Chicken Tinga Tacos Recipe | Gimme Some Oven

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These Chicken Tinga Tacos are made with smoky chipotle chicken, served on warm corn tortillas, and loaded up with your favorite fresh toppings. So flavorful and ready to go in just over 30 minutes!

Craving chicken tacos but short on time?

Make chicken tinga tacos! ♡

Chicken tinga is has long been one of my go-to recipes to make on busy weeknights or to prep ahead of time for easy entertaining. This traditional dish from Puebla, Mexico with its signature smoky, savory, slightly-spicy sauce is remarkably quick and easy to prepare. And when tossed with shredded chicken, loaded into warm corn tortillas, drizzled with a squeeze of fresh lime juice, and sprinkled with your favorite fresh toppings, I’m telling you — these chicken tinga tacos are always a hit.

Feel free to make the chicken tinga however works best for you — either on the stovetop, in the Instant Pot, or in the Crock Pot. And while any tortillas that you happen to have on hand will work here, I can vouch that these tacos are next-level irresistible when made with a batch of these homemade corn tortillas. We just made a batch again the other day and served them with chips and salsa, a simple Mexican-inspired side salad, and margaritas and it was one of the best meals I’ve had all month. Always so good!

So if you’re looking for a new taco recipe to add to your repertoire that’s big on flavor and low on prep time, round up these simple ingredients and let’s make some chicken tinga tacos!

Chicken Tinga Taco Ingredients:

Before we get to the full recipe below, here are a few notes about the ingredients you will need to make these chicken tinga tacos:

• Chicken Tinga: Shredded cooked chicken (I often use a rotisserie) is tossed with a simple sauce made with onion, garlic, chipotles in adobo, diced tomatoes, chicken stock, honey (optional), cumin, oregano, and bay leaf. See my full chicken tinga recipe post for details, including possible ingredient variations.
• Corn tortillas: Soft corn tortillas are traditionally used in chicken tinga tacos. You can of course warm up some store-bought corn tortillas. But if you happen to have the extra time, I highly recommend making a batch homemade! They’re surprisingly easy to make with just three ingredients and the flavor and texture of homemade tortillas can’t be beat!
• Fresh lime wedges: A generous squeeze of fresh lime juice also brightens up the flavor of these chipotle tacos beautifully.
• Taco toppings: Finally, you choose whatever toppings you love best! I would recommend some sort of combo of chopped fresh cilantro, sliced red onions (or quick pickled red onions), sliced avocados (or guacamole), sliced radishes, crumbled cotija cheese, and/or Mexican crema.

How To Make Chicken Tinga Tacos:

Full instructions are included in the recipe below, but here is a quick overview of how to make chicken tinga tacos with a few helpful tips!

1. Make the chicken tinga. Full instructions for how to make chicken tinga in the Instant Pot, Crock-Pot or on the stovetop can be found here. Once the chicken is simmering with the sauce, I recommend going ahead and prepping the toppings and tortillas.
2. Prep your favorite toppings. Go ahead and chop, slice, dice, crumble or mix up whatever toppings you might like to sprinkle on your tacos.
3. Warm the tortillas. Then just before you’re ready to serve the tacos, go ahead and warm up your tortillas. If you are using store-bought corn tortillas, this is my favorite way to warm and soften them up so that they do not break.
4. Assemble the tacos. Immediately fill up your warm tortillas with a generous spoonful of the chicken tinga, drizzle with lime juice and sprinkle on your favorite toppings.
5. Serve. Then serve the chicken tacos up right away and enjoy!!

Possible Recipe Variations:

This chicken tinga tacos recipe is incredibly flexible, so feel free to customize it as you wish! For example, feel free to…

• Use flour tortillas or crispy corn tortillas: Either of these (in place of soft corn tortillas) would also be delicious!
• Use a different protein: If you are making the stovetop tinga recipe, feel free to sub in cooked beef, pork, shrimp, or whatever other protein you might prefer in place of the chicken. (Cooking time will vary, of course, depending on which protein you choose!)
• Add beans: These tacos would also be awesome with beans (I would recommend pinto or black beans) or refried beans added in.
• Add avocados: Homemade guacamole or sliced avocados would also be a fantastic addition to the taco filling.

More Easy Taco Recipes:

Looking for more quick and easy taco recipes to add to your repertoire? Here are a few of my faves…

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