Chicken Mar-feh-ya

I can finally blog about a recipe without having to turn on the oven! I didn't like this recipe twenty years ago.

This weekend the Times published a tribute to the old Silver Palate Cookbook on its twenty-fifth anniversary. They featured one of the top old recipes: Chicken Marbella. Yes, I had this cookbook twenty-odd years ago. No, I have not looked at it in years, and it's in a storage unit. I never had much use for this book, and I never liked its ugly design. Most of all, I never liked that recipe for Chicken Marbella! I made it a couple of times in the eighties and gave up. It always had too much of a vinegary taste and the chicken had an unpleasant slimy consistency. It never had an appetizing roasted taste or texture, and it never got brown. The only thing good about it was the prunes. Marinating the prunes and stewing them created a delicious flavor. While I suppose there are different things you could do to tinker with this recipe, I never thought it was worth the trouble.

In the end, I tried it again recently, as you can see above. I took out the vinegar and didn't bother with capers. It is better with chicken breasts than dark meat. The prunes, once again, are the best part. The chicken needs to be browned first, unlike the original recipe. It also really needs to be coooked sufficiently. The original recipe time is not long enough. This is just not really worth making.