Chicken Marbella

A while back, I went on a big research bender, looking for traditional chicken dishes that could potentially be suitable for camping trips.

We go through a LOT of chicken, so having a bunch of camping chicken recipes to choose from, ahead of time, sounded like a good plan.

Sometimes I’d tweak one of my recipes to involve some prep at home, sometimes I’d end up having to adjust the preparation techniques to make it suitable for grilling or cooking over a campfire.

In the case of today’s recipe, it was all about adjusting the original chicken marbella recipe - an iconic dish from Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins’ Silver Palate Cookbook.

The original recipe involved bone-in, skin-on chicken being baked in the oven, with a wild briny and sweet combination of flavours coming from items like olives, capers, prunes, and brown sugar.

To make it more camping friendly, I swapped the chicken thighs out for the boneless, skinless version, and completely changed the cooking techniques.

This camping friendly version of the classic dish is now a one-pan meal. It still has the same great flavour as the original, it’s just a bit easier to make. (And it’s also suitable for stovetop cooking, so you don’t have to heat your whole house up by using the oven!)

Are prunes, Spanish olives, and capers weird ingredients for campground cooking?

Probably.

Am I going to let that get in the way of a super flavourful meal that’s easy to cook? Hell no!

If you want, you can whisk together your marinade at home and chill it till you need it.

If you’re looking to cook it on your travel day, you can just get the whole thing marinating at home, and toss it in a pan when you’re ready to cook.

That’s what we did - and ended up cooking it overlooking the lake at our waterfront site at Batman's Cottages and Campground, on Manitoulin Island.

Usually we really mail it in for drive days, and it was really nice to have a meal that felt so fancy and bougie, with next to no effort.

Anyway, let’s look at what you’ll need to have on hand for this recipe:

Ingredients

This recipe is FULL of flavour, but doesn’t really need a ton of ingredients to achieve it. Most of these are super basic

Boneless Chicken Thighs

Traditional Chicken Marbella calls for a whole chicken being cut up and cooked, bone-in and skin-on.

For one, I didn’t want skin-on, as the cooking technique for a campfire friendly version wouldn’t have gotten it crispy at ALL... and who wants non-crispy chicken skin?

Also, I don’t like dealing with bone-in chicken when camping. It’s a hassle when it comes to the logistics of garbage. I want to eat my meal and have an empty plate, not have to fuss with bones.

Anyway - to that end - I use boneless, skinless chicken thighs in this version. While you COULD substitute bone-in chicken thighs - or boneless, skinless chicken breasts - I wouldn’t recommend using skin-on chicken with this technique.

Spanish Olives

I use Pitted Spanish Green Olives, as pitted Spanish Olives are what’s traditionally used.

Sometimes I have a hard time finding some while out on the road, so when that happens, we’ll use regular pitted green olives, or whatever we can get that’s similar.

If you really have to, you could use pimento stuffed olives... but they’re definitely not traditional!

White Wine

Use a dry white wine - like Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc.

If you don’t want to use wine, you can use the same amount of chicken stock.

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

Pitted Prunes
Capers (NOT drained!)
Fresh Italian Parsley
Light Brown Sugar
Ground Black Pepper
Bay Leaves
Dried Oregano
Red Wine Vinegar
Garlic Cloves
Olive Oil
Salt

... I just don’t really have anything to add, as far as these last few ingredients go. No substitutions to notes, etc - pretty basic stuff!

How to Make Chicken Marbella

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post, here is the pictorial walk through:

Marinated Chicken:

Trim chicken thighs, as desired. Place chicken pieces in a large Ziplock baggie, along with prunes, olives, capers (don’t bother draining the caper juice off!), and bay leaves. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper.

Pour marinade into the baggie, seal, and gently shake / massage to coat everything in marinade.

Chill overnight.

Chicken Marbella

Get a medium campfire going, or get your charcoal on the go.

Pour the wine into a large cast iron skillet. Heat over your grill or fire just until the wine starts to simmer.

Add the entire contents of the marinated chicken baggie to the pan. Arrange the chicken so it’s a single layer - evenly spaced - then sprinkle the top of the chicken with the brown sugar.

Cover pan and cook for 15 minutes.

Flip the chicken pieces, re-cover the pan, and continue cooking for another 10 minutes, or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 F when an instant read thermometer is inserted.

Remove the lid and continue cooking until the pan juice thickens.

Flip the chicken pieces one last time, sprinkle with fresh parsley, and serve hot, with potatoes, rice / cauliflower rice, and/or a side salad if desired.

Leftovers can be cooled to almost room temperature, transferred to an airtight container, and stored in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat before serving.

More One-Pot Camping Recipes

Looking for more easy - but satisfying! - one pot meals to cook over your campfire? Here are some of my favourites!

Bacon Cheeseburger Soup
Beef & Root Vegetable Stew
Cajun Chicken Sloppy Joes
Campfire Chicken Curry
Campfire Chili
Dutch Oven Jambalaya
Easy Chicken Curry
Egg Roll in a Bowl
Hearty Campfire Beef Stew
Indian Sloppy Joes
Mexican Sloppy Joes
Sloppy Giuseppes
Thankgiving Sloppy Joes
Traditional Sloppy Joes
Venison Chili
Venison Stew

Be sure to check out our other Camping Recipes, including Camping Desserts, Camping Snacks, Make-Ahead Camping Mix Recipes, and a ton of delicious Camping Main Dish Recipes.

Also, we had SO much fun designing gourmet jerky recipes for our camping trips, we started a whole new blog for them! Check out Dried & Tasty for all kinds of fun recipes to make in your food dehydrator!