Ina Garten’s Chicken Marbella

Ina Garten isn’t just known for making good chicken. She’s known for making perfect chicken — you know the one — as well as a lemon and herb chicken so darn delicious, it’s rumored to inspire marriage proposals (including Prince Harry’s 2017 proposal to Meghan Markle).

So when we got our hands on Ina’s new cookbook, Cook Like a Pro, we flipped straight to the index and ran our finger down the page until we came to the letter “C,” searching for her latest and greatest chicken recipes. This Chicken Marbella was the first to catch our eye, and it’s already dog-eared and oil-stained and on rotation in our kitchens.

Ina’s new Chicken Marbella recipe is inspired by one from the 1982 Silver Palate Cookbook. Ina writes that after revisiting the recipe, she remembered why it was such a popular ’80s party dish: the chicken is marinated with prunes, vinegar, olives, capers, and a shocking amount of garlic (1 1/2 heads!) for a stunning dish famous for its sweet, tangy, briny, garlicky flavor. Ina’s version ups the prunes, olives, and garlic and scales back on the brown sugar for just the right balance of flavors.

Having cooked through it myself and served it as the main at my Ina-themed dinner party (a brilliant theme I plan on repeating seasonally), I can confidently say this recipe checks all the boxes of a winning Ina recipe. The recipe itself is straightforward and easy-to-follow: toss the chicken in a marinade (to make it easy on yourself, ask the butcher at the grocery store to cut the chicken and remove the backbone for you), let it sit overnight to soak up all the flavor, and then season generously and roast until cooked through.

The Ina magic lies in the fact that however simple it is to make, the resulting dish feels special, what with the tender, juicy chicken nestled between green olives and sweet prunes, glistening in the warm pan juices.