Everyone loves a recipe of baked chicken with prunes or dates and there are numerous recipes to choose from and use as the base to tweak and make Chicken Marbella to your taste. Amanda Hesser uses d’Agen prunes, and the Silver Palate cookbook recipe for Chicken Marbella uses prunes and also pitted green olives. In one of my favorite cookbooks, Ottolenghi’s Simple, he used the Silver Palate Chicken Marbella recipe as his inspiration but instead of prunes he uses Medjool dates and pitted green olives.
The point is this is a delicious recipe that everyone loves to makes in their own way. Ottolenghi says “ it’s everything I want from a dish, it’s comforting and simple but really delivers in terms of flavor.“
The Silver Palate cookbook gave the Chicken Marbella recipe its name but it’s unclear why. It’s not a typical dish you would find in Marbella Spain although the recipe creator Sheila Lukins says she was inspired by Spanish and North African cuisine. One commenter on Epicurious says the dish comes from a French classic, "Lapin Au Pruneau", or rabbit with prunes. Others say it’s a classic Passover recipe.
I think what all these interpretations tell us is that the recipe is simply delicious and beloved and embraced by just about everyone who tries it. So give it a whirl and enjoy!
I love dried prunes so my recipe uses prunes along with unpitted Italian olives from our last harvest. I store our olives in a saltwater solution to use in recipes and serve as an appetizer. I also use a lot of capers from the Italian island, Pantelleria.
Ingredients
- 1 kg chicken pieces skin on
For the marinade:
- 2 teaspoons salt
- Freshly grated black pepper
- 3 garlic cloves peeled and crushed
- ½ cup fresh oregano leaves
- 2 fresh bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 100 grams salt-cured un-pitted olives, rinsed
- 4 tablespoons salt-cured capers rinsed
- 14 pitted prunes
Sauce for baking the chicken:
- ½ cup white wine
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
To serve the chicken:
- 4 Sprigs of fresh oregano for plating
Instructions
For the marinade:
- Rob the chicken pieces with salt and freshly grated black pepper. Place the chicken in a glass or other non-reactive bowl.
- Add the garlic cloves, oregano leaves, bay leaves, Extra-virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar to the chicken.
- Add the olives, capers and prunes.
- Mix well.
- Cover and refrigerate all day or overnight.
- Every few hours or so use your hands to mix the chicken and the ingredients.
To bake the chicken:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Place the chicken in the marinade in a baking pan in one layer.
- Whisk the white wine, molasses and brown sugar together.
- Drizzle atop the chicken.
- Bake the chicken 45 minutes to an hour, or until the chicken is golden and cooked through.
- Baste the chicken every quarter of an hour with the pan juices and sauce.
To serve the chicken:
- Serve the chicken directly in the baking pan or remove to a serving platter.
- Sprinkles the chicken with sprigs of fresh oregano.
I loved this recipe -- as Wendy mentioned, there are tiny tweaks so many countries make with this. This is a big dish in Morocco, using local prunes and mostly veal; in France, Agen prunes and chicken; being Italian, I put an Italian spin on it 🙂 And I'm going to put a huge caveat here -- I really don't like prunes. BUT when I first had this, I now keep some dried ones around for the slow cooker. I had only had it made by others, so a huge GRAZIE Wendy for putting up the recipe so I could finally find out how to make it! It turned out wonderful 🙂
Thank you Maria! I also like prunes but when they are used in a dish and not necessarily on their own. But I do keep them on hand because in a dish like Chicken Marbella they are wonderful. This is such a great dish and as you pointed out many people make it in many countries and locales all with a different person or twist. Great to hear from you Maria!