Chicken Marbella from The Silver Palate (2024)

May 21, 2021 Updated November 7, 2022 by Lisa Goldfinger 38 Comments This post may contain affiliate links

Chicken Marbella is a famous, favorite dinner party recipe from The Silver Palate Cookbook. Chicken is marinated overnight with prunes, olives, capers, olive oil, vinegar and loads of garlic and oregano. Just before cooking, white wine and brown sugar are added. It's an easy dish to cook for a crowd and the flavors are extraordinary.

Chicken Marbella is the absolute best: moist and tender chicken in an irresistible sweet, sour, garlicky sauce with salty olives and rich sweet prunes. The ingredients may seem unusual - olives, capers and prunes - and they certainly aren't subtle - loads of garlic and more oregano than I've ever put into any one dish, but it's a brilliant marriage of flavors that always has everyone coming back for seconds. And it's the perfect dish for stress-free entertaining. You marinate the chicken overnight and then you bake it an hour or two before the party. Chicken Marbella is just as delicious at room temperature as it is hot from the oven. You just can't go wrong with this recipe.

How To Cook Chicken Marbella for A Big Crowd

This recipe uses boneless chicken thighs but includes instructions for classic bone-in Chicken Marbella if you prefer it that way. When I decided to serve Chicken Marbella at my New Years Eve party (dinner for 100) I adapted the recipe for boneless chicken because I think boneless chicken is more elegant and easier to manage for a big party.

Bone-in chicken is fine for a small sit-down dinner but for a buffet it can be clunky and it takes up a lot of room on a serving platter. Plus, it's tricky to cut chicken off the bone while you're socializing at a party, and especially challenging if you're balancing your plate on your lap or standing at a co*cktail table while doing it.

In my mind there's no debate about whether to use thighs or breasts. Chicken thighs are my favorite. They're so much better and juicier than breasts, which dry out easily, while thighs are difficult to overcook. The original Silver Palate Chicken Marbella Recipe calls for 4 whole chickens, cut into quarters. I've been served Chicken Marbella that way for decades and I've cooked it that way myself, but I have to confess that I've always passed over the breasts and gone right for the thighs.

The Story Behind Chicken Marbella

Chicken Marbella made its debut at TheSilver Palate Gourmet Shop on the upper west side of manhattan in the late 1970's. The two women who owned and ran the shop, Sheila Lukins and Julie Rosso, were incredibly creative cooks and built quite a reputation for themselves in the neighborhood. I lived a few blocks away and I can tell you from personal experience, their culinary creations were like nothing I had ever seen before or even dreamed of. In 1982 The Silver Palate Cookbook was published and has become one of the best selling cookbooks of all time. Chicken Marbella is probably the most famous and enduring recipe from the Silver Palate Cookbook.

Today, Chicken Marbella is a wildly popular recipe, with reprints and adaptations all over the internet and in cookbooks. Ina Gartenhas Chicken Marbella in her Cook Like a Pro Cookbook. Ottolenghi has Chicken Marbella in his cookbook Simple, but adapts it quite a bit, with dates in place of prunes, fresh oregano instead of dried, date molasses in place of brown sugar and chicken legs instead of chicken quarters. You can find a slightly-adapted Chicken Marbella recipe in the New York Times Cooking Section, and they even have a separate Weeknight Chicken Marbella Recipe.

I had some hesitation about posting Chicken Marbella on Panning The Globe, thinking you all probably have the recipe by now, but I figure there must be some of you who have missed it or passed it by and others who may know it well but will appreciate knowing how to make it with boneless chicken.

How To Make Chicken Marbella

This Chicken Marbella recipe has the same ingredients as the original Silver Palate Chicken Marbella recipe except that 4 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs are used in place of 4 whole cut-up chickens. In addition, I increased the amount of prunes and olives in the recipe because they are so insanely delicious that why skimp?! I also reduced the amount of brown sugar from 1 cup to ¾ cup. For my taste, it's the perfect sugar to vinegar ratio to achieve a vibrant sweet and sour sauce.

1. Marinate The Chicken Overnight: Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a large mixing bowl: ½ cup olive oil, ½ cup red wine vinegar, 1 ½ cups pitted prunes, ¾ cup pitted Spanish green olives, ½ cup capers, 6 bay leaves, 1 whole head of garlic, peeled and puréed (I use this garlic press), ¼ cup dried oregano, 2 teaspoons of Kosher salt, ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.Add 4 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs and toss to mix thoroughly. Cover the bowl and refrigerate it overnight.
2. Bake: Arrange the chicken and all the marinade ingredients in two large shallow baking pans. Pour ½ cup of wine into each baking pan and sprinkle the chicken pieces evenly with the brown sugar. Bake the chicken for 45-50 minutes, until it's cooked through, basting once or twice with the pan juices.
3. To serve, arrange the chicken on a serving platter and spoon the prunes, olives, capers and some of the juices evenly around. Garnish with chopped parsley or cilantro. Serve the extra sauce on the side.