and deep flavor.
The taste profile of Madeira wine has a hint of walnut oil, orange peel, caramel, hazelnut and burnt sugar.
Read More: 35+ Quick and Easy To Follow Dinner Ideas Your Family Will Surely Love
More Delicious Chicken Recipes
If you are craving even more amazing chicken dinners, check out this roundup list. Check out some of our favorites like Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole, Chicken Fried Chicken, and Chicken Parmesan. Looking for even more? Try our list of The BEST Chicken Breast Recipes for ANY Night of the Week.
How to Make Chicken Madeira
Chicken Madeira
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Marinade
- ¾ cup balsamic vinegar
- ½ cup olive oil
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- pepper, to taste
Sauce
- 3 tablespoons butter or oil
- 2 cups fresh white mushrooms, sliced
- 1 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 cup beef broth
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- pepper, to taste
Topping
- 1 tablespoon butter or oil
- 12 spears asparagus
- 4 slices provolone cheese
- 4 slices mozzarella cheese
- fresh parsley, for garnish
Instructions
- Place chicken breasts between two pieces of plastic wrap or waxed paper and pound until about ½ inch thick.
- Place chicken in a resealable plastic bag. Combine marinade ingredients and pour in the bag. Squeeze all the air out, seal, and refrigerate for about 2 hours.
- About 20 minutes before the chicken is done marinating, heat butter or oil in a large skillet. Add mushrooms and saute for a couple of minutes.
- Add remaining sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 30 minutes, or until sauce thickens and reduces to about ½-¼ of its original volume. When it is done, the sauce should be dark brown in color. Set aside.
- While the mushrooms simmer, cook the chicken. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 9×13-inch baking dish. Place chicken in dish and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Set aside.
- While the chicken is baking, saute the asparagus spears in some butter or oil until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
- Once chicken and asparagus have cooked, layer on each chicken 1 slice provolone cheese, 3 cooked asparagus spears, then 1 slice mozzarella cheese.
- Set the oven to broil. Bake for about 3 minutes, or until the cheese melts and browns a little.
- Right before serving, spoon some of the sauce over each piece of chicken. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve with mashed potatoes.
I’m sorry but this recipe tastes nothing like the cheesecake factory’s. The sauce came out to be like a sugary glaze it was too sweet. I will definitely use the Madeira wine next time.
Taste just like the dish maybe even BETTER 🤗
No.No.No. No .No. This is not it .
My house smelled awful and this tasted nothing like The Cheese Cake Factory .
I have to first say that I have never had the Chicken Madeira at The Cheesecake Factory so my rating is not based on comparing this recipe to that.
I made this for dinner last night. I really enjoyed it, but my husband thought that the sauce was too strong. He just used a small amount. I grill the chicken and think that that added a nice flavor to the dish. I also added 1 teaspoon of cornstarch to the sauce after it was reduced. That made it more like a glaze. The only thing that I would change the next time, is that I would not leave the mushrooms in the skillet while reducing the sauce. It made the mushrooms have way too strong of a vinegar taste. I would sauté them, remove them from the pan and not add them to the sauce. Just spoon them over the chicken stack after it comes out of the broiler, then top with the sauce.
Thank you for your comment! The sauce is a bit strong, you can definitely scale back on it if you prefer! Same with the mushrooms, if you don’t like the strong taste you can absolutely just saute them separately. Thanks for your suggestions! So glad you liked this recipe!
I had tried this recipe today, and I wasn’t a fan. It had this weird acidity to it and it tastes nothing like the one at Cheesecake Factory
A lot of it depends on your balsamic vinegar– you can always use Madeira wine if you don’t like the vinegar-y flavor or you can use more beef broth and reduce it longer. Hope this helps!
I have made this several times now and each time has been a complete success! My husband loves mushrooms, and I don’t cook with them very much, so the abundance of mushrooms alone made him happy 🙂 I love how fancy this dish looks and how much flavor it packs! We are huge balsamic vinegar fans, so the pronounced flavor wasn’t an issue. If I was making it for people who might find it too strong I’d probably do 1/2 c. vinegar and 1 1/2 c. broth in the sauce. I do half the marinade and it’s always plenty. Today I had broccoli on hand, so I roasted it with the chicken and used it instead of asparagus. It worked great. Oh, and I’ve never had the “original” so I can’t compare the two, but this is one yummy dinner!
Although I tend to love the flavor of Balsamic Vinegar, I was a little nervous as poured tons of it into the recipe. I became even more nervous at the overwhelming vinegar smell as it simmered. But, when it was all put together, it was delicious and well balanced. For the asparagus, I tossed it in oil with salt and pepper and put it in the oven with the chicken (on a separate pan)– both for 25 mins @400. Overall, the meal was very tasty. At times the taste reminded me of red beat eggs, I’m assuming it’s the vinegar.
Yay! So glad that you liked it! It definitely tastes best after the vinegar has reduced 🙂 I’m glad you stuck with it to the end!
How much oil do you need to sautéed the mushrooms?
probably only about 2 Tbsp. of oil
Not sure what we did wrong since all the reviews seem to love this, but we made it and it was awful. Way to much balsamic. Waayyy too much! Didn’t taste like Cheesecake’s at all, and my SIL and I know because it’s our favorite meal.
It may be the type of balsamic that you used? I don’t know why it would have been too balsamic-y? I am so sorry it didn’t turn out how you were expecting it to 🙁
Finally some one who had the same experience. Looked beautiful, but tasted horrible to much balsamic with the sweet. Love the cheesecake one this not so much. 🙁
My son the amazing cook sent me this recipe and I asked when are you going to make it for me… I so look forward to having it. Looks delish
Ooh yum! You are going to LOVE it! Lucky you to have a cook for a son!
My husband doesnt eat beef what can i substitute for beef broth?
Chicken broth would work fine, or even vegetable broth. Good luck!
Made this tonight. Every thing was picked up at Walmart. Nothing fancy. It was excellent. I did only have half the chicken but made the whole recipe of sauce. People were talking about licking their plates. Excellent! Thank you.
I did taste the sauce part way thru the cooking process. Not so good but was excellent once thick.
I’m in the process of making this right now and had a couple questions. The sauce is currently simmering right now and I tried a little taste of it and wasnt to fond of it. It tastes very acidic from the balsalmic vinegar. Is this something that will go away during the process of cooking it through? its been on the stove for 20 minutes now. The taste of it wasnt too good. I was wondering if you can help me out on this one.
It is supposed to be a little acidic– it balances out well with the potatoes. If it is TOO acidic for your taste, add a Tbsp. of brown sugar.. continue adding until you get your desired taste.
I made this the other night and it was wonderful! I would love to publish my adaption of this recipe on my blog if that would be alright with you!
Sure, just say adapted from Favorite Family Recipes with a link back here.
Absolutely! Thanks again!
Would like the recipe for white chocolate macadamia nut cheese cake from the cheesecake factory . Has anyone tried to duplicate?
Is that mashed potatoes on bottom then asparagus? Picture doesn’t match recipe.
Whoops! The old picture was the “right” way… Either way it tastes great!
I’m making this tonight…Can’t wait! Do you think marinating it all day while I’m at work would have a negative effect on the chicken? I’m not sure if the vinegar would break the chicken down too much. I’m so excited to try it…I’m drooling already,
I am sure it will totally be fine! Hope you like it!
Follow-up! I made this last night for my boyfriend’s birthday. It was my first time cooking for his mother, to add to the pressure. Well, it came out GREAT! Made me look like I can cook 😉 Thank you SO much for sharing this recipe. PERFECT!
This was awesome! We grilled the chicken and it turned out super moist and flavorful, and the sauce was so good with the mashed potatoes!
this is the best food ever………
So if one wanted to use the wine, how much? Thanks…
You will want to use 1 cup. Just switch it for the beef broth straight across. 🙂
Can you use chicken thighs instead?
Yes, definitely
They’ll definitely add a lot more flavor. They’re our favorite part of the chi cken.
chicken maderia is the BEST dish at Cheesecake!! haven’t been there in ages, will have to try this recipe out 🙂 so happy!!
Oh yumm, ladies! I, too, just love going to The Cheesecake Factory! My fall-back order is the Miso Salmon…have you ever duplicated that one? Coudja, woudja? I’d love to do that one at home, but I’ve never used miso or very many Asian ingredients.
Thanks for this lovely chicken recipe!
Can’t say I have ever tried the Miso Salmon! Next time I am at Cheesecake Factory I will have to try it out… I love salmon and I haven’t gone wrong with anything I have had at Cheesecake Factory so I am sure their salmon is divine. Thanks for the heads up! I have had miso soup a few times so I am curious to see how miso pairs with salmon.
This is the correct recipe for those of you who talked about the strong vinegar taste (friend who works there):
Cheesecake Factory Chicken Madeira
1Madeira Sauce:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
3 cups Madeira wine
2 cups beef stock
1 tbsp butter
¼ tsp ground black pepper
(No need to marinade chicken. Flatten like the recipe states, brown in skillet and leave all the great bits in the pan for the Madeira sauce. Balsamic Vinegar is not used at the Restaurant!)
The only ingredient everyone is missing is the eggs the chicken breast should be egg washed before sautéing,I work at cheesecake and this is a hidden step
Oooh yum! Thanks for the tip!!!! Will definitely try this next time! 😀
Thank you! We tried this last year before your comment and it was awful. Nothing like the restaurant. Now we’ll have to try again!
I remember Cheesecake Facrory’s original sauce recipe which included a veal reduction. Would love that recipe!
That explains it all! The recipe is good but definitely NOT the chicken Madera of the Cheesecake factory. I will try your Madera recipe. Thank you!
I have tried this recipe using balsamic vinegar and balsamic vinegarette. I agree that the balsamic vinegar is too strong in this recipe. It is much more balanced using the balsamic vinegarette. Delicious dish!