Chicken with Mangold

It is Sunday, and the morning saw me waking up without a mood for doing anything at all. It was lazy, and I was lazy to cook even. I was even thinking of ordering a pizza for lunch. But somehow with even less than half the wish, I decided to cook the lunch. There was only mangold (Chard or Spinach Beet) and some chicken breasts to cook. Yesterday I somehow thought I will cook the chicken into some sauce and make mangold separately. But today I was too lazy to think of what kind of preparations to make and was rather wishing for a short cut. So, the easiest way was to cook the chicken with mangold in some sauce. And I put in it randomly some spices I got hold of, both Indian and European. I didn’t much think of how it will turn out, but the end result was quite satisfying. It had an interesting and unusual taste, some kind of spices saltiness, which I liked. And it was quite good with hot Basmati. I am really pleased and happy with how it turned out. And it lifted up my mood too. At the end, on a day when I had no mood for cooking, I cooked something that was good, something that I will like to cook again, and even for guests!!!

INGREDIENTS:

300gm chicken breasts (2-3 pieces)
200gm mangold leaf
1 small onion
2 big cloves of garlic
1 bayleaf
1sp whole black pepper
1sp Mediterranean spice mix
1/2sp ground black pepper
1/2sp ground coriander
1/2sp ground Indian cumin
Sea salt
Salt
Sugar
Oil

METHOD:
1. Wash and coarsely chop the mangold leaves (I didn’t use the stem).
2. Pat dry the chicken breasts and fork them lightly. Rub each with Mediterranean spice mix, ground black pepper and sea salt.
3. Chop the small onion and crush the garlic cloves.
4. Heat oil in a frying pan. And when it is hot, add the whole pepper and bayleaf.
5. When it crackles, add the onion and garlic.
6. Wait until they turn pinkish brown and add the coriander and cumin. Stir for half a minute.
7. Add the chicken breasts. Put it to medium heating/flame.
8. Fry them until both sides turn golden brown and the meat turns soft.
9. Next add the chopped mangold leaves. Stir, and cook it covered for around 10-12mins on medium heat/flame.
10. When the leaves wilt and the chicken is tender, uncover and cook for another minute to evaporate a bit of the water that the mangold had left.
11. Serve hot with plain rice.

NOTE:
One can use spinach or any other similar leaves instead of mangold.
The Mediterranean spice mix had the usual thyme, rosemary, basil, parsley, pepper, salt etc. One can also use some spice mixes for grill/tandoor to have similar effect and taste.