Thursday, November 22, 2007

Chicken Marbella

I got the revised edition of the Silver Palate Cookbook for my birthday and while some of the recipes have me chortling - so very fancy!, SOME of them have me drooling. Like this one, which I made last night and which made the kitchen smell just CRAZY delicious. A friend dropped by while the chicken was baking and asked, wide-eyed, what smelled SO wonderful?

This is a big recipe, by the way - it makes 10 portions. I only made half that.
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup pitted prunes
1/2 cup pitted Spanish olives
1/2 cup capers with a bit of juice
6 bay leaves
1 head of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1/4 cup dried oregano
coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 chickens (2 1/2 pounds each), quartered. (okay - I just used a family-sized package of chicken pieces.)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley (or, the recipes says, cilantro. But I do NOT think so.)

Combine the oil, vinegar, prunes, olives, capers and juice, bay leaves, garlic, oregano and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add the chicken and stir to coat. Cover the bowl and refrigereate overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350.
Arrange the chicken in a single layer on a shallow baking pan and spoon the marinade over it evenly. Sprinkle the chicken with the brown sugar and pour the white whine around them.
Bake, basting frequently with the pan juices until the thigh pieces yield clear yellow juice when pricked. This should take 50 minutes to an hour.
With a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken, prunes, olives, and capers to a serving platter. Moisten with a few spoonfuls of the pan juices and sprinkle generously with the parsley (NOT CILANTRO!). Pass the remaining pan juices "in a sauceboat", the recipe says, should you have one.

2 comments:

Jenifer said...

That sounds divine...

Ser said...

Oh, Beck, just when I thought you were my best imaginary soulmate friend, you go and badmouth cilantro.