These Chicken Tinga Tacos are a delicious mix of chicken, chipotle chillies, tomatoes, garlic, cumin and oregano served on homemade corn tortillas. The result is so delicious you can never make enough of them! Better still, they are surprisingly easy to make and take just 45 minutes from start to finish. Honestly, if you have never tried Chicken Tinga Tacos before, you are missing a real treat!
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Move over Chicken Fajitas!
One of my favorite meals ever is Chicken Fajitas… Since the first moment I tried them, I have loved them and included them on my meal plan rotation A LOT.
But then I discovered Chicken Tinga Tacos… and honestly, they kinda blew my mind. They are SO much better than Chicken Fajitas!
Chicken Tinga Tacos are a delicious mix of chicken, chipotles in adobo, tomatoes, garlic, cumin and oregano served on homemade corn tortillas. The result is so delicious you can never make enough of them.
Honestly, if you have never tried Chicken Tinga Tacos before, you are missing a real treat!
How to make Chicken Tinga Tacos
Chicken Tinga Tacos are surprisingly easy to make and take just 45 minutes from start to finish.
All you need to do is poach some chicken in water flavoured with onion, garlic, bay leaves and salt.
Meanwhile place a tin of chopped tomatoes, onion, chipotles in adobo, garlic, oregano, ground cumin and salt in a blender and blitz until smooth. This is your tinga sauce.
Next tip the tinga sauce into a frying pan and bring to the boil. Dip a measuring jug into the pan of poaching chicken to get 150ml of the poaching liquid. Pour this into the tinga sauce, then simmer for 10 minutes.
When the chicken is cooked, shred with two forks and add to the tinga sauce. Simmer for a further 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and stir in some chopped fresh coriander (AKA cilantro).
(Full recipe given in the recipe card below.)
What to serve with Chicken Tinga
Serve the chicken tinga in warm corn tortillas, topped with diced red onions, fresh coriander and feta cheese, with lime quarters, salsa and guacamole on the side.
I recommend you put everything on the table – the stack of warmed tortillas, the chicken tinga in the pan (or in a serving dish), plus diced red onions, fresh coriander, feta cheese, lime quarters, salsa and guacamole all in separate dishes – for everyone to make up their own tacos.
In an ideal world you would make your own homemade corn tortillas, plus homemade salsa and homemade guacamole – this is BY FAR the tastiest way to eat your Chicken Tinga Tacos… It is MORE than worth the extra effort IMHO.
However, on a busy weeknight you could absolutely serve this Chicken Tinga in shop-bought tortillas, with shop-bought guacamole and/or shop-bought salsa on the side.
Alternatively, you could serve this Chicken tinga with plain rice for a super easy, but still very tasty midweek meal!
What to drink with Chicken Tinga
My favourite wine match for Chicken Tinga Tacos is Sauvignon Blanc. While many white wines go well with chicken and spice, tomatoes really don’t work well with most white wines. Sauvignon Blanc is the one white wine that really works with tomatoes, as well as the chicken and spices.
I would go for a gutsy, flavour-packed Sauvignon Blanc from somewhere like New Zealand, South Africa or Chile. (This spice in this Chicken Tinga would be too much for a more delicate Loire Sauvignon Blanc, for example.)
The other way to go is with a medium bodied, fruity red like Merlot or Carmenere from Chile, Primitivo from Italy or Zinfandel from the USA.
Alternatively Chicken Tinga Tacos go very well with a crisp, refreshing Mexican lager!
Can you reheat Chicken Tinga?
Absolutely! And, in fact, it’s one of those dishes that’s even better the next day, making it a great ‘make ahead’ option.
Place any leftover (or made ahead) Chicken Tinga in an airtight container and pop it into the fridge, where it will keep for up to 3 days.
To reheat, simply tip the Chicken Tinga into a saucepan and heat until piping hot all the way through, adding a splash of water if it gets too dry.
Alternatively, you can reheat this Chicken Tinga in the microwave – again do make sure it is piping hot all the way through before serving.
Can you freeze Chicken Tinga?
Absolutely! Chicken Tinga freezes beautifully. Simply cool to room temperature and place it in a freezer-safe container.
Pop the Chicken Tinga into the freezer, where it will keep for up to 1 month.
Defrost overnight in the fridge and reheat as above.
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
- Blue Corn Tortillas
- Homemade Chicken Fajitas
- Homemade Turkey Fajitas
- Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas
- One Pot Chicken Fajita Pasta Bake
- Easy Refried Bean Quesadillas
Easy Refried Bean Quesadillas
Chicken Tinga Tacos
Ingredients
Poached chicken
- 600 g chicken breast (approximately 4 small chicken breasts)
- ¼ onion peeled and chopped in half
- 2 cloves garlic peeled and chopped in half
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Cold water to cover
Tinga sauce
- 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
- ¾ onion peeled and chopped into 6 pieces
- 3 tablespoons chipotles in adobo (See Note 1)
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 150 ml chicken poaching liquid
- 2 tablespoons fresh coriander (AKA cilantro) chopped finely + extra for garnish
Chicken Tinga Tacos
- 16 taco-size corn tortillas (approximately 12cm diameter – See Note 2)
- 1 red onion finely diced
- Fresh coriander
- Crumbled feta cheese (See Note 3)
- 2 limes quartered
- Guacamole
- Salsa
Instructions
Poached Chicken
- Place all the poached chicken ingredients in a medium sized saucepan and cover with cold water, so the water comes up 2cm / ¾inch above the ingredients.
- Cover with a lid and place over a high heat. Bring to the boil (approx. 10 minutes).
- Once boiling, turn the heat down low and simmer for 10 minutes with the lid on. The chicken should be just cooked.
- Remove the chicken from the broth and place on a plate. Use 2 forks to shred the chicken. Reserve the broth in case you need it later.
Tinga Sauce
- While the chicken is cooking, place all the tinga ingredients EXCEPT the chicken poaching liquid and the fresh coriander in a blender.
- Blend until smooth.
- Heat a non-stick frying pan over a high heat for 1 minute.
- Tip the tinga sauce into the frying pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat down low.
- Dip a measuring jug into the pan of poaching chicken to get 150ml (just over ½ a cup) of the poaching liquid. Pour this into the tinga sauce. Stir, then simmer with the lid off for 10 minutes.
Chicken Tinga Tacos
- When the chicken is shredded and the tinga sauce has simmered for 10 minutes, tip the shredded chicken into the tinga sauce and stir well so all the chicken is well coated.
- Simmer for a further 5 minutes, then turn off the heat, stir in the chopped coriander. (If the sauce gets too dry, add a splash more of the poaching liquid.)
- Serve the chicken tinga in warm corn tortillas, topped with diced red onions, fresh coriander and feta cheese, with lime quarters, salsa and guacamole on the side.
- I recommend you put the stack of tortillas, chicken tinga in the pan (or a serving dish), diced red onions, fresh coriander, feta cheese, lime quarters, salsa and guacamole on the table in separate dishes for people to make up their own tacos!
Notes
- Chipotles in adobo are smoked and dried jalapeño chillies which have been rehydrated and mixed with tomatoes, vinegar, garlic, and spices to make a delicious sweet, smoky and tangy puree. If you possibly can, I recommend you get authentic Chipotles in adobo from Amazon, MexGrocer or the Cool Chile Company. If you can’t get this then you can usually buy something called ‘chipotle chilli paste’ from the supermarket, which is a reasonable substitute for the real thing.
- If you possibly can, I recommend making your own homemade corn tortillas – they are a million times nicer than shop-bought ones. If you don’t have the time, you can obviously use shop bought corn or wheat tortillas, instead. Do make sure you warm them up first before you serve them, though!
- In Mexico, you would use cotija cheese, but cotija cheese is basically impossible to buy in the UK, so feta is as close a sub as you can get!
- Suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only. (Nutrition includes the Chicken Tinga + Corn Tortillas, but not the toppings / sides.)
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This blog post contains affiliate links, this means if you click on a link and go on to buy the product I recommend, I will get a small commission, but you will not be charged a penny more – thanks in advance!
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