There IS One Acceptable Use For Pimentos

In a post last week complaining about Robin's dull recipes, I completely dissed her use of roasted red peppers and remarked that I detest pimentos. I forgot that there is one place that I do find them acceptable; and that's in the center of olives to be used in Chicken Marbella – the now classic chicken, prune and caper recipe from the original Silver Palate Cookbook. They don't specifically say to use them, but they add a bit of red that's really dashing. Aside from that, my pimento ban stands!

BTW,
if you’ve never tried Chicken Marbella, YOU MUST. It sounds weird, especially mixing prunes with capers and THEN sprinkling over brown sugar before cooking the whole thing, but it is really divine.

I don’t follow the recipe exactly, I just throw in handfuls of what’s called for. And you certainly don’t need to use 10 pounds of chicken! But do double the chicken you think you need, because it’s soooo good the next day.

Plus even if I’m using a lot less chicken than what’s called for in the recipe, I only halve all the other goodies, because they’re so delicious. The recipe calls for one cup of prunes, for example, but I always use at least ½ cup, no matter how little chicken I’m making. Oh, and don’t bother with the oil. I haven’t missed it once in the 17,000 times I’ve made this.

Serve it with orzo to sop up the amazing juices from all those strange things together. Questions?