Bean Marbella

Sheila Lukins (1942-2009) and Julee Rosso opened a small catering takeout place called The Silver Palate in 1977 at Columbus Avenue and West 73rd Street in New York City. One of the first dishes was Chicken Marbella, named after the city of Marbella in southern Spain. Chicken Marbella was included in Lukins’ and Russo’s The SIlver Palate Cookbook (New York, NY: Workman Publishing, 1982).
 
“Try the excellent chicken Marbella ($4.50 a portion), chicken and prunes marinated in garlic, brown sugar, vinegar, and white wine” was printed in Cue magazine in 1978. “When the recipe was later published in ‘The Silver Palate Cookbook’ by Sheila Lukens and Julee Rosso, it was a revelation, mostly thanks to its eccentric ingredients list: Vinegar? Olives? Prunes? Capers? Garlic? Brown sugar? White wine? All in one dish?” was printed in Reno (NV) Gazette-Journal on October 26, 2016.
 
There is a vegan version of the dish, called Beans Marbella, that was published in The New York Times—Cooking by Tejal Rao and Alexa Weibel on June 21, 2022:
 
“Instead of chicken, a pot of thin-skinned, creamy beans and their rich cooking liquid form the base, which are then added to a pan of fried garlic and reduced red wine with plenty of olive oil, prunes and olives. They’re then topped with a simple roasted potato salad, dressed with vinegar-soaked shallots, capers and parsley. It’s not an exact replica of chicken Marbella, but it’s a beautiful and satisfying way to enjoy its familiar flavors.”
 
The Silver Palate, on Columbus Avenue, closed in 1993.
   
 
Wikipedia: Sheila Lukins 
Sheila Lukins (November 18, 1942 – August 30, 2009), was an American cook and food writer. She was most famous as the co-author, with Julee Rosso, of The Silver Palate series of cookbooks, and The New Basics Cookbook, a very popular set of food guides which introduced many Americans to Mediterranean and Eastern European cooking techniques and ingredients and popularized a richer and very boldly seasoned style of cooking to Americans in sharp contrast to the health-food movements of the 1970s. Together, their books sold more than seven million copies.
 
She was also the co-founder and owner of the popular Silver Palate gourmet shop in New York City and, for 23 years, the food editor and columnist for Parade, a position previously held by Julia Child.
(...)
She was hired by Julee Rosso for a catering job. In 1977 she and Rosso opened and ran a gourmet food shop at the corner of Columbus Avenue and 73rd Street in New York City called The Silver Palate.
 
Google Books
Cue: The Weekly Magazine of New York Life
1978
Pg. ?:
Try the excellent chicken Marbella ($4.50 a portion), chicken and prunes marinated in garlic, brown sugar, vinegar, and white wine; dark, rich moussaka ($3.50 a portion ); or sherry roast pork and ham baked with apricot glaze.
 
Newspapers.com
28 July 1982, The Journal Herald (Dayton, OH), “The Silver Palate: Authors share the specialties of an innovative carryout” by Ann Heller, pg. 21, col. 3:
When the Silver Palate opened in 1977, the first main course dish offered was chicken marbella. It is a succulent chicken dish, robustly flavored with garlic and olives, capers and prunes, which add a fruitiness to the preparation.
(The recipe follows.—ed.)
 
Newspapers.com
25 July 1984, The CItizen (Ottawa, ON), “Here’s our menu for relaxed summer entertaining,” pg. 67, cols. 1-2:
Chicken Marbella
(from The Silver Palate Cookbook)
(The recipe follows.—ed.)
   
The New York TImes—Cooking
The Silver Palate’s Chicken Marbella
Recipe from “The Silver Palate Cookbook”
Adapted by Christine Muhlke
Updated May 4, 2016
If there’s such a thing as boomer cuisine, it can be found in the pages of “The Silver Palate Cookbook” by Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso. With its chirpy tone and “Moosewood”-in-the-city illustrations, the book, published in time for Mother’s Day in 1982, gave millions of home cooks who hadn’t mastered the art of French cooking the courage to try sophisticated dishes like escabeche, wild mushroom soup and that new thing called pesto. This recipe, also in the book, came to The Times in a 2007 article celebrating the 25th anniversary edition. The briny-sweet combination once seemed as risky (capers! prunes!) as the East Village, but now it’s considered as classic as Grand Central. —Christine Muhlke
 
Newspapers.com
26 October 2016, Reno (NV) Gazette-Journal, “Chicken Marbella, an ‘80s staple that still shines at table” by Katie Workman (Associated Press), pg. 4E, col. 2-5:
When this recipe was first created by The Silver Palate catering and take out shop on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, it earned an immediate following.
 
When the recipe was later published in “The Silver Palate Cookbook” by Sheila Lukens and Julee Rosso, it was a revelation, mostly thanks to its eccentric ingredients list: Vinegar? Olives? Prunes? Capers? Garlic? Brown sugar? White wine? All in one dish?
 
Yes! To taste it was to be converted.
(The recipe follows.—ed.)
   
The New York Times—Cooking
Beans Marbella
By Tejal Rao and Alexa Weibel
Updated June 21, 2022
This recipe started as a wisp of an idea in The Veggie, our weekly newsletter about vegetarian home cooking, inspired by that iconic dish chicken Marbella, made famous in “The Silver Palate Cookbook.” Instead of chicken, a pot of thin-skinned, creamy beans and their rich cooking liquid form the base, which are then added to a pan of fried garlic and reduced red wine with plenty of olive oil, prunes and olives. They’re then topped with a simple roasted potato salad, dressed with vinegar-soaked shallots, capers and parsley. It’s not an exact replica of chicken Marbella, but it’s a beautiful and satisfying way to enjoy its familiar flavors — the tangy, briny sharpness of vinegar, capers and olives, set against the sweetness of prunes. You can serve the dish as is, but it’s even more luxurious with some thickly sliced and toasted bread, brushed with olive oil and garlic.
 
X/Twitter
California Prunes
@CAforPrunes
These comforting beans were inspired by the iconic Chicken Marbella. Instead of chicken, creamy beans are added to a pan of fried garlic, wine, prunes + olives. We’re totally into this veg version!
Recipe by @tejalrao and @alexaweibel for the @nytimes
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1023274-beans-marbella/
11:15 PM · Oct 19, 2022
 
Eater
‘The Silver Palate Cookbook’ Changed Home Cooking (and Pesto Consumption) As We Know It
Published in 1982, it brought verve to entertaining and taught a generation of American cooks to trust in bold flavors, fresh herbs, and the joys of improvisation
by Aimee Levitt
Dec 7, 2022, 9:30 AM EST
(...)
The book, for its part, lives on. Its most famous recipe remains chicken Marbella, named after a small town on Spain’s Costa del Sol and invented by Lukins back in her Other Woman days. The food writer Molly O’Neill included it among the 50 most important recipes in American history, right up there with George Washington Carver’s puree of peanuts and Julia Child’s coq au vin. It has everything: salt (in the form of olives and capers), fat (olive oil), acid (red wine vinegar and white wine), and heat, plus sweetness (prunes and brown sugar) and heaps of garlic and oregano. Prep consists of throwing all the ingredients into a baking dish and letting it sit in the refrigerator overnight; pop it in the oven for an hour and, voila, dinner. It’s like a midcentury cream of mushroom soup casserole except with better groceries.
 
X/Twitter
Andrew Zimmern
@andrewzimmern
Chicken Marbella first appeared in recipe form in the 1982 Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. In the 1970s, Lukins ran a catering company in Manhattan.
 
Rosso knew some of her customers, ate her food and their friendship eventually led to a groundbreaking business model for food shops in New York City. In 1977, the duo opened The Silver Palate, a small takeaway shop that prepared beautiful meals for the grab-and-go crowd. My family had been catering customers of Sheila’s and shopped at the store regularly once it opened.
 
Chicken Marbella, a Lukins’ favorite from the early days of her catering business, became a Jewish holiday and Shabbat dinner party favorite of ours for many decades. I grew up eating The Silver Palate version of this dish. https://buff.ly/3uxYvPo
5:33 PM · Dec 20, 2024
 
VegNews
Herbed Beans Marbella With Roasted Potatoes
The tangy, briny sharpness of vinegar, capers, and olives set against the sweetness of prunes creates a backdrop of big flavor for the tender beans and potatoes in this recipe.
by Alexa Weibel & Tejal Rao
February 12, 2026
This plant-based take on chicken marbella by New York Times’ The Veggie writer Tejal Rao and NYT Cooking Senior Staff Editor Alexa Weibel swaps a pot of thin-skinned, creamy beans and its rich cooking liquid for the protein. Add in fried garlic and reduced red wine with plenty of olive oil, prunes, and olives, and a simple roasted potato salad dressed with vinegar-soaked shallots, capers, and parsley—and you’ve got one luxuriously delicious dinner.