CHICKEN MARBELLA

Chicken Marbella is a festive, sweet and savoury dish originally popularised in the United States in the 1980s by chefs Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso in their influential cookbook The Silver Palate. It features bone in or boneless chicken marinated and baked with a distinctive mix of prunes (I prefer medjool dates though), green olives, capers, garlic, oregano, white wine, brown sugar and often a splash of vinegar, producing a sticky, tangy glaze that balances salty and fruity flavours. Despite the Spanish sounding name, its origins are American, inspired by Mediterranean ingredients and French cooking rather than being a traditional Spanish recipe.

The reason I love this recipe so much is how tender the chicken becomes from the overnight brine. It just breaks down the chicken so wonderfully and when cooked the recipe is full proof. It’s also very hands off, once everything goes in the bowl, it sits in the fridge and then gets poured onto a tray and baked, making it so easy to get onto a plate. The pops of salty olives, goes so well with the sweet dates and then the fragrant oregano brining it all together.

CHICKEN MARBELLA

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CHICKEN MARBELLA 〰️

Time: overnight marinade + 70 minutes

Serves: 3-4

2 chicken maryland, thigh and drum seperated

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

6 medjool dates, quartered

2 tbl sp maple syrup

50gm capers (plus tbl sp of caper brine)

1 cup white wine

230gm pitted sicilian olives, brine removed

EVOO

Garnish: Fresh oregano leaves

Place all ingredients except EVOO and oregano into a bowl and bring them all together, making sure your brine is just covering the chicken. Seal bowl and place in fridge overnight.

Pop oven on to 180 degrees Celsius.

Remove bowl from fridge and place in deep tray/oven friendly pot, and evenly spread your mixture, with your chicken pieces poking through. Cook in oven covered for 40 minutes.

Remove your lid/foil and place oven to grill setting and cookout its highest temperature for 15 more minutes, or until golden and charred. Before the grill I drizzle a lil bit of EVOO to help it out with an even char.

Remove from oven and serve onto serving platter, spooning your liquid on top. You can also remove the non liquid parts and then reduce your liquid into a super glossy sauce on your stove. Either is great.

Finish with some fresh and washed oregano leaves. Enjoy.