This is a versatile soup you can make with chicken or any other white meat, like pheasant, grouse, quail or rabbit. What follows below is the better, "weekend" version of the soup. If you want to make this fast, see the headnotes above for weeknight hacks.
1/2poundchard or other leafy green,roughly chopped
1/2cupchopped cilantro
Lime juice, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
Cover the beans with water by several inches and bring to a simmer. Let these cook gently by themselves. Doing this keeps the broth clear and results in the best-tasting beans, because they don't want salt at the beginning, and the broth does. Add salt to the beans once they are tender. Strain and reserve.
Get a large soup pot hot over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. When it's hot, sauté the onions until nicely browned. This can take 10 minutes or so. Add the garlic and cook another minute.
You have two options with the chicken, pheasant or whatever: You can joint it or not, and you can roast it or not. You'll get different results if you joint and brown the meat first than if you pop a whole chicken into the pot raw. They're all good, so do what makes you happy.
Regardless, when the onions are ready, submerge the bird with water and bring to a simmer. Add salt to taste, along with the bay or avocado leaves and the Mexican oregano. Let this simmer until the chicken or pheasant is super tender, about an hour for a supermarket chicken, 2 1/2 hours for a pheasant.
Fish out the bird, let it cool a bit on a baking sheet. Pull the meat from the bones, making sure it's in pieces you'd want to eat with a spoon, and add it all back to the soup.
Add the beans, green chiles and chard and let this simmer for 10 minutes. Add salt, black pepper, and lime juice to taste, then stir in the cilantro and serve.
Notes
This soup will keep a week in the fridge and freezes well. It can also be pressure canned.