In A Pinch Chicken Spinach

The week after Easter is always a kind of rest — the body recovering from the production, the kitchen recovering from the operation, the heart recovering from the fullness. But this year the rest is different because the rest follows not just Easter but a year of absence, and the recovery is from both the cooking and the missing, and both are real and both leave marks.

Rosa called on Tuesday. She sounded different — not tired, not the pandemic exhaustion, but something else, something that sounded like anticipation, like a secret that wants to be told but is waiting for the right moment. She said, Mami, I have news. My body went still because when your daughter says I have news the body prepares for everything from pregnancy to catastrophe and the preparation is the same: total attention, hands on the counter, feet on the floor, ready. She said, I'm pregnant.

Rosa is pregnant. My Rosa. My teacher. My daughter who married Carlos in October 2019 and who has been trying, I now learn, since the wedding, and the trying during a pandemic added an impossible layer to an already anxious process, and the trying has now succeeded, and the baby is due in November, and I am going to be an abuela again, and the word again is the most beautiful word in any language.

I called everyone. I called Miguel Jr. and Sofía and David. I called Ana. I called Marisol in Bayamón. I called Eduardo at the dining table, which is six feet from the kitchen, and he said, Carmen, you could have just spoken normally. I said, Eduardo, this news requires a phone call. Even across the room. Especially across the room. The phone call makes it official. The phone call makes it real. I am going to be an abuela for the fifth time (Lucas, Isabella, and now this one — I count Rosa and Carlos's baby with the same certainty I counted my own children: as inevitable, as essential, as already mine before they arrive).

I made caldo de pollo to celebrate, because celebration in this family always involves food and because chicken soup is what you make when the future is arriving and you want to nourish the woman who carries it.

The caldo was already on the stove when I remembered I had fresh spinach that needed using, and that is how this dish was born — not from a plan, but from abundance, from the kind of happiness that makes you open every drawer and every cabinet and want to put everything you love into one pot. I make this when I need something warm fast, when the news is big and the hunger is bigger, when the woman carrying your grandchild deserves a meal that says you are cared for in every bite. It is not complicated. It is not supposed to be. It is “in a pinch” in the best sense — made quickly, made with love, made for exactly this kind of Tuesday.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
5 oz fresh baby spinach (about 4 packed cups)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)

Instructions

Season the chicken. Pat chicken pieces dry with paper towels. Season all over with cumin, smoked paprika, salt, and black pepper.
Sear the chicken. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken in a single layer and cook, undisturbed, for 3–4 minutes until golden. Flip and cook another 2–3 minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Build the base. Reduce heat to medium. Add butter to the same skillet. Once melted, add onion and cook 3 minutes until softened. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more, stirring constantly, until fragrant.
Deglaze and simmer. Pour in chicken broth and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Let it simmer 2 minutes.
Wilt the spinach. Add spinach in batches, stirring after each addition until just wilted, about 2–3 minutes total.
Return the chicken. Nestle the seared chicken back into the skillet. Stir to combine and cook 3–4 minutes more until chicken is cooked through and the broth has reduced slightly.
Finish and serve. Squeeze lemon juice over the top, taste for salt, and add red pepper flakes if desired. Serve immediately over rice, with warm tortillas, or alongside crusty bread.

Nutrition (per serving)

In A Pinch Chicken Spinach — The Soup of the Soul That Started With a Phone Call