from the Silver Palate

I've found that if you're looking for a recipe, just plug your desired ingredients into Google and suitable recipes will magically appear.

I had been craving something kind of exotic so I initially started out with a Spanish cookbook and a hankering for lamb. But, dammit, lamb was too expensive - I needed to explore other options. I flipped through the cookbook and saw a lot of dishes that combined fruit, meat, and savory spices. Unfortunately, all the recipes were a little insane - hours of prep and cooking and ingredient lists that covered a page and a half. I think not. So, quick! To Google!

The recipe I ended up finding for my "taste something new every week" resolution was Chicken Marbella. With slow roasted chicken, green olives and prunes, each bite is a unique, unforgettable combination of salty sweet umami. It really puts your tastebuds to work.

I substituted white balsamic for the red wine vinegar and omitted the capers because it was already after 10 PM on a weeknight when I was making the marinade and didn't want to make a second trip to the store. I plopped the marinade and some boneless, skinless chicken thighs (they are cheaper, more flavorful and have the nicest texture) in a big ziploc bag to steep. The next evening, I dumped the whole mess into a baking dish, poured in some white wine, sprinkled it all with some brown sugar and baked. That's it. Simple to prepare, fancy enough for guests - like a culinary sleight of hand.

I completely forgot to top the finished dish with chopped parsely because we were so hungry from smelling the delicious odors emanating from the oven that by the time it got to the table we were lucky to have remembered to use utensils at all.