Here’s an easy Chicken Marbella recipe that’s ready in thirty minutes — perfect for a quick weeknight dinner. The original recipe is from the classic Silver Palate cookbook and later perfected by Ina Garten. The original recipe is wonderful for a party, but can take hours to make. My favorite fancy version is That Susan Williams’ Chicken Marbella.
My version of quick and easy Chicken Marbella is for when you want something that tastes fancy but takes about half an hour from start to finish. Pair it with some couscous or white rice and settle in with a bowl of this and a glass of the white wine you bought to cook with.
Tips for Fast and Easy Chicken Marbella
Use Perdue Harvestland Diced Chicken breast. It’s so convenient to have the chicken already diced. I drained it in my wire strainer, then patted dry with a paper towel. Ready to go! Perdue Harvestland diced chicken breasts are packed in four half-pound packets so you can scale your recipes to feed between two and eight people. For this recipe I used two packets for one pound of diced chicken.
For the olive salad, I used a premade muffuletta mixture of olives and vegetables, but you can also use any premade olive salad or tapenade that is in an olive oil base. Don’t use an olive dip that has a dairy or mayo base. Since my muffuletta mix had garlic cloves in it already, I omitted the minced garlic.
For the white wine, use any decent crisp white wine that you would drink. I used a pinot grigio from a box and it was awesome. A little for me, a little for the chicken. If you don’t want to use alcohol, substitute chicken broth.
For the prunes, make sure you aren’t getting any of the pricier flavored prunes or prunes enhanced with probiotics. Those cost a lot more and aren’t necessary. Just get the most basic prunes available at your grocery store. Also, the thought of biting into a whole cooked prune does not interest me, so I gave them a rough chop. Don’t omit, because they are really good in this dish and balance the saltiness of the olives. The texture, once cooked in the sauce, is no problem.
This dish is naturally gluten-free as is with no substitutions necessary. Check the packaging of any of your individual ingredients, but you should be good unless they start breading prunes.
30 Minute Chicken Marbella
Ingredients
- 1 pound Perdue Farms Chicken Chunks
- 1/2 cup red wine vinaigrette
- 1/3 cup olive salad
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 3 bay leaves
- 1/2 cup pitted prunes, chopped
- 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1/4 dry white wine
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and make sure rack is in center of oven.
- In a mixing bowl, add vinaigrette, olive salad, garlic, oregano and bay leaves.
- Stir lightly to combine and add chicken.
- Mix to coat chicken.
- Put the saucy chicken mixture into a 13-by-9 inch baking dish.
- Sprinkle with brown sugar and pour wine over the chicken.
- Put baking dish in preheated over for 20 minute until chicken is cooked through and sauce is bubbly.
- If you're making instant rice or couscous, start it right after you put the chicken in the oven.
- Remove chicken from oven and take out and throw away the bay leaves. Bay leaves aren't edible.
- Allow chicken to cool a few minutes and serve over couscous or rice.
Notes
Preheat the oven first thing so the oven in hot and ready to go once you have the ingredients assembled.
Use a prepared bottled red wine or balsalmic vinaigrette.
Use a prepared olive salad mix from the grocery store. Usually found in the deli. You can also use a muffuletta mix or a jarred tapenade from the aisle with pickles and olives.
Use any crisp, dry white wine like pinot grigio, pinot gris or Sauvignon blanc. Do not use Chardonnay. Boxed wine is that you would actually drink out of a glass in fine. Again, no Chardonnay.
Looking for fast and easy dinner recipes? Check out Easy Weeknight Instant Pot Dinners, 10 Easy Keto Dinners and 10 Freezer Friendly Meal Recipes.
Anne Parris
Anne Parris is a managing partner Midlife Boulevard. Her personal blog, Not A Supermom, is your typical mommy blog that her kids say used to be funnier. Anne has a business degree and a dusty résumé from a top accounting firm and a Fortune 500 company, which she reminds herself of every time she is washing underpants. She lives with her family in Virginia and blogs mostly to support her coffee habit.
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