This is an oldie but a goodie from The Silver Palate Cookbook. If you haven’t made it recently, dust off the cookbook and make it again. I was first introduced to it when our younger kids were born. The great parents in our older son’s pre-school class took turns bringing meals (thank you – that is the best gift ever!) and one mom brought Chicken Marbella. I was so enamored that I asked for the recipe. As I raved about it to fellow moms, I quickly learned that many others had discovered this dish before me. The best part is that you marinate the chicken the night before and then simply bake it the following night. The quantity can scale down for your family or up for a crowd. It’s good hot, room temp or cold. The recipe below is slightly adjusted from the original, i.e., I have scaled it down to feed our family, cut the amount of brown sugar in half, etc. Click here for the original recipe.
- 2 bone-in, skin-on breasts (about 2-3 lbs) + 2 leg quarters
- 1 T minced garlic
- ¼ C dried oregano
- Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
- ½ C red wine vinegar
- ½ C olive oil
- ½ C pitted prunes
- ½ C pitted Spanish green olives
- ¼ C capers with a bit of juice
- 3 bay leaves
- ½ C brown sugar
- 1 C white wine
In a bowl, combine ingredients #1-10. Place chicken in a Ziploc bag and pour marinade over it. Zip and let marinate, refrigerated, overnight. The Ziploc bags make it easy to flip and shake and lay flat in the refrigerator.
Preheat oven to 350.
Arrange chicken in a single layer in a shallow baking pan and pour marinade over it evenly. Sprinkle chicken pieces with brown sugar and pour white wine around them.
Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, basting regularly. The chicken is done when the thickest portion of the chicken reaches 170 degrees. Serve it with a side of rice (I like Near East rice pilaf with toasted almonds) and a vegetable. Tasty!