Chicken Tinga Tacos

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!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mexican

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 40

Total Time 45

Servings people

Calories 478kcal

Author Eb Gargano

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

Metric - US Customary

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.)

Nutrition