Chicken Marbella

Celebrity chef and Travel Channel host Andrew Zimmern has come out with some new recipes for Thanksgiving and Hanukkah using Cascal, a fermented soda.

An invention of the 1982 Silver Palate Cookbook by Julie Rosso and Sheila Lukins, Chicken Marbella has been a Jewish holiday and Shabbat dinner party favorite for 30 years. For those who aren’t lucky enough to have tasted this amazing treat, the dish is a startlingly smart combination of olives, capers, prunes, oregano, garlic, red wine vinegar, brown sugar, and white wine. And, while not intended specifically as a Hanukkah recipe, it fits the bill perfectly and has been a standard in Andrew’s family for decades.

“The chicken should be marinated overnight, browned in the morning and proceed with recipe until the part where you slide it in the oven,” says the chef. “Then I refrigerate so that all I do for dinner is slide it into the oven for an hour or so to cook.”

Chicken Marbella

INGREDIENTS

2 chickens, quartered

4 garlic cloves, minced

3 minced shallots

2T dried oregano

1t coarse salt

1t ground black pepper

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup pitted prunes

1 cup dried apricots

1/2 cup pitted green olives (I like to use Green Lucques)

1/4 cup capers, rinsed

3 fresh bay leaves

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup white wine

½ cup CASCAL Dry White

1/4 cup Italian parsley, finely chopped

DIRECTIONS

Marinate chicken in oregano, garlic, salt, pepper, shallots and vinegar for 24 hours.

Heat oil in a large pan, and working in batches, brown the chicken on both sides saving the marinade.

Place chicken in a single layer in a big lasagna pan.

Deglaze the pan with the wine and Cascal, reducing by about half.

Add reserved marinade and all remaining ingredients to pan, swirl, bring to a boil again and pour mixture over chicken.

Bake at 375 degrees for an hour or so until done. Season and serve. (Serves 6)