Chicken Marbella

This is a pretty simple marinade/sauce for boneless skinless chicken. We don't really eat a ton of boneless skinless chicken breast. We either do bone in skin on out on the grill or sous vide. For most other dishes we use thighs for their fat and flavor. But in this recipe the boneless skinless breasts do work quite well.

The important thing is to not overcook the chicken. Do not cook your chicken to 165 degrees, it will be overcooked. If you want to read up on it you can checkout the USDA's data here. But it basically comes down to the fact that a chicken breast at 5% fat takes ~3 minutes at 150 degrees or ~1 minute at 155 degrees to become "safe" according to the USDA (The linked document describes what "safe" means). So if we cook the chicken to 150 degrees in the center and then cover with foil (I just throw a sheet pan on top of the 13x9 because that seems easier) and lets it rest for ~10 minutes, then everything will be "safe" to eat. That is because the center of the chicken will continue to rise in temperature because the outer edge of the chicken breast is hotter than 150 and will continue to cook the inside of the chicken meaning the center of the chicken will be above 150 for those 10 minutes. This leaves us with juicy chicken because we didn't overcook it and we brined it overnight.

[Update]
I simplified the recipe and got rid of the extra dirty bowl. Otherwise everything is the same.

Ingredients

• 4  lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (6 good size breasts)
• 1 head of garlic, cloves separates and smashed, skins removed
• 4 tablespoons dried oregano
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup pitted prunes
• 1/2 cup pitted Spanish green olives
• 1/2 cup capers
• 4 bay leaves
• Salt and pepper

Directions

1. In a 13x9 pan add oil, vinegar, oregano, prunes, olives, capers, garlic, and bay leaves. Mix thoroughly.
2. Place chicken on top and season both sides with salt and pepper
3. Cover and place in fridge for 24 hours, flipping chicken halfway through (if you remember).
4. Bake at 350 for ~40-45 minutes or until chicken reaches 150-155 degrees. Cover with foil or a sheet pan and let rest for 10 minutes (The rest is very important to allow the chicken to coast to ~160 degrees internal temperature).
5. Serve by itself or over rice.

Get the recipe here