Chicken Marbella is a dish introduced to me by my childhood friend Lisa, who made this for me on several occasions. This was popularized in the Silver Plate Cookbook released in 1982, so it should contain many dishes from my childhood; alas, my mother was not the most inventive cook. In her defense, she was a single mother who worked her entire life, so I forgive her. Now, I cook many of the dishes on this website for her.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/8752-the-silver-palates-chicken-marbella

I had been craving this slightly sweet and savory dish for weeks, so I decided to give it a try tonight. Recently, the recipe was published on the NY Times Cooking site. I made a couple of variations – I omitted the brown sugar and browned the chicken before placing it in the roasting pan – I think the skin on the dark meat really needs a good browning.

Ingredients

6 – 12 pieces of dark chicken – I prefer all thighs, but drumsticks, preferably attached to a thigh, work well. Buy large, organic pieces.

1 cup green Castelavano olives pitted

1 cup pitted Kalamata olives

1 cup of pitted prunes

1 cup (60z jar) capers

2 cups of EVOO Extra Virgin Olive Oil for marinade

1 cup red wine vinegar for marinade

1 cup of white wine for cooking

6 bay leaves – the fresher the better

20 peeled garlic cloves for roasting

Preparation

Combine the chicken, olive oil, red wine vinegar, olives, prunes, and bay leaves into a container.

Mix well and marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Mix once or twice to ensure the chicken can soak up the liquids.

Heat a cast iron pan on medium-high heat and add in avocado oil – you want a high temp point.

Brown the chicken skin side down for about 5 minutes – Flip and brown for 1 additional minute.

Place into your roasting dish.

Don’t overcrowd the cast iron – I did my chicken in two batches.

Next, add the remaining marinade mix, along with capers, garlic, and white wine, into the cast-iron pan. I did not want an overly garlicky dish (highly unusual for me), so I did not roast the chicken in garlic. Heat and stir this over medium heat for about 3 minutes.

Heat oven to 375°F.

Transfer the marinade mix to the roasting pan, ensuring even coverage of the chicken.

Roast for 45 minutes, covered, until the thigh temperature reaches 165°F at the bone. I suggest testing after 35 minutes.

Plate the thighs and spoon generous amounts of the sauce on the chicken.

Serve and enjoy.

In addition to my Mom, Carter had his friends Jacob and Fred over, who all enjoyed the dish. Jacob asked for the recipe, so here it is.