A la chicken Marbella
Traditional chicken Marbella has prunes and brown sugar. I used dates and molasses, so, naturally, I couldn’t call my recipe “Chicken Marbella” but, rather, a dish cooked in the style of Chicken Marbella.
Ingredients
- 6 large chicken thighs bone-in and skin on
- 3 tablespoons salt I used sea salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 generous pinches dried oregano chopped
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 onion thinly sliced
- 3 bay leaves
- 12 dates halved
- 12 pitted olives I used a combination of black and green
- 2 heaping tablespoons capers with the brine
- ½ cup rice wine
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 heaping tablespoons molasses
Instructions
- Wipe the chicken thighs with paper towels and place in a bowl.
- Add the salt and pepper. Mix well, rubbing the salt and pepper into the chicken.
- Arrange the chicken thighs in a single layer in a non-reactive container (that means don’t use aluminum or copper).
- Scatter the oregano, garlic, onion slices, bay leaves, dates, olives and capers around them.
- In a bowl, stir together the rice wine, rice vinegar, olive oil and molasses and pour over the chicken.
- Cover the container and stick in the fridge.
- Marinate the chicken overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Take the chicken out of the fridge. If you marinated the chicken in a non-oven safe container, transfer them (and all other ingredients) to an oven safe pan.
- Let the chicken come to room temperature while the oven is preheating.
- Roast the chicken at 400F for about 45 minutes (the actual cooking time depends on the size of the chicken thighs).
- Serve your a la chicken Marbella with rice or bread.