Smoky Chicken Tinga Tacos Recipe

Flavor-packed tacos feature smoky chicken thighs in a tomato and chile-based sauce.

By
Joshua Bousel
a photo of Joshua Bousel, a Contributing Writer at Serious Eats
Joshua Bousel is a Serious Eats old-timer, having started sharing his passion for grilling and barbecue recipes on the site back in 2008. He continues to develop grilling and barbecue recipes on his own site, The Meatwave, out of his home base of Durham, North Carolina.
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Updated November 17, 2022
Close-up of smoky chicken tinga served on a corn tortilla, topped with tomatillo salsa, onion, cilantro, and grated cotija cheese.

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

Why It Works

  • Browning chicken thighs first and then cooking them in the sauce produces a richer, more deeply flavored tinga.
  • Using canned fire-roasted tomatoes complements the smoky and earthy chipotles in adobo.
  • Adding a tomatillo to the dish creates a background tartness that further deepens the overall flavor.

My co-workers and I have a semi-regular lunchtime tradition of hitting up our favorite Mexican joint for Fiesta Friday (or it could also be Mole Monday, Taco Tuesday, Oaxacan Wednesday, or Torta Thursday). I'm usually in for the double al pastor—one in taco form, the other as a sope. But when I feel like changing things up, I tend to lean toward the chicken tinga.

Chicken tinga is the only taco stuffing on the menu that matches the complexity of al pastor, although it does it in a completely different way with its deeply smoky, spicy, and earthy flavor. It's completely satisfying, making a couple of small tacos taste like a larger, grander meal than they really are.

An open can of chipotles en adobo.

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

This past weekend, thinking of what I'd like to tackle for Cinco de Mayo this year, tinga was at the top of the list. With all of its complexity of flavor, I thought I was in for a challenge along the lines of an ingredient- and process-heavy recipe like mole poblano, but as I researched both classic and contemporary recipes, they all seemed exceedingly straightforward—most of that depth in the tinga came from chipotles in adobo, while simmered tomatoes and onions formed the base of the sauce. Of course, after I got started, I found there are some key details necessary to making truly excellent chicken tinga.

Starting Simple

Close-up of chopped onions cooking and getting browned in a saucepan.

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

For my first batch of chicken tinga, I decided to do the least amount of work necessary—why do more if you can get a great recipe with the fewest ingredients and steps. I started by sautéing onions and garlic, and then added a can of diced tomatoes, chopped chipotles, and some of the adobo sauce from the chipotle can. I then puréed it all in a blender until smooth and tossed it into a pot to simmer with chicken stock and a bay leaf until it was slightly thickened. Finally, I shredded and stirred in poached chicken breasts. It was certainly quick and easy, but it suffered in so many ways.

Poached, shredded chicken is added to the simmered and puréed tomato-onion-chipotle mixture and heated through.

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

First, the tinga lacked the depth I'm used to—a fresh tomato flavor dominated and the chipotles seemed to contrast more than complement. The flat sauce tasted like it was having a bit of an identity crisis, and the chicken only made things worse.

Those chicken breasts lacked flavor and moisture, leaving the whole dish insipid and dry. This tinga would never pass muster on a Fiesta Friday, so I knew I had some work to do to bring it up to snuff.

Small Changes, Big Payoff

A can of crushed fire-roasted tomatoes and a can of diced tomatoes.

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

Looking at what I had, where I wanted to go, and not wanting to over-complicate the recipe, I began by making some small changes that I thought would address each problem.

Obviously the basic canned tomatoes weren't cutting it, so I switched to fire-roasted tomatoes, which have bits of char and a deep roasted flavor that I thought would work with, rather than against, the chipotles. I also added a diced tomatillo, which I browned alongside the onions. I increased the amount of chipotles and adobo sauce, threw in a bit of Mexican oregano, and swapped the chicken breasts for more flavorful and juicy poached chicken thighs.

Chopped onions and tomatillo chunks are browned in a saucepan.

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

This recipe didn't require much more work than the original, but boy did it taste better. Given their central role in the dish, the fire-roasted tomatoes made a big difference, giving the final sauce a more robust flavor. Best of all, it tasted like it took way longer to cook than it actually did.

Chicken tinga is stirred in a saucepan.

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

The tomatillo also added an undercurrent of tartness that I hadn't even realized was missing until I tasted it. The extra chipotles and adobo increased the essential smoky, earthy, and spicy components, while the far juicier chicken thighs were obviously the right way, adding to, instead of detracting from, the overall tinga experience.

I was pretty damn happy with this tinga, but I thought I could do a little better, so I kept all the ingredients the same but tweaked the process for a third attempt.

Taking Tinga Further

Chicken thighs getting browned in a Dutch oven, skin-side down.

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

Chicken thighs are such a great source of flavor and fat that I figured I could get more milage out of them if I didn't poach them. Instead, I realized that if I seared the thighs first, I could enhance the sauce with all the fat and brown bits left in the pan. Then, after searing, I could finish cooking the thighs in the sauce as it simmered, which would impart a flavor that's otherwise lost when they're poached separately.

I left the skin on the thighs as a barrier between the meat and heat, and let them cook skin-side down in a hot Dutch oven until they were very well browned. Setting them aside, I then cooked the onions, garlic, and tomatillo in what was now a mix of both olive oil and rendered chicken fat.

Once the sauce and thighs had cooked, I discarded the skin and pulled the meat off the thighs. As I separated the chicken into long strands, I noticed that this chicken was even more tender than the thighs I had poached in my prior attempt. This could have been a result of the cooking method, but more likely it was due to the fact that I had kept a more watchful eye on the temperature of the thighs as they slowly cooked in the sauce, stopping when they reached 165°F (74°C) on an instant-read thermometer. Either way, it felt like greater success right off the bat, and one taste of this tinga confirmed my suspicions.

Two chicken tinga tacos on a woode n serving board, garnished with tomatillo salsa, cilantro, onion, and grated cotija. Lime wedges are served alongside.

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

It had all the layers of the previous recipe, but just enough extra flavor from the thighs to edge it out in a side-by-side comparison. This was definitely the tinga I wanted in my tacos, so after what had been just over three hours in the kitchen, it was finally taco time.

Close-up of the chicken tinga on a tortilla.

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

Piled into toasted corn tortillas and topped with tomatillo salsa, onion, cilantro, and cotija cheese, these tinga tacos are quite a treat. They're balanced and robustly flavored—exactly the type of dish that can give my all-time favorite al pastor a run for its money. Tinga is so tied to my work lunches that I felt a little pang of guilt enjoying such a great version without my co-workers, but I didn't spend too much time worrying about that—I had already moved on to an activity more suited to the day. Namely, Siesta Saturday.

April 2014

Recipe Details

Smoky Chicken Tinga Tacos Recipe

Active 40 mins
Total 60 mins
Serves 4 to 6 servings
Cook Mode (Keep screen awake)

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

  • 1 1/2 pounds skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs

  • 1 cup medium diced white onion

  • 2 medium cloves garlic, smashed and peeled

  • 1 large tomatillo, husk removed, rinsed, and roughly chopped

  • 1/2 teaspoon Mexican oregano

  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

  • One (14.5-ounce) can fire-roasted diced or crushed tomatoes

  • 2 tablespoons roughly chopped chipotles plus 2 tablespoons adobo sauce from one (7-ounce) can

  • 1/2 cup homemade chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth

  • 1 bay leaf

  • Kosher salt

  • Warm corn tortillas, tomatillo salsa, onion, cilantro, grated cotija cheese, and lime wedges for serving

Directions

  1. Heat oil in a Dutch oven or large pot over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add chicken thighs skin-side down and cook until well browned, about 6 minutes. Flip thighs and continue to cook until other side is lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate, leaving fat in pan, and set aside.

    Chicken thighs are browned in a Dutch oven.

    Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

  2. Add onions and garlic to Dutch oven and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions have browned around the edges, about 5 minutes. Add tomatillo and cook until browned around the edges, about 4 minutes. Add oregano and cumin and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, chipotle, and adobo sauce and stir to combine. Remove from heat.

    Onions, garlic, and tomatillos are cooked in the pan.

    Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

  3. Transfer sauce to the jar of a blender and purée until smooth. Pour sauce back into pan, stir in chicken stock and bay leaf, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Nestle chicken thighs in sauce, reduce to a simmer, and cook until meat registers 165°F (74°C) in thickest part of thigh on an instant-read thermometer. Transfer chicken to a plate and let sit until cool enough to handle. Remove sauce from heat and discard bay leaf.

    The tomato-chipotle sauce is puréed in a blender.

    Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

  4. Pull chicken meat into strips, discarding skin, any large pieces of fat, and bones. Stir chicken into sauce and cook over medium heat until warmed through, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and season with salt to taste.

    Shredded meat is added back to the pan.

    Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

  5. Spoon chicken into warm tortillas and top with tomatillo salsa, onion, cilantro, and cotija cheese. Serve with lime wedges.

    Close-up of an assembled taco.

    Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

Special Equipment

Blender

Read More

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
350Calories
13gFat
29gCarbs
32gProtein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4 to 6
Amount per serving
Calories350
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 13g17%
Saturated Fat 3g17%
Cholesterol 138mg46%
Sodium 766mg33%
Total Carbohydrate 29g11%
Dietary Fiber 5g19%
Total Sugars 5g
Protein 32g
Vitamin C 15mg75%
Calcium 88mg7%
Iron 2mg14%
Potassium 650mg14%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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