Go Back
–+ servings

Chicken Marbella - Camp Cast Iron Dutch Oven

Prepare and mix all our marinade ingredients. Then, store the chicken in the zipper bag with the marinade for 1-3 days. In camp, brown the chicken. Then, add all of the other ingredients.
Basically: Brown the chicken, dump in the marinade, and cook to doneness!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 1 day
Cook Time 30 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Spanish
Servings 6 People

Equipment

  • One-Gallon Zipper Bag
  • Small Zipper Bag to store the Brown Sugar to Camp
  • Cutting Board and a Knife
  • Garlic Press
  • Can Opener
  • Tray for prepping the chicken
  • Paper Towels to Dab the Chicken Dry

Ingredients
  

  • 4-8 ounces Prunes chopped
  • 8-12 ounces Beer
  • 3.5 ounces Capers with Liquid
  • 2 Tablespoons Dried Oregano
  • 4-5 ounces Olives Sliced or Halved and drained
  • 6 Cloves of Garlic Minced
  • 1 teaspoon Salt
  • 6 Chicken thighs or a combination of legs and thighs, Skin on and bone in
  • 1-2 Tablespoons Oil
  • 1 teaspoon Brown sugar per piece of chicken. OPTIONAL

Instructions
 

Pre-Prepare at Home:

  • Trim your chicken thighs a bit. We need the skin, but we don’t need all that much skin.
  • Roughly chop the prunes. You could leave them whole, but I don’t. I coarsely chop the prunes into smaller pieces.
  • Place the 6 (+/-) chicken thighs into the gallon-sized zipper bag.
  • Prepare the Marinade – Add to the zipper bag of chicken. The chopped prunes, olives, 12 ounces of beer, the capers with the liquid, minced garlic, oregano, and the salt. Basically, add everything but the oil and brown sugar to that zipper bag. Mix the ingredients well. Cover the chicken with the marinade.
  • Let the chicken rest in the marinade for a day or two in the cooler, ice chest, or refrigerator. If you are keeping the chicken stored in a container with other non-meat items, consider double-bagging the chicken.

In Camp and Ready to Cook. This recipe will end up being baked. We’ll need at least 24 briquettes to bake this recipe in the 12-inchcamp cast iron Dutch oven.

  • Set 24-40 briquettes to fire. Set the cast iron Dutch oven near by to warm as the briquettes fire up.
  • While the briquettes are heating up, remove the chicken from the marinade and set on a paper towel-lined tray or other clean surface with the skin side up.
  • Add about a teaspoon of brown sugar per piece of chicken but only on the skin side.
  • Once the briquettes are done and ready, set the camp cast iron Dutch oven over a bed of hot charcoal briquettes and really heat that cast iron up to a wicked hot temperature.
  • Add the oil to the pot and let it get very hot. You’ll see whips of smoke from the oil’s surface. Perfect. We need a hot pot that will sear that chicken very well. Six pieces of chicken to the 12-inch Dutch oven will really cool that pot down fast. We need a really hot pot to get a good sear on so many pieces of chicken.
  • Add the chicken to the pot skin side down. The brown sugar will likely have drawn some of the moisture from the chicken and have “stuck” to the chicken skin. Some of the sugar may fall off during transfer. Don’t worry about it; it’s okay.
  • Once the skin side is seared and browned, flip each piece over and sear the bone side of the chicken thighs. When both sides are browned, turn each piece skin-side-up.
  • Once the chicken is seared and browned, remove the pot from the heat. Add the remaining marinade ingredients to the pot and over that chicken. Spread evenly over the chicken and between the pieces of chicken.
  • Place the lid back on the pot and add 16-18 hot briquettes to the top. Place a ring of 8-10 hot briquettes to the bottom. Let the meal cook until the chicken reached 165°F / 75°C degrees at the bone and the juices flow clear.

Notes

Chef Tip: I suggest using a paper towel lining to let the excess moisture wick away from the bone side of the chicken. The brown sugar will be added to the skin side and do a good job “soaking” up any excess moisture.
Chef Tip: When you remove the chicken from the marinade, some of the prunes, garlic, and olives may piggy-back along. Some of these ingredients are okay. Don’t let too many tag along. We really only want the chicken in the pot while we are searing the chicken in the hot cast iron.
You could sear in batches. Sear 3 pieces of the chicken on both sides and then the other three. I just do all six and let the broth steam off. If you find that your chicken “boiled” during your first attempt at this recipe, you may not have had the heat hot enough. No worries. It’ll still be delicious. But, next time consider searing in batches of three.
If you want to enjoy this recipe with some baked or mashed sweet potatoes or yams, follow the Beer and Iron Baked Sweet Taters in a Camp Cast Iron Dutch Oven. If you bake them just right, the skins will fall off easily. Then all you have to do is toss in a bit of butter and a bit of milk and mash away. Add a good bit of the mashed sweet potatoes to the bowl or plate, ladle over some of the juices and other goodies, then top with a chicken thigh or two.
This recipe also goes well over rice, couscous, or even some white mashed potatoes…those Yukon Golds are on the sweet side.
Keyword baked chicken, Camp Cast Iron Dutch Oven, camp dutch oven, Camp Oven, Chicken Marbella, Marbella
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!