No.86 The 100 Most Popular Recipes Ever · October 2026

Chicken Marbella

Made famous by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins

Photo: meganleigh (Flickr), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

From The Silver Palate Cookbook, 1982.

The dinner-party dish of the 1980s, marinated overnight with prunes, olives and capers, and still made at Passover and parties across America.

Written in our own words and tested in a home kitchen. Get the original in The Silver Palate Cookbook.

Ingredients

• 2 chickens (about 2 1/2 lb / 1.1 kg each), quartered, or 5 lb (2.3 kg) bone-in thighs
• 1/2 head garlic, peeled and finely puréed
• 2 tbsp dried oregano
• Coarse salt and black pepper
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil
• 1/2 cup (85 g) pitted prunes
• 1/4 cup (35 g) pitted Spanish green olives
• 1/4 cup (35 g) capers, with a little of their juice
• 3 bay leaves
• 1/2 cup (100 g) packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) dry white wine
• 2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley or cilantro

Steps

1. In a large bowl, combine the chicken, garlic, oregano, about 1 tsp salt, pepper, vinegar, oil, prunes, olives, capers with their juice, and bay leaves. Mix well, cover and refrigerate overnight, turning once or twice.
2. Heat the oven to 350F (175C).
3. Arrange the chicken in a single layer in one or two shallow baking dishes and spoon the marinade evenly over it.
4. Sprinkle the chicken with the brown sugar and pour the white wine around it.
5. Bake 50 minutes to 1 hour, basting often with the pan juices. It's done when the thigh juices run clear yellow when pricked (165F / 74C).
6. Move the chicken, prunes, olives and capers to a platter with a slotted spoon. Moisten with a few spoonfuls of the pan juices, sprinkle with parsley, and pass the rest of the juices at the table.

Chef's tips

• It's as good at room temperature as hot, which is why it's a party dish.
• Discard the bay leaves before serving.

This is Chef Amazing's write-up of the dish, tested for a home kitchen. The original is in The Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins: get the book, No. 39 on The 100 Greatest Cookbooks.

← No. 85Dutch Baby (David Eyre's Pancake)→ No. 87Chocolate Olive Oil Cake