Chicken Tinga Tacos

by Stephanie

Have you ever had tinga before? I hadn’t until I made this. Basically, it’s shredded meat in a tomato-chipotle sauce.

I made these one Sunday to have dinner ready for the next day. Actually, that same Sunday I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Do you ever do that, spend a lot of time in the kitchen on Sundays? I bet you do. I like to prepare for the week ahead, that way my time in the kitchen on weekdays after work is significantly diminished.

Taco night is a regular at our house; it’s sometimes black bean tacos, sometimes fish or tuna tacos, even chopped meat or steak tacos, but never before has it been chicken tacos! Have you ever had chicken tacos?

Chicken tinga tacos?!

You should!

 

 

Chicken Tinga Tacos from Food & Wine via The Bitten Word
Serves 2

Ingredients:

  • A few tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 3 skinless, bone-in chicken thighs
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 small onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • One 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
  • 1 canned chipotle in adobo, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 cup chicken stock, vegetable broth or water
  • 6 corn tortillas
  • Sliced scallions and chopped cilantro, for garnish

Directions:

  1. Season the chicken on both sides. Heat some oil in the bottom of a pan and brown the chicken on both sides. Set aside in an oven-proof dish (or, if your pan is oven-proof, you can use that again later).
  2. In the same or a different pan, heat up the rest of the oil, add the onion, and cook until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes. Add the tomatoes, chipotle and liquid of choice and simmer over medium heat for about 20 minutes, letting the sauce thicken and reduce a bit.
  3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  4. Transfer the sauce to a food processor or blend with an immersion blender. Now is when you should taste the sauce for seasoning, and add salt and/or pepper if needed. Pour the sauce over the chicken if you transferred it to an ovenproof dish, or put the chicken back in the sauce if you used an ovenproof pan.
  5. Bake, uncovered for 45 minutes. The chicken will fully cook and the sauce will thicken and darken around the edges.
  6. Let it cool just a bit, remove the chicken from the bones, and put the pieces back into the sauce. You can refrigerate this part now, and reheat it for dinner tomorrow, or you can proceed to eat dinner.
  7. If you’re ready to eat, wrap the tortillas in foil and bake them at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.
  8. Put about 3 tablespoons of chicken filling in the center of each tortilla, top with scallions and cilantrio and eat.
  9. Also consider avocados, limes, and other green toppings. Not cheese, like the original recipe calls for, because that’s not kosher, duh.