Chicken Marbella - Improved

Published January 1, 2012. From Cook's Illustrated.
More than 25 years ago, this dinner-party mainstay put The Silver Palate Cookbook on the map. Could we retool the recipe for today’s tastes?
The Problem
Not only has this dish’s popularity persisted throughout the years, but its inherent problems have, too. Specifically: the too subtle chicken flavor, flabby skin, and overly sweet sauce.

The Goal
We wanted to make a good dish even better by keeping chicken Marbella’s signature ingredients while developing a new technique for crispier skin and more balanced flavor.

The Solution
To give this dish weeknight potential, we used chicken pieces instead of a whole chicken. And we skipped any pretreatment of the chicken—including the overnight marinade that the original recipe calls for—hoping to find an alternative path to moist, flavorful meat. 

We decided to sear the chicken to jump-start browning and create fond, which we could use to build the sauce. In addition to the traditional Marbella sauce ingredients, we included minced anchovies and a pinch of pepper flakes, which ramped up the flavor. We then placed the skillet, with the chicken and sauce, in the oven to finish cooking. The skillet’s low, flared sides allowed steam to escape, resulting in well-browned skin and a concentrated sauce.

With the sauce on point and the chicken perfectly cooked, we focused on bringing the two together. While mulling over ways to get the sauce’s flavor to “stick” to the chicken, we hit on the solution: We’d make a paste that would literally adhere to the skin. We waited until the chicken was half-cooked and the skin well rendered and then spread a puree of the sauce’s ingredients onto the outside of the chicken. After just a few minutes in the oven, the paste had caramelized and the flavors had bloomed.

Our sauce was already full of flavor, but we figured this paste could only make it better. To that end, we caramelized some of it in the skillet after browning the chicken. A few final measures—a last-minute knob of butter, a splash of red wine vinegar, and a sprinkle of fresh parsley—was all that was needed to complete our updated version of a classic recipe.

Paste
1/3 cup pitted green olives , rinsed
1/3 cup pitted prunes
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves , peeled
2 tablespoons capers , rinsed
3 anchovy fillets , rinsed
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Pinch red pepper flakes

Chicken
2 1/2 - 3 pounds bone-in, skin-on split chicken breasts and/or leg quarters, trimmed
Kosher salt and pepper
2 teaspoons olive oil
3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup pitted green olives , rinsed and halved
1 tablespoon capers , rinsed
2 bay leaves
1/3 cup pitted prunes , chopped coarse
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pulse paste ingredients in food processor until mostly smooth.
Pat chicken dry and sprinkle with 1˝ teaspoons salt and season with pepper. Heat oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add chicken, skin side down, and cook without moving until well browned on the skin side only. Remove chicken and set aside. Drain fat from skillet, leaving a teaspoon behind, and return to medium-low heat.

Add 1/3 cup paste to skillet and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant and fond forms on pan bottom. Deglaze with broth, wine, olives, capers, and bay leaves, scraping up any browned bits. Return chicken to pan, skin side up (skin should be above surface of liquid), and place in oven. Roast, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

Remove skillet from oven and use back of spoon to spread remaining paste over chicken pieces; sprinkle prunes around chicken. Return pan to oven and continue to roast until paste begins to brown, breasts register 160 degrees, and leg quarters register 175 degrees, 7 to 12 minutes longer.

Transfer chicken to serving platter. Remove bay leaves from sauce and whisk in butter, vinegar, and 1 tablespoon parsley; season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour sauce over chicken and garnish with remaining parsley.