Our braised chicken with olives and capers recipe makes incredibly succulent chicken legs in a Mediterranean style with a couple of surprising Asian ingredients. Adapted from a recipe by Australian chef Martin Benn, it’s a foolproof set-and-forget chicken recipe that no matter how long you leave it or reheat it the chicken remains juicy. Serve it with a chicken jus and creamy mash or Hasselback potatoes.
This ever-reliable and super-easy braised chicken with olives and capers recipe is one of our best chicken recipes. It will make you amazingly juicy chicken legs, which last night we enjoyed with my crunchy Hassleback potatoes made with baby potatoes (also called new potatoes, which cook faster than standard potatoes), and the radish cucumber salad with feta, rucola and fresh herbs I just shared. It was a perfect meal.
Alternatively, you could serve these succulent chicken legs with creamy mashed potatoes or even a warm German potato salad. Germany is not on the Mediterranean, we know, but, trust me, it works. As our braised chicken is made with Japanese soy sauce and mirin, and I’ll get to that in a moment, this fragrant fresh herb salad also makes a fab side.
Now before I tell you more about this braised chicken with olives and capers recipe, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve cooked our recipes and enjoyed them, please consider supporting Grantourismo by making a donation to our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon, which you can do for as little as the price of a coffee. Or you could buy us a coffee and we’ll use our coffee money to buy cooking ingredients for recipe testing.
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Braised Chicken with Olives and Capers Recipe for Juicy Mediterranean Style Chicken
I’m calling this braised chicken with olives and capers recipe ‘Mediterranean style’, although we’ve spotted various iterations of this braised chicken recipe called ‘Spanish braised chicken’ and ‘Basque chicken’. Because while we’ve tweaked this braised chicken dish over the years that Terence has been making it, we can’t take credit for it.
We’ve adapted it from a recipe by one of our favourite Australian chefs, Martin Benn, of Sepia fame. Now closed, Sepia was one of Sydney’s finest restaurants for many years, and while this comforting braised chicken with olives and capers recipe is very different to the elegant, inventive food at Sepia, Martin’s Japanese influence is present in the form of soy sauce and mirin.
We’ve been making this braised chicken with olives and capers recipe for so long that neither of us can recall when Terence first began cooking it. I only recently took over making this easy braised chicken dish when we thought we should share it with you and I began testing Terence’s recipe. I’ve cooked it three times this week, which also means we’ve eaten it three times, and I’m not tired of it yet!
Just a few tips to making this braised chicken with olives and capers recipe as it’s actually very easy and once you put it on, it’s virtually a set-and-forget-dish.
Tips for Making this Braised Chicken with Olives and Capers Recipe
This braised chicken with olives and capers recipe is so easy, I only have a few tips to making the dish. Because aside from a little basting, it’s virtually a set-and-forget-dish.
You’ll add most of the ingredients to a baking pan large enough to hold the chicken pieces, to which you’ll pour in the chicken stock, white wine, Spanish olive oil, soy sauce, and mirin, and add the ground paprika. Give that a good stir to combine everything.
Next, spread the chicken pieces out in the baking tray, spoon the liquid onto the chicken, and season with salt and white pepper.Distribute the olives, capers and garlic around the chicken pieces, then slide the tray into the oven. Slide it out every 15-20 minutes for a quick baste of the chicken and spoon the liquid over the chicken legs.
The chicken should be cooked and be a beautiful golden colour at around 45 minutes. Slide the tray out of the oven and check the internal temperature of the chicken with a digital kitchen thermometer by poking it into the thickest part of a chicken piece. When the chicken is cooked through, it should reach an internal temperature of 74°C (165°F).
Ladle or pour most of the chicken liquid, including the olives and capers, out of the pan and into a small saucepan, leaving just enough in the baking tray to cover the bottom of the pan, as you’ll need this for a final baste of the chicken.
Return the tray of chicken pieces to the oven to brown while you reduce the chicken liquid in the saucepan over high heat to create a jus.
Plate the braised chicken legs, pouring the delicious jus over the chicken pieces, and arrange the capers and olives around the chicken legs. Serve the braised chicken with Hasselback potatoes or mashed potatoes, and sides of vegetables or salad, and crusty bread to mop up the juices.
Braised Chicken with Olives and Capers Recipe for Juicy Mediterranean Style Chicken
Ingredients
- 120 ml chicken stock
- 120 ml Chardonnay
- 125 ml Spanish olive oil
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- ½ tbsp mirin
- 2 tbsp ground smoky paprika
- 4 chicken legs large (around 300g each)
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp white pepper
- 100 g olives mixed – Kalamata for flavour, Spanish for colour
- 2 tbsp Spanish salted capers
- 8 small garlic cloves peeled
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 220°C (430°F).
- To a baking pan large enough to hold the chicken pieces, pour in the chicken stock, white wine, Spanish olive oil, soy sauce and mirin, add the paprika, and stir to combine.
- Spread the chicken pieces out in the baking tray, spoon the liquid onto the chicken, and season with salt and white pepper
- Distribute the olives, capers and garlic around the chicken pieces, slide the tray into the oven for 50 minutes, basting the chicken with the liquid every 15-20 minutes or so.
- The chicken should be cooked and be a lighten golden colour at around 45 minutes. Slide the tray out of the oven and check the internal temperature with a digital thermometer by poking it into the widest part of a chicken piece.
- Ladle or pour most of the liquid, along with the olives and capers, out of the pan and into a saucepan, saving just enough to cover the bottom of the baking tray for a final baste.
- Return the chicken to the oven to brown while you reduce the liquid over high heat to create a jus.
- Plate the chicken, pouring the jus over the pieces, and arranging the capers and olives around the pieces. Serve with potatoes and sides of vegetables or salad and crusty bread to mop up the juices.
Nutrition
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make our braised chicken with olives and capers recipe as we’d love to hear how it turns out for you.
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