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After a mind-blowingly original recipe like none you’ve come across before? Look no further than Chicken Marbella. This continent-hopping, two-step chicken thigh recipe has picked up a trunk-load of Mediterranean ingredients on its travels! Lift the lid to learn the secrets of this fruity and fragrant roast chicken dish…
Love oven roasted chicken thighs, but don’t have time to marinate? Spanish-style baked chicken thighs with potatoes is a sauce-free but succulent meal in less than an hour.
Despite being named after a popular coastal Spanish city, Chicken Marbella is not a Spanish dish; the ingredients, chicken with prunes and olives, were borrowed from southern Spain and North Africa. And then first served up to fine-dining Americans!
Living so close to Spain, and with friends on the east coast, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to sample the best of Spanish fare, and I always come home bursting with cooking ideas too.
My Spanish chicken in bravas sauce is another example of inspiration over authenticity, so you’re unlikely to find it on any Iberian menus. Unless someone’s nicked it! I mean, it is that good.
The two-step Marbella chicken recipe
Essentially, a sweet and sour sauce-smothered roast chicken, the secret to its intensity of flavour, and retaining its moisture and tenderness, is marinating it first. It’s that simple! Two steps: marinate and bake!
So, what goes in it?
Dishes of chicken and fruit are common in Morocco. You might have tried a steamy chicken tagine heavy with plump apricots or preserved lemon. This recipe calls for juicy bone-in chicken thighs and sweet, soft-soaked prunes, studded with savoury olives and capers.
Olives and capers bridge the Mediterranean gap between both lands and bring an umami brine. In fact, Morocco is the leading producer of capers worldwide.
Spain can be held solely responsible for the wine element! And this recipe contains lashings of it! I used a dry white as I had some open, but I could have just as easily used a rosé.
And fresh herbs. Lots of lovely Mediterranean herbs (five!) from either side of the water. This makes the meal intoxicatingly fragrant and uplifting.
Step one: All the ingredients, except the wine, come together to make the thick and syrupy marinade to cover the chicken. It’s important to marinate in the fridge for as long as possible (max. 24 hours, min. 3 hours).
Step two: After marinating, add the wine and then roast. The chicken thighs will be caramelised and crispy on top, the meat and fruit will be soft and juicy, and the sauce will be irresistible.
When it tastes this good, who even cares where it came from?!
Recipe tips and notes
- If you can roast a chicken, you can do this! There may be lots of ingredients, but it’s basically a two-step recipe: marinate, bake.
- You cannot skip the marinating step. Over night will mean tenderness and thorough flavouring, but 3 hours is the bare minimum.
- Use the best quality ingredients you can.
- Check your chicken. 50 minutes is the roasting time, but thigh size and oven temperatures are variable! So keep an eye on it!
Serving suggestions
I can eat crusty bread or mashed potato with any sauce-rich dish. But given the Spanish and North African influences of the Marbella Chicken recipe, couscous or saffron rice would be colourful and exotic choices.
While the chicken thigh recipe is bursting with herbs and fruits, the sweet and briny dish benefits from a grounding green. A simple garden salador roasted summer vegetable salad with nuts both make for a bright side.
Storage and leftovers
Leftover Chicken Marbella can be kept in an This is an affiliate link.airtight container for up to 4 days. The flavours will meld and intensify over than time making it just as tasty the second time around.
Reheat, covered, in the oven at 180C/ 356F for 15-20 minutes. Make sure the chicken thighs are piping hot at their centre before serving.
More chicken thigh recipes
- Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
- Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic
- Mexican Chicken and Rice
- Braised Coconut Curry Chicken Thighs
Mediterranean Chicken Marbella
Equipment
- This is an affiliate link.Cast iron casserole dish
Ingredients
- 1 head garlic
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp basil
- 3-4 This is an affiliate link.bay leaves
- 3 tbsp red vinegar
- 3 tbsp This is an affiliate link.olive oil
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 200g / 1 cup green olives, I used nocellara olives
- 170g / 1 cup soft pitted prunes
- 2 tbsp capers
- 1 tsp salt
- 8-9 chicken thighs
- 250ml / 1 cup dry white wine, or rosé
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley, to serve
Instructions
- Peel the cloves of garlic and chop them. (You can use a mini food processor for this task.) In a large glass or ceramic mixing bowl combine the chopped garlic, basil and oregano, bay leaves, red wine vinegar, olive oil and brown sugar. Then add the green olives (pitted or non-pitted), pitted prunes, caper, a good pinch of salt and the chicken thighs. Mix thoroughly to ensure the chicken is well coated in the marinade mix, then cover with a plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or at least for 3 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and arrange the chicken together with the marinade and all other ingredients on a large baking pan or divide between two smaller baking pans to avoid overcrowding. Then pour the white wine around the chicken trying not to hit the chicken for a nice and crispy skin.
- Roast in the preheated oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour until the chicken is cooked all the way through and the skins are golden. The internal temperature of cooked chicken is 74C/165F. Sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
