Chicken Marbella

Submitted by evelynathens

"The famous Chicken Marbella from the Silver Palate Cookbook. This recipe has been bringing down the house for years and I have made serious adaptations to it, fine-tuning it to suit our taste and make it a little more practical. I like to serve this with cous-cous and a big green salad."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 15mins
• Ingredients: 16
• Serves: 5-6

ingredients

• 2 lbs chicken thigh pieces, skinless and boneless, cut each piece into 4
• 1⁄2 head garlic, peeled and finely pureed (this works out to about 6-8 cloves)
• 1 1⁄2 tablespoons dried oregano, crumbled
• coarse salt
• fresh ground black pepper
• 1⁄3 cup red wine vinegar
• 1⁄3 cup olive oil
• 12 pitted prunes (I cut them in half)
• 6 dried apricots, cut in half (optional)
• 1⁄2 cup pitted spanish green olives
• 1⁄3 cup capers, with a bit of juice
• 3 bay leaves
• 1⁄2 cup brown sugar (I prefer to use less - 1/4 cup is fine)
• 3⁄4 cup white wine
• 1⁄2 teaspoon chili powder (not in original recipe) (optional)
• 1⁄3 cup Italian parsley (cilantro) or 1/3 cup fresh coriander, finely chopped (cilantro)

directions

1. In a large bowl combine chicken quarters, garlic, oregano, pepper and coarse salt to taste, vinegar, olive oil, prunes, apricots (if using), olives, capers and juice, bay leaves, brown sugar and white wine.
2. Cover and let marinate, refrigerated, overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 350°F.
4. Arrange chicken in a single layer in a large, shallow baking pan and spoon marinade over it evenly.
5. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, basting frequently with pan juices. Chicken is done when thigh pieces, pricked with a fork at their thickest, yield clear yellow (rather than pink) juice.
6. With a slotted spoon transfer chicken, prunes, olives and capers to a serving platter. Moisten with a few spoonfuls of pan juices and sprinkle generously with parsley or cilantro. Pass remaining pan juices in a sauceboat.
7. Note: To serve Chicken Marbella cold, cool to room temperature in cooking juices before transferring to a serving platter. If chicken has been covered and refrigerated, allow it to return to room temperature before serving. Spoon some of the reserved juices over chicken.

Reviews

[Tony M.]

Give credit where credit is due. This recipe (minus the apricots) was made famous by the legendary Silver Palate Gourmet Food Shop in NYC. It was featured in their first cookbook published in 1979, and remains one of their most enduring recipes.

 

[Betty Rocker]

This is one of those incredible recipes that convert naysayers to ingredients they will tell you they hate (capers and prunes) and where the combination of ingredients greatly exceed the sum of the parts. The recipe is truly timeless -- I fell in love with it as a Silver-Palate-obsessed new cook in the 1980s, and it wouldn't be out of place in an Ottolenghi-inspired dinner party menu. It's also seasonless. I'm not much of a recipe person -- I like to cook according to my cravings and out of my head, but this is one worth following. Would also try with duck or rabbit.

 

[KLHquilts]

Fabulous. What more can I say? The absolute perfect dish for entertaining.

 

[EeeGee]

I came looking for this recipe after being served an amazing "maybe spanish chicken/prune/olive/wine casserole" at a catered work function and was unable to track down the caterer to get the recipe directly. Turns out it was Chicken Marbella (Thank you recipezaar for your search by ingrediant function) I am very judicious in giving out a perfect 5 stars but there is nothing to fault in this recipe - it is a classic for a good reason. Its super easy to make (just put it all in the dish you're going to bake it in the night before then add the wine and sugar put it in the oven the next night) and tastes divine. I am not generally a fan of fruit in meat dishes and had I simply read the recipe when I was browsing for something to make I probably would have dismissed it, I would have been SORELY mistaken. This is a fantastic, delicious, simple to prepare recipe I would encourage you to try it. I made mine with skinless chicken thigh peices. I used 4 large cloves of garlic which was perfect for my tastes but if you're not a big garlic fan 2 or 3 would probably be enough. I added 1/2 cup of dried apricots as the original dish I ate which sent me in search of this recipe included apricots and a google search showed they are considered an optional extra. About 20 mins into the cooking time I covered the dish with tin foil as even with basting the top of the chicken peices were drying out a little. Outstanding recipe evelyn/athens! Thank you.

 

[coopgirl]

Delicious! Didn't have apricots and did a rough chop of all the ingredients before marinating. I forgot to put in the wine and sugar but added to the marinade before baking. Served over orzo and it was great.