Chicken with Prunes and Olives

When I make this dish, my family smiles; it has something for everyone.

With the tart prunes, bitter olives and capers, sweet brown sugar, white wine and a heavy dose of garlic, pepper and oregano, this dish looks and tastes like it came from a fancy restaurant. And if you don’t like the prunes and olives, you can easily pick them out or pass them on to a family member who can’t get enough – that would be me! You are going to eat this and say “what else can I cook dried fruit in, what other fruit can I use?”

This dish does need some preparation the day before, but the day you cook it, you basically put it in the oven and it is done in an hour. Last time I made this, I ended up not being able to cook it the day I wanted, so it marinated for 2 days and it was awesome. So if your chicken is fresh, then preparing it 2 days before may work with your schedule. I think the taste is definately worth having to plan for this meal and having to prepare the day before – let me know what you think.

Ingredients

Use a combination of legs, thighs and breast depending on what your family likes. Don’t use boneless pieces because chicken without bone cooks quicker and will get over done in this recipe. You want to be able to cook this for the full hour and then the chicken fall off the bone.

I use:

2 split breast of chicken on the bone, remove the skin

6 legs with the thighs attached, also still on the bone, remove the skin

Marinade:

½ head or 8-10 large cloves of garlic – minced

2 tbsp dried oregano

2 tbsp coarse salt

2 tbsp ground black pepper

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 9 oz package of dried prunes

8 oz green, Spanish olives without any stuffing, drained

3.5 oz of capers in the jar including the juices

3 bay leaves

Final ingredients added right before baking:

¾ cup white wine

½ cup packed brown sugar

2 tbsp chopped parsley

To marinate the chicken, at least the night before, remove the skin from the chicken pieces – no one needs all that fat. You do not have to remove every last piece, just remove the big pieces that come off easily.

Combine chicken, garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, vinegar, olive oil, prunes, olives, capers and bay leaves. Refrigerate until you are ready to cook it.

To cook: Put chicken and all the marinate in a baking pan that has at least 2 inch sides – I use a 9x13 brownie pan. Pour the white wine over the chicken and then sprinkle the brown sugar on top of everything.

Cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes for the breast, remove from the pan after 45 minutes because breast cook faster than leg and thighs, cook the legs and thighs at least 15 minutes more for a total of 1 hour. Test the breast, they should be moist but not pink at all; the legs and thighs meat should fall off the bone after 1 hour of cooking. Baste the chicken a few times while it is cooking, I also like to turn the pieces over after 25 minutes of cooking to get the chicken brown all over, but it isn’t necessary if you aren’t available to turn them over.

Sprinkle with fresh parsley just before serving.

To reheat: The nice thing about legs and thighs is that they are hard to overcook, so put one on a microwavable dish and microwave on high for 1 minute at a time until it is hot. Be more careful with the breast. If you cover the breast with the liquid it will be less likely to dry out while microwaving, so be careful and microwave for only 1 minute at a time.