Chicken Tinga – Spicy Mexican Chicken
- Author: ThePetitePiglet
- Yield: 8 tacos or 4 salads
Ingredients
- 2 ½ pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (about 2 – 3 depending on size)
- 3 – 4 tomatillos, husks removed and roughly chopped
- 1 cup white onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 chipotles in adobe, roughly chopped + 2 tablespoons of the sauce
- 1 (15 ounce can) fire-roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 cup chicken stock
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon Mexican oregano
- Olive oil
- Salt + pepper
Instructions
- Season the chicken with salt + pepper
- Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a Dutch oven
- Once oil is hot, but not smoking, add chicken (skin side down) and cook over medium heat on the first side for about 6 – 8 minutes without moving. Flip the chicken and cook on the opposite side for about 3 – 4 minutes. Remove chicken and set aside (chicken will not be completely cooked at this point, you just want each side to be nicely browned)
- Add the onion to the Dutch oven and cook, stirring frequently for about 3 minutes, until onions begin to soften
- Add the tomatillos and garlic and continue to cook for about 2 more minutes (you may need to lower the heat so you don’t burn the garlic)
- Add the cumin and oregano and stir well to combine
- Add the chipotles, chipotle sauce, diced tomatoes and chicken stock and bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for a few minutes
- Turn heat off of sauce and allow to cool slightly, use an immersion blender to blend sauce until smooth. Alternatively, you can transfer sauce to a blender to blend
- Once sauce is blended and smooth, increase heat and bring sauce back to a boil
- Once sauce is boiling, add chicken breasts back to the Dutch oven, reduce heat to a simmer and cover and cook for about 25 – 30 minutes (flipping the chicken halfway through the cooking time). The chicken is done when a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the chicken reads 165 F
- Remove chicken and let cool, once chicken is cool, shred the chicken and return it to the sauce, mix well to ensure chicken is evenly coated with the sauce
- Use as filling for tacos, enchiladas, on nachos or my favorite way – on a taco salad