I am alone in Granada, with a few leftover ingredients in the fridge, and I discovered I had everything I needed to make an old family recipe that my abuela used to make. My family is ladino, i.e. Spanish Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, and most of my family recipes go back all the way to those times, with only a few additions (tomatoes, beans, peppers… All these lovely ingredients from el nuevo mundo!). I did it quickly with no measuring, just pinches (I have big fingers btw…), so here goes:
Ingredients:
2 large onions (cebolla), rough cut
1 big bunch of Swiss chard (acelgas)
2 lbs of large, soft white beans
2 lbs of chicken thighs (any way you want, bone-in or boneless, skin-on or skinless: they all have their advantages; skin-on with bones in is traditional) pollo
6 large cloves of garlic in small dice
1 15oz can of diced tomatoes
1 cup of wine
2 oranges, juiced
Zest of one small lemon
6 pinches salt
4 pinches cumin
2 pinches coriander
2 pinches black pepper
1 pinch cayenne
0.5 pinch cinnamon, if possible European (i.e. not Cassia)
1 pinch oregano
Lots of olive oil
- Wash Swish chard (we should call it Jewish chard really because my family has so many recipes with them! But I’ll call them acelgas). Cut white stems off, then dice them about the same size as onion. Let dry.
- heat 3 spoonfuls olive oil in le creuset pot with burners mid high
- Lightly brown onions
- Add acelgas stems, lightly brown
- Add garlic, mix well for a minute
- Add 2 spoonful olive oil, let heat for 30 seconds, throw in chicken
- Throw in spices, mix well every minute for 5 minutes. If using bone-in thighs with skin on, leave until skin is brown on both sides
- throw in tomatoes, mix well, leave 3 minutes while mixing periodically
- Throw in beans, mix well
- Throw in wine, orange juice, lemon zest.bring back to boil
- Put in oven, preheated at 250, for 15 minutes
- In the mean time, cut and dice the green of the Swiss chard
- Put back on burner. Add acelgas greens and submerge them well, bring back to boil. Put back in oven for 10 minutes
- Take out. Rectify salt. Eat!
It also goes well with couscous, but you lose the low GI 
