Chicken Marbella, Hold the Chicken

Hello! Tejal here, filling in for Sam today and Sunday.

I didn’t grow up with “The Silver Palate Cookbook,” but when the 25th anniversary edition came out in 2007, I was an aspiring writer, thrilled to get into a book party at the Central Park Boathouse.

Between filling up on the passed hors d’oeuvres and wine, I foraged for gossip in a room full of food writers and editors. Mostly, everyone wanted to talk about chicken Marbella.

I’d never heard of the dish, so a few weeks later I made it for a party in my East Village walk-up and set it out with a stack of plates and a baguette. My roommates and friends hadn’t heard of the dish either, but it quickly disappeared — I could see why it had been a hit.

Now I think of “Marbella” as less of a dish and more of a distinct set of flavors: tangy red wine vinegar, green olives and briny capers, tempered by the sweetness of prunes and wine-braised garlic. This means you can apply Marbella to other main ingredients: Beans Marbella brings all of the same flavors to beans and it’s delicious. Try it with big, creamy gigante or corona beans, or meaty scarlet runners.

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Beans Marbella

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On a cold night, when it gets dark early, everything is a little bit better tucked under a sheet of buttery pastry. I want to make Alexa Weibel’s beautiful mushroom potpie, which also includes parsnips, kale, carrots and potatoes, so that I actually have two eight-inch pies — one for tonight and one to pop into the freezer and rescue me on a day when I’m falling behind on everything. Though if you’re dealing with leftover chicken, Millie Peartree’s jerk chicken potpie recipe would be more of a help!

I don’t need an excuse for Priya Krishna’s cozy everyday dal, made here with fast-cooking masoor, or red lentils, and the simplest seasoning of cumin seeds, chile and asafetida fried in ghee. If you’re in the mood for more of a project, it might be a good time to think about Tanya Holland and Korsha Wilson’s gumbo z’herbes, an occasion of a recipe packed with prawns and crab and bright with herbs, kale and spinach.

And, finally, back to beans! Ali Slagle’s sheet pan kielbasa with cabbage and beans is fast, satisfying and highly adaptable. Making it will produce very few dirty dishes — important. I’d love it with mashed potatoes, but it doesn’t require them.

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